Eliana Rau represents a growing wave of women taking to the skies as aircraft pilots. She and Dana Callis recently joined the team of Certified Flight Instructors at All In Aviation. The flight school operates out of the Henderson Executive Airport, offering students a sky-high learning experience.
🛫 What type of person is a good candidate for training at a flight school?
“Most people go for an intro flight first. You go up for a quick hour or so and see if you’re comfortable in the air with a small plane. From there, you can start training towards a license. A good candidate for a student pilot is someone who wants to be there. It's always harder to learn when you're not passionate or don’t have the time to commit. We recommend people come two days a week minimum, just to keep skills fresh and it doesn’t end up taking years to get a private license when it could be done in six months or so.”
🛩️ What’s the coolest thing to fly over that always leaves you in awe? And don’t say Hoover Dam.
“Flying at night in Vegas is always something cool, right? You have the whole Strip lit up. Then not far from here in Arizona, Grand Canyon West Airport. I go there frequently with people who come to town. It's really special. Not everybody gets to see the Grand Canyon on their day-to-day job. Sedona and Catalina Island have pretty cool airports too. I've landed at both of those.”
A Cirrus Aircraft with parachute on display. (All In Aviation)
🛬 Is flying really safer than driving?
“There are a lot more car crashes than plane incidents. And at All In Aviation, we even have an extra layer of protection when flying Cirrus Aircraft to make sure we walk away from anything safely. Cirrus is the first manufacturer to have their single-engine and piston planes come standard with an airframe parachute. It’s called the CAP System, connected to a handle in the cockpit. Let's say you have an engine failure or even a midair crash … If you’re unable to make a safe landing, you pull the parachute and it opens, and it glides your plane gently down to the ground. Every time a parachute has been deployed when a Cirrus is tested, everybody has walked away safely.”
