’Fly for the Culture’ aims to inspire new pilots at Gastonia airport

When Courtland Savage left Gaston County to fly fighter jets in the Navy, he couldn’t help but notice how much he stuck out among his fellow pilots.

“I was one of the only black aviators,” he said Sunday from the Gastonia Municipal Airport. “Very few were minorities. And there were only a couple of women.”

Even now as a regional airline pilot based out of Raleigh, he hasn’t seen much difference in the racial and gender makeup of professionals in his field. So his return to the city of his birth last weekend was part of a larger effort to address that, through a nonprofit initiative known as Fly for the Culture. The goal of the program is to expose underserved and minority children to the wide range of career opportunities available in aviation, by providing tours of airport facilities, aircraft manufacturer operations, and aviation maintenance repair sites.

Savage said he wants to show African-American kids that there is a path to high-paying jobs in the aviation industry.

“I just think it’s all about exposure,” said Savage. “What I want to do is give some exposure to kids who never would have thought about a career in aviation, and bring them out to the airports to see something new, because you don’t believe it until you see it.”

Sunday’s event at the city-owned Gastonia Municipal Airport was officially deemed the Turkey Drop. With the timing of it occurring just before Thanksgiving, Savage’s family helped to collect 100 turkeys that were distributed for free to attending families. As part of the Fly for the Culture push, a number of free ‘discovery flights’ were also given to children who signed up to participate, and attendees were treated to tours of the airport buildings and facilities.

Savage himself took kids up for around half a dozen flights on a brisk, sunny, semi-windy day. Piloting a Cessna 172 G1000 – a sophisticated, glass cockpit plane with four seats – he carried his passengers on scenic jaunts over Crowders Mountain, briefly landing at the Shelby-Cleveland County Regional Airport before returning to Gastonia.

Boosting the numbers

Will Mathias of Columbia, South Carolina, heard about the event through his sister, and made it a priority to bring his 4-year-old son Christian up for the experience, along with his parents, Al and Wilhelmenia Mathias. The youngster has already had the opportunity to take a handful of commercial flights, to places such as Arizona and Florida, and it has piqued his interest.

“We started taking family trips recently and he is just really fascinated with airplanes,” said Will Mathias, who joined his son for the flight. “He always wants to meet the pilot, talk to the pilot and learn all about it. So when Chris said he wanted to be a pilot, we kind of just jumped on it.”

A few minutes before takeoff, Christian admitted to being a bit nervous about the single-engine plane excursion. But when asked why he wanted to be a pilot himself, he offered a calm and clear answer.

“To be a hero,” he said.

About 92 percent of America’s professional pilots and flight engineers are white, and 91 percent of them are male, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Less than 3 percent of the commercial pilots in the United States are black, while fewer than 7 percent are Hispanic, and a little more than 4 percent are Asian.

Savage, 28, was born in Gastonia and then raised in Mount Holly, where he realized he wanted to fly planes. He was still just a senior at East Gaston High School when he became a licensed pilot at the age of 17. He enlisted and became an Air Force Reserve Crew chief on a C-17 Globemaster in Charleston, South Carolina, then became an officer in the Navy and began flying the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

‘Tremendous need’

After Savage launched Fly for the Culture a couple of years ago, he and a fellow pilot were largely providing discovery flights to minority kids with their own money. But news coverage of their mission more recently has helped to inspire donors to contribute thousands of dollars to support the vision, which has made it possible for them to think about expanding it nationwide.

Jon Boyd, who manages the Gastonia Municipal Airport for the New York-based Academy of Aviation, said Savage’s mission holds great importance. In addition to the deficiency of minority pilots, there’s also a serious nationwide shortage of pilots and airplane mechanics in general.

“This is right up our alley, really,” he said. “Anything to raise the visibility about flying is significant. There’s a tremendous need in the industry, and we need to meet that need.”

Savage’s parents, Raymond and Angela Savage, still live in Mount Holly and drove down for the event Sunday, even bringing the 100 turkeys to give away. They said they are extremely proud of what their son is doing.

“God wants us to reach out to others and show love and compassion,” said Angela Savage. “That’s what he’s doing with this. And there are greater things to come, too.”

Courtland Savage said he hopes to keep up the momentum and see the nonprofit grow, and there was no question he would bring it to Gaston County.

“I love the fact that I’m able to give back to a community that I grew up in,” he said.

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or on Twitter @GazetteMike.