Kamora Freeland: So, a week before I went to take my checkride, I took a practice checkride. By the end he’s like yeah you don’t know enough. Cancel your checkride, you’re going to fail it. But he told me what I needed to work on so that’s what I did. I went home, I worked on it. I come back to him like 3 days before my checkride. And then he’s like, wow, you made a major improvement. I could definitely tell you studied.

Vishal Ramudamu: That’s Kamora Freeland, a certificated private pilot, who at the age of 17 became one of the youngest African American female pilots in the country. 

Lucy Jabbour: I’m Lucy Jabbour.

Vishal Ramudamu: And I’m Vishal Ramudamu - and this is ‘The Air Up There’!
 
Various People: This is your captain speaking. The feeling I get when I’m flying; you get an adrenaline rush. Seeing something fly is awesome. As soon as I had that flight, I just decided. Flying airplanes is all I’ve ever wanted to do. I get so excited about aviation, aeronautics, space, math, and science and engineering. Like star gazing and just wondering what it would be like to be up there. There is a space for you. There’s a lot of camaraderie. The support from the people. The air traffic controllers. There's so much freedom. I fell in love with it. I developed a passion for it. Just know you can do it. There’s certainly a place for everybody in aerospace.

Vishal Ramudamu: Kamora, we'd love to hear about your first flight. 

Kamora Freeland: So, I went on my first flight when I was 15 and it was so random to me, because my mom had signed me up for a scholarship three years prior and I didn't know about it. My mom, actually are you gonna tell them what you did during that three-years?

Lakema Freeland: A friend of mine asked if I ever heard about youth flight training. And I was like, No, I hadn't heard that before. So, I called the number up and a gentleman answered the phone and he said, listen, we have a lengthy waiting list, but I can put your daughter on the waiting list. And she was only 12. I called him every three months for three years straight asking him, did she get picked? Three years later, he called me and said she earned herself a scholarship.

Kamora Freeland: So, then she tells me you won a scholarship to go, you know, to get your private pilot license and you have a flight coming up within the next week. So, I'm like, okay. Like, and I never thought about being a pilot. So I wasn't that excited. I was just like, I'll try it. And so, I liked it. I didn't love it at the time because I never had an interest in being a pilot. So, I was just like, okay, this is pretty cool. And then it wasn't until I went home and then I seen that pilots can make $700,000 a year and I was like I'm definitely going to be a pilot. But then I also seen that there is not a lot of Black women in the world of aviation. So, I seen I think it was like 100,000 pilots and less than 3% were Black women. So, I was like I definitely need to be a part of that change. So that's what really made me fall in love with aviation.

Lakema Freeland: So, within a year and a half, she became a licensed pilot. And she is the only girl in the program who received her license and she's also the youngest in the program who received her license. She is also the youngest in New York - African American female licensed pilot. She is the youngest to receive it. So, I think she did well.

Vishal Ramudamu: Lakema, why were you so persistent in the pursuit of aviation for Kamora?

Lakema Freeland: Well, because I had never seen a Black pilot ever before, so. And I'm 47 years old, I had never seen a black pilot. That was one. Number two, I didn't know much about the world of aviation and it just brought more curiosity to me. It was just something that I felt she, she could benefit from.

Lucy Jabbour: Kamora, what's the most memorable experience you've had so far? 

Kamora Freeland: Um, honestly, it's every time I'm surrounded by other Black pilots. Like Black Pilots of America, Sisters of the Skies, Tuskegee Airmen, because, like you said, part of this I had never, we both had never seen Black pilots. So, once I got immersed in pretty much Black aviation, like it changed my whole perspective. Once I met these other pilots and I developed relationships with them and I heard the way they spoke about aviation; I fell in love with aviation even more. Like I fell in love it. I developed a passion for it. So honestly, every time I'm surrounded by other Black pilots, like I just love it so much every single time, it's pretty much the highlight of my journey every single time I'm around them. 

Lakema Freeland: So, the thing with that is, when kids can see themselves in something, it makes them feel welcomed. Because sometimes you could feel like a fly and a cup of milk. Like isolated or not too accepted. So, I decided to try to find other organizations where we can find other Black people that she can communicate with and the warm welcome was priceless.

Vishal Ramudamu: Kamora, in your journey did you encounter any challenges during ground school?

Kamora Freeland: Yes. So, studying for my written exam was pretty easy. Like I went to ground school at Red-Tailed Hawks Fly. It was pretty easy for my written exam, you know. I’m in school now it wasn’t too much different from studying for regular high school. But it wasn’t until I had to study for my oral. I was studying like pretty much right after I took my written exam. So, a week before I went to go take my checkride, I took a practice, you know, checkride. And then he starts questioning me and like by the end he’s like yeah you don’t know enough. Cancel your checkride, you’re going to fail if you do this. He’s like don’t do it. So, I’m crying, I’m hysterical. I’m like I studied all these months and I still don’t know enough. But he told me what I needed to work on so that’s what I did. I went home, I worked on it. And then I come back to him like 3 days before my checkride. And then he’s like, wow you made a major improvement. I could definitely tell you studied. 

