Korina
Harris is only 23 (she'll be 24 this month) yet she is an
accomplished pilot and flight instructor. She has appeared
in a film, has been written up in Newsday and is frequently
called to speak at "career day" in middle and high
schools. Harris had a pilot's license before a driver's license.
She was a business owner even before graduating college. She
was only 16 when she flew an airplane for the first time.
Today she holds seven licenses, all earned while a student.
Harris learned to drive a car after learning to fly. "I
am the worst driver," the young pilot admitted. "My
mom couldn't teach me; she tried. I would turn the corner
and stop because I was afraid I would go sideways. I was trying
to steer with my feet because that's what you do with an airplane
on the ground."
Harris began her circuitous route through the clouds with
the intentions of becoming a meteorologistÑa weather
girl as she put it. Her earliest inspiration to take her dreams
skyward was provided by a woman. Beneath her baby picture
in her high school yearbook, a caption reads "Childhood
Hero: Sally Ride." Five years later last July, she met
Ride, NASA's first woman in space, and showed her the yearbook.
Sally Ride autographed the page for the beaming 23-year-old.
Harris recalls being fond of Ride in second grade, as young
as 6 or 7 years old. "I think she was my hero more for
the science end of it and for breaking through in an industry
that hadn't yet been known to women."
"I
loved flying," she continued. "In fourth grade,
I went on an airplane by myself." Harris visited the
pilot in the cockpit who gave the nine-year-old a wings pin.
Yet it wasn't until Harris's junior year at Hampton Bays High
School that she had the desire to learn to fly.
"I
wanted to be a meteorologist from second grade on," Harris
said. The closest thing to meteorology was a 2-year aviation
program in Eastern Suffolk BOCES Suffolk Aviation Academy
at Dowling College, Brookhaven Campus during a student's junior
and senior years in high school. She was advised to try it.
"That's why I got involved in flying," said Harris.
"I didn't want to stay in high school all day. I wanted
to do something."
"In
high school and the beginning of college, all I did was talk
about airplanes. Everything was airplanes. I wanted to be
able to talk to my friends who had no idea what a stall was."
(Stalls are when an airplane's wings aren't producing lift
any more and the nose comes back down.) "It's not the
same as a car stalling," she said. "When I said
that the "turn and bank indicator" broke in my airplane,
or that I lost my gyros, they had no clue what I was saying."
Her whole first year at BOCES was ground school. After meticulous
instruction, a student is ready for his or her first solo
flight.
"I
took my first flight on November 13, 1997. And that was it!
I was hooked," she beamed. "BOCES was like boot
camp. They have the strictest but one of the best programs
for aviation," said Harris. Students must make certain
grades every quarter in order to continue. Her first year
began with nearly 75 people and she flew a couple of times
to "keep her edge going." Only about 13 passed to
the second year. By her second year in BOCES, the studious,
freckled then-18-year-old was flying almost every other day.
Afterward, she stayed on at Dowling as a college freshman
studying commercial aviation for one year. Harris then transferred
to the University of North Dakota without attending the North
Dakota campus. She went to Hawaii instead. UND's satellite
aviation program was based at Honolulu Community College and
around the corner from the airport.
"I
realized that I needed to go out on my own," Harris said
"I felt like my parents were too close that if something
happened I could rely on them. My friends and roommates were
pretty big into going out. I thought maybe that was holding
me back a little bit. If I were on my own I could make myself
develop a little bit further." Moving to Hawaii in 2000
made it easier for Harris to focus on flying. "The weather
always cooperated," she said.
In Hawaii, she received her flight instructor's and multi-engine
licenses. She still follows UND's well-structured syllabus
when training her own students. Harris returned to Long Island
because, as she put it, "I like the intensity up here.
Hawaii is just way too laid back."
Once, a flight instructor rolled the plane with her in it.
"I was 17 years old," she said. "He seemed
trustworthy. He got me this far. After my first couple lessons,
he rolled the airplane. Then he said to me, 'Whoa. I'm glad
that worked! I've never done that before.'"
