When you ask a pilot why he wanted to learn to fly, most respond with, “Oh, I’ve wanted to fly since I was a little kid.” If you dig a little deeper, you might find out what happened to the kid to make him want to fly. In Bill Knuepfer’s case, he used to build model airplanes with his grandfather, who’d been a Private pilot and airplane owner until losing his medical. After that Grandpa enthusiastically built models and inspired a love of flying in his grandson.

Bill has recently achieved his first solo and intends to earn his Private pilot certificate prior to summer’s end. Come September he will depart to Purdue University to begin his training toward a Professional Flight Technology degree keeping his eyes focused down the road to his dream job of becoming a corporate pilot. Another thing he wants to do once he’s a certified pilot is take his mom and grandmother up for an evening tour of the Chicago shoreline. Bill’s friends are adding their names to the list for a flight as well!