CLINTON, Iowa – Jon Aytes wants people to get a new view of this community. He wants to get them inside one of his Cessna airplanes and learn how to fly at his new flight school, Flight Deck Aviation, located at the Clinton Municipal Airport. “The growth we are seeing is right where I want […]
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CLINTON, Iowa – Jon Aytes wants people to get a new view of this community. He wants to get them inside one of his Cessna airplanes and learn how to fly at his new flight school, Flight Deck Aviation, located at the Clinton Municipal Airport.
“The growth we are seeing is right where I want to see it. I’m just super happy to be here,” said Mr. Aytes, a pilot and owner of Flight Deck. “There’s no excuses. … Come on down here and we will get you flying.”
He was joined by about 50 area residents and business leaders on Friday, Nov. 15, to welcome Flight Deck Aviation to the community with a Grow Clinton ribbon-cutting and grand opening ceremony at the airport.
“This is a tremendous asset for our community. … People need to explore the friendly skies of Clinton,” said Andy Sokolovich, president and CEO of Grow Clinton, the region’s business advocacy group.
The quest to bring a new aviation school to the friendly skies of Clinton began a few months ago. Mr. Aytes gave credit to his wife, Lisa, for getting that journey going. Early this year, she answered an ad in aviation magazine that was seeking someone to start a new flight school in Clinton. (The previous flight school, P&N Flight and Charter, closed its location at the municipal airport.)
Mr. Aytes, a retired U.S. Marine who was living in Nevada, has lived all around the country and the world during his time in the military. When he visited Clinton, he knew the community was the right place for him and the family.
“I was just very impressed with this community. … There’s plenty of support for us here,” he added.
During the opening ceremony for the aviation school, Mr. Aytes said that when some of the people he knows first heard he was opening the business in Iowa, they were surprised.
“They said ‘Isn’t that a fly-over state?’ Yep, you just keep flying over it,” he added.
The support for his new business began on July 26 when Flight Deck Aviation took to the skies with its first student, Brian Bookman. During the Nov. 15 celebration, Mr. Aytes said when that first student saw that Flight Deck was open for business, he walked in the doors and said he wanted to start the work of getting his private pilot's license.
“He was actually out here flying this morning,” Mr. Aytes told the celebration crowd.
Two other students – Laura Fisher of Rock Falls, Illinois, and Caden Stuetz of Clinton – were also at the grand opening ceremony to lend support to Flight Deck.
Ms. Fisher, a recent high school graduate, said her goal is to eventually be a pilot for a commercial airline. The first step in that lofty goal is to get her private pilot's license, which she hopes to get done by next summer. She hopes to become a commercial pilot in a few years.
“I lived next to an airport (in Rock Falls) and saw planes fly over me all the time. I said ‘I want to do that someday,’” she added.
Caden, a 17-year-old high school senior, said his big goal is to eventually get a multi-engine rating license and become a professional pilot. He hopes to get his private pilot’s license by next spring, just before he graduates high school.
“I came out to an event at the airport and saw the planes. I decided I wanted to fly. … Before that, I never even thought about being a pilot,” he said.
The Clinton student encouraged other people who want to be pilots to attend the new aviation school. “You only live once. Don’t turn back,” he added.
