Meet Savannah Raskey

The commercial and instrument student found her passion for aviation, and she hopes to attract more youth into the sky by showing them that if she can do it, they can too. Raskey is carving out a niche by combining her performing arts and aviation backgrounds and sharing energetic videos and photos on social media sites to encourage others to follow their aviation dreams.

The concept appears to be clicking because she counts more than 33,000 Instagram followers. Raskey said the key to success is to “be relatable” to youth and to encourage them to think, “’Oh, if they can do that, then I can do that, too.’”

Growing up, she “always loved singing and dancing” but also enjoyed aviation and the military. “As I got more into aviation, I wanted to marry both worlds” and “find a way to make them work together.”

Adding ‘fun’ to aviation

Raskey was familiar with instructional flight videos, but she “hadn’t seen a lot of fun videos—nothing that makes you smile and makes you curious about aviation.” Raskey decided to take her passion for dancing and singing and produce comical videos to show “the fun side” of aviation and to show that it was “cool for young people.”

SavyTraveler storms YouTube

Yes, that’s savy with one "v"—as in her name, Savannah. The most popular video on Raskey's SavyTraveler YouTube channel is a music mashup that begins with Kenny Loggins’ unforgettable theme from the film Top Gun. The rollicking “When the Music Changes You-Pilot Edition” ode to flying features 15 costume changes, 2.5 minutes of aviation-themed music, and one good-natured sister, Emily, performing from the cockpit of Raskey’s recently acquired Piper Cherokee Six. (Armchair pilots, don’t fret—the aircraft was safely chocked in a Utah hangar during the video shoot.)

‘Being silly’ has its rewards

“My whole goal, my whole reason for putting things out there—and for being silly and for being fun—is to light a spark in the younger generation to just go after their dreams.” She said the recordings were produced to help grow the aviation community and to share her passion with others. “Seeing a girl dancing with a plane, they think, ‘Wow, you can do that?’”

Share your vision with Raskey

The aspiring Boeing KC–135 Stratotanker pilot said her candor and enthusiasm has encouraged online followers to share their visions for aviation. She hopes the videos and photos she shares continue to raise awareness for aviation-based science, technology, engineering, and math careers.

Inspiration to soar

“When you have someone your age [achieve an aviation goal], then it makes it seem more accessible” for others, she noted. Her father Bob, a United Airlines captain, is her biggest personal inspiration, so she knows she has big shoes to fill. “I show my struggles and I show the fun part because I think that so many young people have a dream to do this, they just don’t think they can do this.” She challenged them to boost their self-confidence and added, “If I can do this, you can do this, too. You can, you really can.”