Faces
Teen pilot I
f high school student Andrew Marvin was driving a car, his mother Heather would feel comfortable instructing him to watch the road or to slow down. Instead, Marvin’s transportation of
choice is an airplane, and his mom has no idea how to fly. So she says a little prayer for everyone’s safety, sits back and enjoys the ride, understanding that her son is a natural-born pilot. Marvin, a member of Cross of Christ
Lutheran Church, Petoskey, Mich., got his pilot’s license two months after his 17th birthday, which is as young as you can be to fly legally. That doesn’t include practice, of course, and to trace his passion for flying, you have to go back to his preteen years when his uncle started taking him up in a private plane. “We ended up going into a thun- derstorm,” said Marvin, recalling his first
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Andrew Mar- vin’s senior picture shows his love for flying. The natural-born pilot got his license at age 17.
flight with his uncle about five years ago. “My mom was in the backseat, white-knuckling it, and I was having the time of my life.” After a couple of summers learning from his uncle, Marvin’s parents set him up with an instructor, starting on his 16th birthday. “My first instructor said I had a real knack for it,” said Marvin, who had to change teachers midway through training and learn to fly another plane. “My uncle said that too. It’s nice to hear, but the second you take anything for granted, something can go wrong.” Marvin has had a few scary moments, usually related to the weather,
including facing heavy winds that produced plane-rattling turbulence. But for the most part he loves it. “I like flying alone,” he said. “It’s peaceful and serene and I can do what I want. But I also like flying my family. We can go downstate for lunch and come back. I like flying my friends too. Most of them have never been in a small plane.” Someone who hasn’t been flying with Marvin is his pastor, Sherry
McGuffin. “I asked her, but she said she gets air sick pretty easily,” he said.
Marvin plans to continue flying. He is working on getting his instru-
ment rating and wants to study either flying or aerospace engineering in college.
As for Marvin’s mom, she may say a prayer before they take off, but she has every confidence in his skills. “His instructors say he is a good pilot, and I think so too,” she said.
Jeff Favre Favre is a contributing editor of The Lutheran.
November 2011 67
MARY PAQUETTE/PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAQUETTE
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