Seaside Flying

Rising From The Ashes

Hi. I'm Gracie, a 15 year old who happens to be the first female pilot at my flight school in Galveston, Texas. Galveston is a local beach community and is by far one of the ugliest beaches so I wouldn't recommend coming here for spring break or for a a summer vacation.

Ok, back to the subject: flight. How I got interested in it was a trip to Cape Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I fell in love with all things space. But it never occurred to me that I needed to become a pilot first before becoming an astronaut. I was going to be the first woman on the moon..... welllll 10 year old me thought that, but that was different now.

My dad, well, he has an interesting job NOT related to flight in any way shape or form. He's a preacher. On this past summer's trip to Florida, my dad's friend said that he'd fly us out on his private jet if we wanted to: the obvious answer was DUH! YEAH! So, from there, my dad took me to one of the private airports while on the trip and got me to go up on my first flight lesson. Sure I barfed my guts out after I landed, but that sold it for me: I was going to be a pilot one day.

Flash-Forward to now: my cousin's friend, Jay Balentine who just so happens to own the whole entire Galveston Airport told me that they had a spot opened for me at the newly built Seaside Flight School. Of course, when I told my parents, they were extremely excited and said of course I couldn't pass up an opportunity like this.

So here I am. Walked through the still Under-Construction flight school. The sound of drills and hammering filled the air. The smell of oil thick and the air dusty. Great, it's a fixer upper, I thought to myself.

"Gracie Shepherd as I live and breathe!" Glenn Hardwick, Jay's pilot greated me as I walked in. We had flown together in the past and it was a real shock to see him here. He was maybe 75-ish, but he was one of the greatest pilot's I'd ever seen.

"Glenn! What a surprise!" I said as walked to hug the man. He hugged back.

"I hear you're one of my students." He said with pride. 

"Wait. You're my instructor?" I said shocked. He nodded his head yes.

"Yep. You and six others."  I raised my eyebrows .

"Wow! Six? Jay didn't tell me that." I said with a hint of remorse in my voice. As any girl knows when she becomes a pilot, that it's a male driven world and you're just living in it. So, I knew probably these six others would be guys.

"Yeah and they're all your age." Great, my age too.

"Wow! All 15 year olds... you're gonna have your hands full." Glenn laughed.

"Well, here some of them come now." Glenn said as he put his hands on his hips as we both turned our heads to the automatic doors.

In walks in 3 of the 6 pilots that I'd be working with. Let me tell you: they weren't ugly by any means.

The first one leading the pack apparently was the "rich kid" of the bunch. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, muscular build, tall with a Garmin D2 Mach 1 Aviators watch on his left wrist, (only reason I knew what watch it was, was because I've had my eye on one for a year. Also they cost $1,500.50. DOLLERS!!) and the real Ray-Ban Aviator Sunglasses. You could tell from one second that he'd be the trouble maker. And also cocky.