Former CNCC aviation student thriving in Texas

MEEKER I Local pilot David Cole recently had an opportunity to mentor one of his former flight students from CNCC. Aaron Woolsey came to CNCC in February 2007.  Woolsey teamed up with another student, Kyle Self, who had already completed his bachelor of science in business and wanted to learn to fly. The two paired up for study, became good friends and completed their CNCC flight training in record time.As CNCC program director for aviation technology-flight at the time, Cole helped many of the students find placement within the industry as pilots with Mesa and Great Lakes Airlines. Woolsey traveled to the Philippines as a flight instructor north of Manila, then returned to the United States as a flight instructor in Amarillo, Texas. One of his flight students in Texas owned an oil field services organization and bought three different aircraft within about a six month period. Woolsey asked Cole to fly with him in order to satisfy insurance requirements due to Woolsey’s relatively low turboprop time. Woolsey’s hours were completed late in July and he is now flying the million-dollar King Air C90A turboprop.In addition to flying the King Air, Woolsey has moved to the recently completed River Falls Airport a few miles south of Amarillo where he has built a fuel facility, started his own River Falls FBO and Wild Horse Aviation Flight School.  He hopes to become the airport manager in the near future. Woolsey and his CNCC friend Self fly for a cloud-seeding operation — seeding cumulus clouds to generate rain in the dry part of Texas — and work together in the newly formed FBO and flight school. Both are now married and “living the life” in aviation.  “It is extremely gratifying for me to see our former CNCC students using their skills and progressing in aviation.  It was a gift to be able to fly with them and see their professionalism.” Cole said.