Jess is flying high

A Busselton teenager has scaled to the literal highlight of her life, piloting a Cessna aerobatic aircraft as winner of an Australian Air Force Cadets internet competition.

Jess Coshott, 14, described the 30- minute flight over Perth, her first in a light aircraft, as an amazing and awe inspiring venture.

“With guidance from qualified flying instructor Corporal Ben Verazzi, I sat in the pilot’s seat, took the controls, and taxied out to the Jandakot runway from the flight line,” she said.

“The experience was very different from how I’d imagined, and it was a strange feeling when I turned the aircraft because on the angle, I felt like I was just sitting in the sky with nothing below me.”

The Year 8 Georgiana Molloy Anglican School student won the competition, through the Student Edge website.

In her 25-word competition entry she wrote about wanting to fly to “be higher than everyone and seeing them go about their daily lives from a bird’s-eye view”.

She said she was considering joining the nearest Air Force Cadets Squadron, in Bunbury.

AAFC commanding officer for WA and wing commander Robert Somerville said becoming a cadet provided intensive leadership training, qualification for a TAFE Certificate III in Business as well as exciting experiences in the air.

“Where else can young people get the thrill of learning to fly solo in both gliders and powered aircraft before they’ve even got a car?” he said.