Harris described her first flight with humility. "I don't
know why my instructor was letting me go solo. I thought he
was nuts because I had trouble with landings. We had to do
three take-offs and landings on our own. I couldn't see over
the dashboard that well so I had to sit on a cushion,"
Harris said. She still uses a cushion even in her own plane.
"I'm five foot eight and a half and I still can't see.
But some of my students Ñ even the guys Ñ have
to sit on cushions in the older planes!"
"The
biggest surprise was the wind shift that day of my first solo.
After my first landing, I was happy. I was on the runway that
I was used to. I went back up and my instructor wanted me
to switch to a runway that I had never landed on before. I
remember him being on the radio as I was repositioning myself
for the entry for the new runway. There was an uncontrolled
feel when he just announced the change of plans. He said on
the radio, 'Korina, do you know what to do?'"
"Well,
I don't know. This never came up during the initial training!"
she said, shyly.
There is no virtual pilot training for students prior to being
in the air regardless of all the flight simulator footage
one might see on television.
Hearing people's stories is what Harris values as a vital
learning tool: other pilot's experiences. "That's how
I learned Ð through other people's experiences and mistakes."
Harris was practicing with one of her students when the oil
cap came off in the air, splashing oil on the windshield and
on her side of the cowling (or engine covering) of the dual
control craft. Her student thought he had done something wrong.
Harris was on the radio with New York Approach. "I asked
them if they can ask Westhampton Tower for a priority landing."
"Are
you declaring an emergency?" was their response.
"'No,
we have no change in oil pressure or oil temperature,'"she
told them calmly. "We flew to and landed in Westhampton,
losing only half a quart of oil."
On approach, Tower asked if they needed fire trucks. She declined
yet when they landed every fire truck was out and men in silver
suits were all around. As it turned out, her flight with her
student was to practice emergency procedures. Her student
was duly impressed.
"When
things happen, your reaction is to go back to what you've
been trained," Harris stated. She recalled an instructor
early on in her studies who said, 'And when that prop comes
to a standstill, you'll see my face! And you'll remember what
to do.'"
She applies the same insights in business. For the young Harris
to take up such a challenging career can be a source of anxiety
for a parent. Harris confessed that the first year in aviation
school, her mother never realized she was actually flying.
"If she knew she would have driven her truck to the end
of the runway to stop me! But she got used to it. She thought
I was lucky to have found something that I really wanted to
do. She always pushes me along, further than when I push myself.
She'll be the one to give me that extra "umph" while
I'm still deciding whether or not I should do it. My dad is
big on asking what are the pros and cons of it."
Harris's business acumen was honed when she not only had to
sell her father on the idea of her flying an airplane but
on the idea of buying an airplane. "My dad said as long
as the airplane could pay for itself, I could fly it all the
time, as much as I wanted."
How
did Harris convince her father that she needed a plane? "I
had to put a business plan together for him," she said.
"It's a good thing I went to college for it! If I could
prove to him that the plane could pay for itself, and that
it would be able to support me, he would give the okay."
Harris learned how to create a business plan at Suffolk County
Community College in the business management program. In 2002,
that October, Harris produced and received college credit
to develop a business plan for a company called Hampton Aviation.
This was her own real company in the making and the plan was
to get her father's approval. Harris and her family established
Hampton Aviation in November, 2002. A month later the company
bought a canary yellow Piper Cherokee. It cost $19,500 used
and needed another $8,000 to bring it up to par. Fortunately,
the 4-seat, low-wing plane was in flying condition so it could
be flown as it was being worked on. She was 21 and hadn't
yet graduated college.
Harris credits her parents for cultivating her resourcefulness.
To get through college, Harris knew she would have to borrow
money for tuition.
"There
was no way I could put the cost of college Ð $30,000 for
tuition plus $30,000 to get my licenses Ð on my father."
But Harris did ask him in a sweet voice, "Would you co-sign
my student loans?"
