Success Story

Nate Zucker has a professional piloting job that pays well, allows him to fly new airplanes with cutting-edge technology, and he’s home almost every night. Zucker is a full-time flight instructor. More specifically, he’s chief pilot of Platinum Aviation at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida.

“All the instructors at Platinum are professionals,” says Zucker. “They are not trying to build time to get to the airlines. Our clients pay a premium to learn from the best,” he said. Zucker has always had a passion for teaching and discovered his talent while flight instructing at Ohio State University. “I really learned how to teach [at Ohio State] and realized that I was in fact good at it. The only problem was the pay.”

Zucker left Ohio State and took an instructing job at a flight school in New Jersey. Following that brief stint, he worked for AirShares Elite as director of training and maintenance. He worked his way up to become chief pilot at AirShares as the company grew. Zucker recommends pilots seeking professional rankings set high standards and not just study to pass, but to excel. “You need to set yourself apart from the masses,” he said. This work ethic led Zucker up the ranks and life got better. “At AirShares, the pay improved and the airplanes were state of the art. Flying brand-new Cirruses was fantastic,” he said.

After AirShares, Zucker headed for Florida where he was general manager for Van Wagner Aerial Media. There he managed the daily operations of the world’s largest aerial advertising company. In late 2006, Zucker headed for Platinum, where he provides instruction to students of all certificates and ratings. His specialty, however, is providing Cirrus transition training to pilots who purchase Cirrus aircraft and fellow instructors hoping to become Cirrus instructors.

“I am flying the newest and safest airplane out there and every flight is different. There is nothing routine or boring about [being a flight instructor]. Watching a student grow as a pilot is incredibly rewarding,” said Zucker. Since he’s home most every day, he gets to play with his kids, sleep in his own bed, and pursue his hobby of flying remote-control airplanes and helicopters, among other interests.

Pete Bedell is a first officer for a major airline and contributor to AOPA Publications.