John Downing graduated from American Flyers in April 2008 with a commercial multi engine certificate and now he is enjoying his career as a corporate pilot with some important responsibilities.

John enrolled at American Flyers in Florida after his attempts to obtaining reliable flight training were frustrated. “I have always been interested [in flying], but never thought of it as a career,” said John, who initially began flight lessons in 2001 after graduating high school.

During his first experience in flight training John accrued only four hours of flight time after nineteen days, and he knew he had to do something, “Or I’d still be working on my private.”John came to American Flyers in June 2007 still without his private. After only ten days, he had his certificate in his hand. From there John followed the career pilot track and went on to complete his instrument, commercial and multiengine ratings. After the completion of his courses, he went straight into the world of corporate flying.

The Zanesville, Ohio resident says that his job is roughly “60-70% on-demand” and he has flown every mission type from carrying executives on company trips to air ambulance flights with a full complement of medical technicians on board, to flying harvested organs across the Midwest. Currently, John is a crew member on the Beechcraft F-90 and B-200 series, but his company’s fleet also has Citation II’s on hand.

John expresses his pleasure that he is able to work in aviation saying that it is something, “not a lot of people get to do,” and that he “definitely” wants to stay a corporate pilot.