Upkeep on an airplane costs upward of $4,000 per year not
including the fuel it burns Ð nine gallons an hour at
$3.70 per gallon. Hangar rental adds another $250 per month.
Insurance is now up to $5,200 annually because her students
fly the plane by themselves. After 2,000 hours, the plane
requires an engine rebuild. "Maintenance-wise,"
she said, "anything can happen." When her plane
doesn't start in the cold, she relies on mechanics who give
her "World War II prices," she said with a smile.
The care and feeding of an airplane can be daunting. But one
hallmark of the young-but-serious Harris is her willingness
to make sacrifices to keep her business going. When she teaches
flying, a typical day can include 5 or 6 students. She takes
on corporate work flying a twin-engine turbo prop plane. But
Harris also baby-sits (including baby-sitting for a child
who has had cancer and two heart transplants). She has waited
tables and collected money at the door of a nightclub. Harris's
nature combines a charming bashfulness with her rapid-fire
talkative friendliness. She is a blend of compassion with
competitiveness.
Harris has volunteered to fly for Make-A-Wish Foundation,
the organization that sent the cancer-stricken child she cared
for on a dream-come-true trip with her family to Disney World.
Though Harris's company is too small for Angel Flights, an
organization that disperses pilots who volunteer to fly medical
patients to their destinations for treatment, she did participate
in Make-A-Wish Foundation's "The Great Hawaii Air Race,"
a spectacular round trip flight around the Hawaiian Islands.
Harris's team took Best Women's Team, and ranked sixth place
of approximately 100 planes.
At
23, Harris is the youngest CFI (certified flight instructor)
and owner of an aviation school in Mary Scott's film "Wings
of Their Own," a documentary about The Ninety-Nines,
a women pilots association among whose members were Amelia
Earhart, its first president. (Earhart was the first woman
to fly the Atlantic and first woman to solo the Pacific.)
Scott filmed Harris at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach
where her bright yellow Piper Cherokee, named "Big Bird,"
resides. "It looked so cute," she said. "Mary
Scott and Abby Dress are awesome," Harris said. She met
co-producer Abby Dress (see Dress's story on page 14) and
a number of the New York area women pilots at the premiere.
Of The Ninety-Nines, Harris said, "they are a great bunch
of ladies. They inspired me to join after I saw the film.
These are the people I need to talk to about my flying. I
need to talk to other women because they understand me. They
show their excitement. They get giddy."
"At
one point in the film," Harris recounted, "I was
crying listening to the story Ñ and I'm not a big mush.
It felt like the first time I flew an airplane, all those
rushes and feelings, seeing those other women as excited as
I am. I got that same feeling as the first time I took a flight
and it's how I feel every time I fly. To see those women feel
that exact same wayÉ I was just so happy to see that."
"When
you take off," Harris said, "you get butterflies
in your stomach like you're in love. I still feel that way
whenever I fly."
Asked was she ever wooed by the military and Harris uttered
an abrupt no. "I have horrible eyesight. It's corrected
to 20/20 but the military wasn't big on me wearing glasses
or contacts up there, she said. " I like to be independent.
It's hard for me to follow that strict a regimen."
Harris has also taken to the wild blue yonder without her
plane Ñ skydiving with girlfriends, her aunt and her
mother. "Our dads, uncles, husbands and boyfriends did
not know we were about to go sky-diving. They couldn't get
in touch with us all day because we were attending the initial
training and video. We each went up in tandem with an instructor.
In the plane we were joking, 'Oh my God, if Dad could see
how close this guy is strapped to Mom, he'd kill me!'"
To date, Harris is still attending college. She will receive
her Associate's degree in Business Management in May of 2006
and her Bachelor's degree in Aviation Science in June, 2006.
She is pursuing her "ATP," airline transport license.
Her goal is to become a commercial airpline pilot. "But
not an airbus pilot," referring to the more automated
planes. "I don't want to fly a plane with a joystick."
