Thousands of feet in the air, gusts of wind battered senior Asha McCaughan’s plane, nearly sending her into an aerial barrel roll as she practiced in-flight emergencies.
“I was like, ‘Okay, focus on recovering the plane more than anything else,’” said McCaughan. “In any situation, the first thing you have to do is fly the plane. That’s what everyone says. Any emergency, any situation, you’re flying the plane first.”
Stalling, which occurs when planes lose altitude due to disrupted airflow, can cause the plane to tilt and spin. Stalling is one type of flight emergency that McCaughan prepares for as a certified student pilot.
Obtaining a student pilot certificate, the first step in the licensing process for pilots in training, allows McCaughan to fly small, single-engine planes, under direct supervision or with her instructor’s permission.
“This is what every pilot goes through to get to the point where you can fly for the airlines,” McCaughan said.
McCaughan flies with an instructor and attends ground school, where she learns how planes fly and skills like reading weather and how to handle emergencies.
“We’ve practiced what to do if we have an engine failure in the middle of nowhere, what we do if we have an engine failure while we’re coming down for a landing, what to do if the wing catches on fire,” said McCaughan. “We’re prepared for any emergency because when you’re out there by yourself, you have to know what to do.”
The highest McCaughan has flown is around 3,200 feet in the air, she said.
“I think my favorite times that I’ve flown probably were right at sunset because of the view out of the plane,” said McCaughan. “You’re at the level that sunset is happening at. Everywhere you’re looking, it’s just pretty pink sky, and that’s what I’ve loved most.”
After she began flying, McCaughan joined the international nonprofit organization Women in Aviation and plans to join another organization for female pilots, The Ninety-Nines, in the future, she said.
“Most people who fly are men, and I think having female influence is really nice,” McCaughan said.
According to Ted McCaughan, Asha McCaughan’s father and a pilot at United Airlines, he has a lot of confidence in her ability to fly.
“It really started when she started driving [a car] and doing her driving lessons,” said Ted McCaughan. “I would go out and practice with her, and I started noticing her situational awareness and her ability to pick things up really quickly and have a very quick decision-making process that was fairly well developed.”
Ted McCaughan hopes to fly professionally with his daughter one day, he said.
“The ultimate dream is to get her on United with me, and then for us to be able to fly a commercial airliner together before I end my career,” Ted McCaughan said.
According to Asha McCaughan, she plans on majoring in commercial aviation and becoming a pilot for United Airlines to fly alongside her father.
“I also want to do outreach programs for elementary and middle schoolers, for kids and specifically little girls, to bring STEM-based majors in aviation to them, because not every young girl realizes it’s something they can do,” said Asha McCaughan. “That’s something I want to be an influence for.”