Like many people, newsman Jon Scott’s passion for aviation began at a young age. But it wasn’t until his career progressed that he was able to fulfill his dreams of becoming a pilot. More than a million people a day tune in to watch Scott as he co-anchors Happening Now, Fox News’s midday news show, where his passion helps him do the unusual—intelligently interview and report on aviation stories at a major news outlet.
Name: Jon Scott
Occupation: Journalist
Hours: 560
Extra: Scott’s most recent aviation reporting was on the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash in San Francisco. Catch him on Fox News from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern.
Started in aviation… I was fascinated with aviation since the time I was a kid. I used to build model airplanes. My dad owned a radio station in Denver and he had a pilot who owned a Cessna Skymaster, and I got to go up with him a few times.
Challenges… Flying the Hudson River Corridor is always an interesting challenge and always very scenic.
Opportunities… Flying has been the best thing I’ve done in my adult life, other than the birth of my kids. It’s fun, it’s freedom, and it has made things like college searches so much easier. I took my oldest daughter to six schools in three states in four days because we had the utility of the airplane.
Favorite airplane… After 9/11 President Bush started an accelerated depreciation program. I decided it made economic sense to buy the airplane I learned to train in. I bought a new Cessna 172 and flew back to the East Coast from Kansas.
On the air… It has helped me a lot in what I do at Fox News. The training I’ve had has allowed me to go on and speak knowledgably.
Advice for students… It seems so daunting in the early going. My first approaches to landing, he would ask if I was ready to take it, and I would say no. If you just keep at it and especially try to fly regularly during the learning process, it really does go very quickly. All of a sudden you’ve made your first landing. Man, it’s just the best feeling.