Lucy Jabbour: Lakema, as a parent, what did you say to her to offer her encouragement in that moment? 

Lakema Freeland: I know that she could actually do it, you know, each child is different. Not everybody can do it. But I know academically she does extremely well. So, I knew she had the potential. I wish she had taken the mock checkride sooner.

Lucy Jabbour: So that's good advice that that practice checkride actually helps you figure out where you're at. 

Kamora Freeland: Yes, because once he told me my weak areas, I spent two hours a day studying and it helped me pass my test.

Lakema Freeland: It is a very rigorous curriculum. For the private pilot; it is. You really do have to commit yourself to that studying, because it's a lot of ground schooling that comes along with this.

Vishal Ramudamu: So, Kamora, you gave a sneak peek inside your mindset and a resilient mindset. How did you go on to prepare academically for your pilot exam? 

Kamora Freeland: Um, so I mostly used flashcards. Because actually, when I was in ground school with Red-Tailed Hawks Fly, the first few days I wasn't doing so well. You know, we had like little kind of tests in the mornings, and I wasn't doing so well. And I was like, why am I not doing so well? Like I'm really good in school; like I'm studying, but I'm not retaining this information. My flight instructor Mr. Jesse actually, he told me he's like, try flashcards. So, I tried flashcards and I realized that works for me. So, that's what I did. So, when I was training for my written and also my oral I wrote down everything on flashcards. Anything I was like, I might not know that, I wrote it down on flashcards. So, flashcards was like basically everything to me. 

Lakema Freeland: So, what I would do is at night, I would go over the flashcards. Like so, I became the teacher. I would read over the question and she would answer. So, we did this every night. 

Lucy Jabbour: It sounds like Lakema, you might have learned a few things too about how do you pass a checkride, through that. 

Lakema Freeland: Definitely.

Lucy Jabbour: That's a great learning tip, too. Was there anything when you were going through the curriculum that you like, found really challenging over something else?

Kamora Freeland: l would say weather because, you know, there's math in aviation, you know, velocity and all this stuff. And I'm in physics, so it wasn’t new to me. It wasn't until weather like I didn't really learn much about weather. Like sixth grade, you know, there's a little bit of weather you learn, but pretty much all the weather information was new to me. So, weather it was the hardest.

Lucy Jabbour: For you in your journey. How were you able to balance the cost of pilot school? What did that look like for you?

Kamora Freeland: That scholarship covered my whole entire private pilot license. So, all the training everything they paid for. And on top of that, I got to go to summer Flight Academy with Red-Tailed Hawks Fly and they gave me ground school, like and also flight training. So, it was like five hours of ground school and then two hours of flight training. And all of this is free of cost. So, everything. And then on top of that, they also gave me $10,000 to come home and flight train. So, all this was given to me through scholarship and my parents didn't have to pay anything for flight training and also ground school.

Lucy Jabbour: Lakema, how important is parental support for something as challenging as this for youth? 

Lakema Freeland: Very, very, very important. This wasn't that easy. There was rough times. She had to sacrifice a lot. So, she needed to know that I was there. I believed in her. She needed me to encourage her when things got rough or her friends were going out somewhere and she really couldn't go but wanted to go. I understood that feeling. It helped her by me supporting her and encouraging her and speaking kind words to her. It's very important to do that. Children need to know that you support them. You believe in them. Their voices matter. They matter. And again, I would also tell her like, you can do this. 

Lucy Jabbour: Kamora, is there a piece of advice your mom has given you that sticks out to you that that really like helped propel you or motivate you?

Kamora Freeland: Um, she always tells me work hard, play later. I'm going to be able to start my career in aviation a lot sooner than most people. Yeah, definitely work hard, play later.

Vishal Ramudamu: What advice would you have for your peers, who might be interested in looking at aerospace as an option?

Kamora Freeland: I would say, look for scholarships, because there's a lot of scholarships out there that people do not know about. So, constantly look for scholarships. But for advice in general, if you know what you want to do, get the work done to do it. Just because you have one setback, one setback is not going to end everything. Just learn from that experience. Setbacks is not going to end everything.

Airport Design Challenge PSA: Hey students! Think you know Minecraft? Think again! We're not just talking about playing – we're talking about designing your very own video game simulation! Get your creativity engines revving for the ultimate Airport Design Challenge! That's right, you'll be the mastermind behind every virtual terminal, every control tower, and every pixel of the sky. Are you up for the challenge? Head over to the faa.gov/ADC and get ready to take off on this epic STEM journey. 

Lucy Jabbour: Thanks for listening! Coming up, in the next episode of The Air Up There, we’re talking with an all-women team building an airplane in Vermont for a non-profit called, Habitat for Aviation.

Beth White: We have a really wonderful multi-generational group of women and girls. So, we’re calling ourselves the modern Rosies, and we really take a lot of inspiration from our WWII Rosie the Riveters. Because it’s quite a historic moment to have an all-girl team of youth and adults building an airplane together. 

Lucy Jabbour:  For more information check out faa.gov/podcasts.