FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – Seventeen-year-old Jill Prime is a senior at Flagler Palm Coast High School, a staff member at the Rymfire Boys and Girls Club, and now a budding pilot.
“Back when I was in third grade at the Boys and Girls Club, they had the Embry Riddle Woman in Aviation program and I just fell in love with it,” said Prime.
Prime doesn’t just dream of becoming a licensed pilot, she’s getting hands-on experience. This summer, the Boys and Girls Club of Volusia/Flagler Counties teamed up with Boulevard Tire and the non-profit organization, Black Pilots of America, to fly Prime to Houston, Texas for a two-week summer flight academy.
Prime was one of just 16 kids nationwide to participate in the academy. She learned all about planes, how to fly them and what to do if the propeller stalls. Prime then returned to DeLand Aviation for even more training and took off on her first flight behind the controls this summer.
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“I just felt at peace with it,” said Prime. “It is so fun.”
“The women in that aviation program basically taught the girls everything about aviation,” said Stephanie Ecklin, the director of development at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Volusia/Flagler Counties. “It was through that program that it really excited me at the time, because I’m like, ‘Oh, yes!’ You know, to be a part of something like this.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Women in Aviation Advisory Board, women make up less than 20% of the entire aviation workforce and less than 5% of commercial airline pilots are women. The board says barriers to the aviation industry start in childhood.
According to the organization, Sisters of the Skies, there are currently just 150 African-American women flying for the airlines and the military combined.
“Everything right now with the Boys and Girls Club has been a blessing and has allowed her to gauge different opportunities,” said Prime’s mom, Willette Nelson-Prime. “This experience has already been and will continue to be life-changing and I’m looking forward to watching her.”
Prime hopes to land next at Embry Riddle or Tuskegee University with a major in aeronautical engineering. When it comes to careers, you could say, the sky’s the limit. Boeing is forecasting over the next 20 years that jobs in aviation will skyrocket with 612,000 new pilots and more than 626,000 new maintenance technicians needed.
Mitchell Kihm is a flight instructor at DeLand Aviation and has worked with Prime. He says one of the challenges for young pilots is getting over initial fears.
“The biggest challenge is getting them over the hump of being afraid of being in the aircraft,” said Kihm. “It is a little sort of apprehensive at first, but once you get inside the aircraft, get a couple of flights, you just can’t wipe the grin off their face.”
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