With squeaks and rumbling, the metal wall of the hangar opens to reveal Floyd Central junior Wylie King and the airplane he will be flying, his Cessna Cardinal.
Routinely, Wylie has to start preflighting before takeoff. He begins with checking tire pressure, then clamps the front of the plane and pulls it out like it weighs nothing. Wylie plus in headphones that are used to communicate during flight, buckles in, and drives the plane to the stretch of runway that would look like an ordinary road to non-flyers. After going through more checks of the controls, Wylie accelerates down the runway and rises into the air for his personal birds eye view.

“I’ve taken flight lessons since I was 14, so I have a student pilot’s license that lets me fly solo, but not take people on rides,” said Wylie, who will get his pilot’s license when he turns 17.

“Flying runs in the family,” said Wylie. “My great grandpa, grandpa, and dad flew, now I fly.”

Wylie’s dad, Doug King was a pilot in the Air Force and now flies for UPS.

“I support Wylie and his flying,” said Doug. “I think it’s cool that he learned really young. Not many people can solo at 16.”

Wylie said his dad was really nervous the first time he flew by himself.

“My first solo was nerve-wracking,” said Wylie. “When I got up I was fin, but then it set in that I had to land the thing.”

Like a driver’s permit, a student pilot’s license allows Wylie to take passengers with him as long as his dad accompanies him. Wylie got to take his best friend, junior Jacob Marguet, on a flight.

“To begin with, he was going to fly me around thousands of feet in the air, so it took quite a bit of trust to get me near the plane, let alone in it,” said Marguet. “But we have been best friends for years so I knew I could trust him. The craziest thing that happened while flying was when he was practicing his stalls. One moment I was fine, the next I was on a roller coaster, except I could die.”

Wylie’s longest solo flight was from Indiana to West Virginia and back.

“Wylie knows his stuff,” said Marguet. “Since he flew to West Virginia, I know it took some serious knowledge to get there without killing himself.”

Wylie said he plans to go into the Air Force like his father after finishing high school and later higher on an airline.

“The funniest thing my dad has told me was that he had better not catch me texting and flying,” said Wylie. “I just think it’s kind of neat that I can fly an airplane before I can drive a car.”