Cade Young: Flying Solo

Cade Young, a freshman General Engineering major with an Aviation concentration, completed his first solo flight in a Diamond DA40 NG, flying out of the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport on December 9th. Cade is only one semester into the Aviation program and is excited with how quickly he progressed in the program. “When I went down to the airport that morning I had no clue I was going to be flying solo. I was told that I was getting close and could possibly solo before Christmas break, but I didn’t see it coming so soon. When the flight instructor, Larry Servinsky, stepped out of the plane and told me to do a lap, I was more anxious than anything else,” says Cade. 

“When I got to the runway I performed the normal pre-flight and was ready to go," recalls Cade. "Taking off was amazing, the feeling of being up there alone with complete control of the airplane for the first time was incredible. As I was going around the airport it was so cool to be talking to the tower about what I was going to do next. The final approach was the best feeling. When I landed and turned off the runway I was surprised to see that my parents, Brother Marius, Roz, and a fellow student came to watch this big moment for me.”

Cade Young with Instructor Larry Servinsky

As a child, Cade’s dad, who has his pilot’s license, would frequently take him flying. Cade developed a passion for the open skies and looks forward to a future career as an airline pilot. 

Even with his time-intensive General Engineering major, Cade had no problems logging 25 flight hours within his first semester. “The process of flight training has been amazing over the past couple months," says Cade. "Larry has been a great flight instructor and is very knowledgeable in the field. He is also a lot of fun to fly with, and he is always willing to help us. I was surprised to see how early I would start to actually fly. By the first week of school I had already taken my first flight lesson.”

Cade is looking forward to logging more flight time and aims to complete his private pilot license this Spring, the first of many ratings he wants to earn while at Saint Francis. And it all starts here, with the first solo.