Aaron Gwyn Mazuelos |
A captain's seat in a widebody is a long way to go from the Young Eagles flight she took in high school. "The Boy Scouts sent out a questionnaire asking what you wanted to do in life. One of the choices was 'pilot.'" She checked that box and a few weeks later, the mail included an invitation for the Young Eagles flight at Hawkins County Airport in Tennessee. After that flight, Mazuelos met Bob Barlow, who took her under his wing. "After each flight lesson, he would give me aerobatic lessons in his [Cessna] 150 Aerobat," says Mazuelos. "He has been a mentor to me throughout my career."
Her first professional flying job was flight instructor at Aeroflight at the Tri Cities Regional Airport in Tennessee. With some time in her logbook, Mazuelos took a job as a contract pilot flying Beechcraft King Airs and a Cessna Citation Ultra. She then landed a job at Corporate Flight Management in Smyrna, Tennessee, flying King Airs, BAe Jetstream 31/32s, and Lear 35 and 45 models. "I flew lots of famous people and I went to so many places in the United States," says Mazuelos.
Two years later, Part 121 charter airline Omni called Mazuelos and expanded her piloting horizons overseas. She is rapidly becoming familiar with various cultures and meeting lots of people as she flies the world. Omni pilots are based at home and are flown by airline to their job assignments. She has a schedule of 18 days on reserve per month.
To those working on becoming a career pilot, Mazuelos recommends networking. "You never know who you meet [that] will be the link to your next career move."
Pete Bedell is a Boeing 737 first officer for a major airline and contributor to AOPA Flight Training and AOPA Pilot magazines.
