Pilots

When Project Pilot was launched in April 1994, AOPA hoped it would be just the ticket to encourage many ground-bound individuals to consider becoming pilots themselves. The idea was that a trusted mentor could help a new student pilot navigate through the sometimes confusing process of earning a pilot certificate. Nearly 32,000 new pilots later, the program can only be termed an unqualified success.

Lynda Espoir is proof positive of just how far one can go with a little nudge from someone who has already earned their wings. She was one of the first students brought into the program. Today she makes her living in the right seat of a Continental Express Embraer EMB-145/135 regional jet, and she is slotted to move into the left seat in the near future.

Espoir's first inkling that flying was for her came when the 16-year-old French native was offered a flight in a Piper Archer by a neighbor. "That flight was my inspiration to become a pilot," she remembers. From the moment of liftoff, she was convinced that she too could learn to fly. Although she was old enough to learn to fly, Espoir's family could not afford to pay for flight training. "In France it costs three times what it does in the States to fly."

Nevertheless, she was convinced she would not only fly, but also become an airline pilot someday. "France is a small country, and when people fly it is often to take a long trip. I imagined myself piloting those long international flights." After graduating from high school, she applied to the Air France ab initio pilot training program. On average about 30 new candidates are chosen from among about 3,000 applicants each year. Candidates undergo a grueling series of written exams and interviews. Unfortunately, she was not one of the lucky few and had to reevaluate her plans.

College beckoned, and the technical-minded Espoir began work on a degree in physics, with minors in mathematics and chemistry. In 1989 she moved to Houston, where she interned as a researcher for NASA in the field of superconductivity. On the way to completing her first degree and earning her MBA, she found time to publish several scientific articles in her field.

Her life revolved around her NASA laboratory, but that was all about to change. In 1993 she met Chris Urquieta, then an Avions de Transport Regional ATR 42 first officer for Continental Express, based in Houston. "Chris was a real inspiration," she recalls. Urquieta, who now flies for Continental Airlines in the right seat of a Boeing 757, quietly urged her to begin work on her private certificate. At first she resisted. She still didn't have much excess money to fund flight lessons. "The private license was just a teaser to me. If I was going to fly I wanted to do it for a living." The job market for new pilots seemed weak, and so Espoir elected to stay in her lab.

Urquieta was persistent. A year later he was still pushing her to consider flight lessons, and by now she was starting to bend. But at 26, she worried she was too old to launch a flying career. In France that may have been true, Urquieta pointed out, but it was different in the States. She could get all her ratings within two years, if she really worked hard, and be well on her way to a career change.

Urquieta wouldn't take no for an answer from someone who clearly had the flying bug. "We had two intense conversations about it," says Espoir. "He believed in me and told me I could do it."

At the end of that second conversation, Espoir was convinced. Money was still an obstacle, but the next day she went to David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport in Houston and enrolled in flight training. She put her first lessons on a credit card, then looked for ways to earn additional money to complete her training. She took a summer job with Air France as a first class departure lounge concierge. She soon left that position to become a French-speaking flight attendant for Continental Airlines, where she worked the carrier's Paris flights for several years.

Eventually her hard work was rewarded, and she earned her commercial certificate with multiengine, instrument, and CFI ratings. She worked as both a CFI and international flight attendant through much of 1998, along with a short stint flying DC-3s for a cargo operator. In the spring of 1999 she was hired by Continental Express as a Beech 1900 first officer, then transitioned to the EMB-145/135 in early 2001.

Happy with the progression of her flying career so far, Espoir nevertheless is looking forward to someday flying wide-body international flights, the childhood goal that remains squarely in her sights. It's a safe bet that this is one Project Pilot success story that isn't over yet.