LAWRENCE: 16-year-old makes first solo flight

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Alexi Derkatsch pulled his lanky frame into the cramped cockpit of the Cessna 152 propeller plane, strapped himself into the pilot’s seat and started the engine.
   The plane slowly rolled down the runway, gathering more speed until its wheels left the ground and it became airborne.
   That’s an event that happens several times a day at the Princeton Airport on Route 206 in Montgomery Township — except that this pilot is 16 years old and this was his first solo flight.
   ”Your first solo flight is a really big milestone, but not all pilots do it when they are 16. That is so special,” said Alexi, who is a junior at Lawrence High School. It is also the first step on the path toward becoming a licensed pilot.
   The solo flight, which took place Oct. 20, is something that Alexi had been working for since he was 12 years old. That’s when he took his first introductory flying lesson at the Princeton Airport.
   ”I have been on planes since I was a baby on trips with my family. On the plane, the pilots would give me plastic wings (like they wear). They would peel off the backing and put the wings on my shirt. They would tell me, ‘Now, you’ve got your wings,’ (but) I couldn’t fully understand what they meant,” Alexi said.
   Spending so much time around airports on family vacation trips piqued Alexi’s interest. It was exciting to be around the airport and airplanes, and he decided he wanted to become a pilot. Then, when he was 10, his father bought him a computer game — Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 — and he was hooked.
   Alexi was aware of the Princeton Airport, and his parents arranged for him to take an introductory flight lesson when he was 12. He climbed into the cockpit with an instructor, but he was so short that the instructor put a cushion on the seat so he could see over the instrument panel.
   The instructor allowed Alexi to take off on the first lesson.
   ”To see the ground get smaller beneath you — you don’t get that feeling in a commercial plane. You see much more (from the cockpit of a smaller plane). There is a panoramic view. It was surreal. It was a new feeling and I hadn’t thought about it,” he recalled.
   And he quickly learned that there is a world of difference between thinking about flying and actually doing it.
   Alexi took a few lessons every year, but when he turned 15, he began taking more lessons in earnest. It typically takes about 10 to 20 hours of flight time before a pilot is ready to fly solo. After racking up 15 hours of flight time, Alexi’s flight instructor decided he was ready to go out on his own.
   They scheduled Oct. 20 as the day that Alexi would take his first solo flight. He went up in the air with his instructor, and they did a couple of warm-up runs. Then the instructor left the cockpit and began to fill out some paperwork, and that’s when it occurred to Alexi that he was going to take his first solo flight.
   ”That’s when it was really, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s gong to happen right now.’ I sat in the plane. It was a really alien feeling, having no one sitting next to me. I had to start the engine, and that gave me the most butterflies in my stomach,” he said.
   But then, all of the hesitation left him and he rolled down the runway — all the time, telling himself that this was not the time to be nervous and that he could not have butterflies in his stomach. He had to fly by himself.
   ”It was really something. The plane climbed a lot faster without my instructor in it. It was kind of nerve-wracking, a little bit. I forgot there was no one next to me. I landed nice and soft. I rolled to the taxiway. It was an excellent landing. I had no more butterflies after that,” Alexi said.
   At that moment, Alexi joined the small club of airplane pilots.
   ”I remember when I was soloing, on my third circuit around the airport — which is the final circuit to complete — my instructor said on the radio, ‘Congratulations, 971, you have just soloed.’ 971 are the three numbers I use to distinguish myself in the air,” Alexi said.
   ”After he said that, a few other pilots in the air said, ‘Congrats 971’ to me,” Alexi said, adding that “on some level,” becoming a pilot is like being part of a specialists’ club where everyone has been through similar training and can do things many other people cannot do.
   The next step is to wrack up more hours in the air, and to learn additional skills to become a licensed pilot, Alexi said, adding that acquiring that license is “quite a ways off.” The minimum age for obtaining a private pilot’s license is 17, he said.
   ”A lot of my friends can’t wait to get a car and their driver’s license. I want a plane. If all goes as planned, I’ll get a pilot’s license before they get their driver’s license,” Alexi said.