Ceiling And Visibility Unlimited

“Hey Cole, you want to learn to Fly?”  Cole Baker’s grandfather called him up one day and asked him.  He said “sure, why not!”  He’s been hooked ever since.  The morning I met with Cole, he was getting ready to take the written portion of his Pilot’s License in the afternoon.  We talked about how he got started and what his plans are after high school graduation.  

Cole is tall.  Six feet, four inches tall and with a sheepish grin he says that he’s still growing.  It’s hard to image how he fits his arms and legs into the two-seat cockpit of a Diamond DA20 training plane.  It is a small plane, very small. While Cole loves flying, he admits that the legs cramps are that much fun.

For the past year, he has spent every Wednesday afternoon flying with his instructor Rick.  You must log a certain number of hours of flight time to be eligible to take the pilot’s license tests.  With less than 2 hours per of air time per week, it takes a lot of commitment and patients to reach the requirement.  So far, Cole has logged 65 hours of flight time.

He recently passed his flight test with flying colors! But today he’s taking the written portion, and he’s a bit nervous.  While most of us would be nervous about flying and landing a plane, Cole is worried about maintain focus on written words. He is the type of person that needs to be outside doing things.  It seems that school is hard for Cole, not just the concentration and academics portion, but physically having to stay inside is tough.  Test anxiety is a huge challenge for him and the thought of focusing on reading and remembering answers he has spent hours studying, seems more like a mountain than a molehill.

He loves cross-country flights, often to Helena or Dillon.  Even in a small plane, he can fly to places in a fraction of the time it takes to drive there.  The goal is pretty simple; you fly to an airstrip, land, then turn around and fly back home.   

In the fall, Cole will start the aviation program at MSU.  While he is considering earning his commercial pilot’s license, his primary goal is to become an Alaskan Bush Pilot. CAVU or Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited is a flight term referencing clear skies and smooth sailing.  It seems as if Cole is on his way!

An avid skier, he wants to fly people into remote places to ski.  I mentioned heli-skiing and he almost jumped out of his chair.  “That would be awesome!”   I’m sure that sooner rather than later, he will be able to tell me just how awesome it is.  British Columbia and Switzerland are at the top of his list of places to fly and ski.

Cole acknowledges that he wouldn’t be able to fly without help from his Grandfather, who is also a pilot.   Flying lessons were his grandfather’s idea and Cole wouldn’t be able to afford him to afford them without his help.  The cost of roughly $250 for every two hours of flight time is the main reason it has taken Cole over a year to accumulate his hours, but those are the best two hours of his week!

When he isn’t at school or flying, Cole is skiing.  He also works two days a week making deliveries for a local cabinet company.  Cole is also a long jumper for the indoor track team and has to juggle practices between flight time and work, but staying active is important to him.  In the past, he played both basketball and baseball, but there is only so much time a person has to spend and if he has to choose, Cole says that flying and skiing are his priorities.

He is very proud to live in Bozeman.  He is a modern mountain man.  The ability to ski, bike, hike and just be outdoors is something that he wishes more of the locals appreciated.  His message to everyone, especially young guys is to put down the video games. Quit pretending to do have great adventures, go outside and have them for real.