While most of her classmates are focused on college applications, at just 17 years old, senior Abigayle Stack is already taking a step toward her future. Abby spends her free time training at the New Haven Aviation Center, working towards earning her private pilot’s license, with ambitions to become a commercial pilot.
“I always wanted to be a pilot; it was always something I was interested in, but because of my health stuff, I knew the military wasn’t in the cards for me, and I didn’t know there were other ways to do this,” Stack explained.
Stack has a heart condition called POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which causes numerous other health conditions due to the effects on her nervous system.
Sam Sblendorio, Stack’s godfather, is who truly brought this dream to life, with his background of flying in the military, working in a private sector of government, and being the COO for a company called MAG Aerospace. Sblendorio ended up leading and selling this company for half a billion dollars, and was lucky enough to have the money to fund Stack’s flight training.
“He was the one who wanted me to do it because he was always into aviation,” Stack shared. “So he told me, ‘I want you to try it, if you hate it, you never have to do it again.’ So I said yes, I’ll do it.”
Stack was unsure if this was the right choice for her, but after being gifted a gift certificate by Sblendorio to go on her discovery flight on her 17th birthday, she completely shifted her mindset.
“After that flight, I knew this is what I wanted to do. I completely shifted gears. I originally wanted to go to school for nursing, but after this, I realized I just relied on nursing because I didn’t truly know what I wanted to do. Now I do.”
Stack now flies a minimum of twice a week, ranging from 45-minute flights or “cross-country flights,” meaning a minimum of 50 nautical miles. Her farthest she’s gone as of now is to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, which was almost 3 hours.
“I leave school early on Thursdays and Fridays and go to my flight school. But then, for my ground school, which is when I’m not actually flying, I’m studying, I use a program called Gleam.”
Stack is working on getting her private pilot license now, and then her process continues. After, she will get an instrument reading, a program in which the trainee wears a hood and goggles so they are unable to see out of the glass, only the instruments on the plane. After she completes those, she will get a CFI license (Certified Flight Instructor), CFI Instrument training, then finally her commercial license.
Although Stack hasn’t yet flown alone, she has flown many of her friends on many different occasions. One of her friends she flew was Senior Payton Corgan.
“She is one of my closest friends, and seeing her achieve something she has always wanted to do makes me so proud. I watched her practice her techniques and not worry me while doing it. She made me feel safe, and I’m so excited to see where she takes her aviation career,” Corgan shared.
“I hope to get my commercial license before I graduate college, that’s the goal trajectory. In college, depending on where I’ll go, I will study professional flight as my major.”
In order to get a private pilot license, the minimum number of flying hours needed is 40, but Stack’s flight school recommends 50 hours, and as of now, Stack is at 30 hours.
“The only thing is that in order for me to go solo, which is needed, I need a medical license and a medical certificate. But, I got deferred from getting that because when you go to an Aviation Medical Examiner, they have two lists of acceptable medications and ones that aren’t acceptable. Mine wasn’t on either.”
Stack submitted her specific details of her medical conditions to the FAA recently, and once she gets that back, she will only then have to go for a solo flight a few times.
