Stetson is Flying High!

It’s not often anyone gets a comprehensive write-up in their hometown newspaper, including a photo and lots of column inches, but our own Elder Stetson Jones was so featured in the Sunday, August 3 issue of The Spectrum.  

Currently at the MTC in final preparation for his fulltime service in the Philippines Cebu Mission, Stetson was recognized for the completion of requirements for a pilot license and did his final check flight with the famous “jet-powered Navy Blue Angels team flying around while I’m trying to complete my flight in a pokey little Cessna.”

According to the newspaper article Stetson showed “easy confidence but the recent 'Dixie Flyer' alumnus admits he is a bit awed by it all, as well. 'They (the Blue Angels) were flying right behind us, and the airport was just so crazy and busy. … They had one or two planes up at a time, just practicing some of the maneuvers and getting ready for the airshow.'”

“Who else is going to be able to say they flew their check ride with the Blue Angels?” said Retired Air Force Col. Glenn Whicker, chief instructor for Dixie High’s JROTC program where Jones completed preparations for his pilot license during his last year and a half of school.

Have news reports about recent crashes in the area made Jones’ parents nervous?

“Absolutely. Especially my mother, and coming down to the last week to where I’m trying to finish up, when that happened, she started having second thoughts about letting me finish,” he said. “I told her, ‘You know what? We’re this close, I still feel good about it, and I know I do stupid things down here on the ground, but when you’re up there it’s different. … I wouldn’t want anything to happen. I wouldn’t do that to you, Ma.’”

The timing of Jones’ final licensing test and solo flight with his family was critical, because last Wednesday he left home to become an LDS missionary in a region that was one of the hardest hit when the record-sized Typhoon Haiyan bulldozed its way through the country last year.

“They say some of my mission is just a straight service mission, where we just help rebuild and find time to preach the gospel in between,” he said. His instructions included a list of athletic clothing items needed to allow him to wade through mud and do physical labor in reconstruction efforts. In June, the United Nations estimated there are more than 100,000 people still living in tents in the storm-ravaged zone.

He’s already been accepted to two universities once he returns home, and he has ensured both have promising aviation programs and possible training for an Air Force career.

“No matter what I do after the mission, I’ll be flying,” Jones said. “I have two goals. Either fast – really fast – or large. … I’d like to fly off a huge aircraft carrier.”

The process of getting a pilot license involves class time, written tests and up to 40 hours in the air with an instructor and rarely do student pilots receive their license while still in high school.  Congratulations, Stetson on another remarkable accomplishment in your life.