KUNA, Idaho — After a summer of flight school, one Kuna High Schooler in the Air Force Junior ROTC has earned her wings.
“It’s pretty crazy, I never thought I’d be able to fly a plane by myself, especially still being in high school,” said Senior Julia Taylor, who now has her private pilot's license.
Taylor took to the skies this summer after receiving a scholarship worth more than $27,000 through the Kuna Air Force JROTC.
Hear from Taylor about her experience in flight school —
“If it wasn’t for the JROTC program, I would never have gotten the flight academy scholarship. I would never have found this passion for aviation,” Taylor said.
You may remember her from our story in January highlighting the program. Now she’s back in Kuna after spending eight weeks training in Mississippi with other cadets.
“It’s not the same as like military jets or anything like that, but like just getting the basics down of how to fly and just like the stress factor of flying, I kind of got a feel for that,” she said.
Taylor says she and her fellow trainees worked at least 12 hours a day, completing a mix of ground lessons and flight time until she was ready for her first solo flight.
“But at the end it was just me in the plane by myself, no flight instructor, I was just soloing, and by then I had a lot of confidence in what I was doing because we had spent at that point around 40 hours of flight time,” Taylor said.
The competitive scholarship began with more than 1,200 applicants for only 226 spots — and Taylor made the cut.
“It’s such a great opportunity, I learned so much and it was just a life-changing moment for sure,” Taylor said.
After graduation, Taylor plans to head to college and ultimately become a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
