Arizona Recipient Dreams Of Becoming Airline Pilot

Growing up in Camarillo, California, Zachary Erck often went to the Waypoint Café at the Camarillo Airport with his family and was fascinated by the airplanes and the pilots and the stories they told. He did a discovery flight when he was 13 but ‘life got in the way’ and it took him another 20 years to pursue his dream in earnest.

And now, Zachary is the newest recipient of the $2,500 Sporty’s Pilot Training+ Scholarship and will apply that toward realizing his dream of becoming an airline pilot.

Erck has had a successful decade in the hazmat trucking business, but then he finally had the opportunity (and a push from his mother) to jump into flight training. After soloing with just 15 hours in a Cessna 172, he is nearing completion of his Private Pilot certificate with the Noble Aire Flight School at Marana Regional Airport (KAVQ) near his home in Marana, Arizona, where he continues to balance his full-time job hauling fuel, flight training, and taking care of his family.

Zachary describes his lifelong passion for aviation this way: “Defying gravity and leaving the bounds of earth in an airplane is the best feeling in the world.”

Erck continued, “I’ve always been a hard worker and dedicated 110% to what was in front of me and what was important. That includes my family, my job, and my future goals. This scholarship will get me that much closer to my dream of becoming an airline pilot.”

FMI:  www.sportys.com/