{"id":3215,"date":"2016-10-19T08:56:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T13:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/?p=3215"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:56:54","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T13:56:54","slug":"women-with-wings-first-officer-nicole-mott-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/2016\/10\/19\/women-with-wings-first-officer-nicole-mott-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Women With Wings: First Officer Nicole Mott"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve probably seen one before. In front of a neighborhood grocery store, between the soda machines and stacks of firewood, there sometimes sits a bumbling coin-operated kiddie airplane ride. To some, this is the only cockpit fit for a 5-year-old.<\/p>\n

But think again.<\/p>\n

At 5-years-old, Nicole Mott was flying a real plane\u00a0\u2013 albeit under adult supervision. It\u2019s one of her earliest memories, and it stuck with her up to the moment of choosing a career in high school.<\/p>\n

Part of Parchment School District\u2019s Education for Employment Program<\/a> in Michigan is the opportunity for high school students to delve into a career of their choice including courses in business, health sciences, natural resources and technology. Nicole, a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, chose aviation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad basically sat me down and asked, \u2018what do you want to do with your life?\u2019,\u201d Nicole says. \u201cHe just wanted to make sure that I chose a career path that I will enjoy, and essentially not have to wake up every day and say, ugh, I have to go to work. And that\u2019s how it\u2019s been. I really enjoy being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earning Her Wings<\/h3>\n

At 25-years-old, First Officer Nicole Mott has been flying jets at Envoy for two years. She says she loves coming to work, loves the people and most of all loves to fly.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_Cadet_Program-Nicole_Mott-1-1024x683Whether it\u2019s the cities she flies to, the places she gets to see or the old friends she runs into in various airports, Nicole\u2019s glad she chose Envoy. She is especially proud of the training she underwent when she came to Envoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was looking for a place to work, I heard that our training program was one of the hardest, but one of the best,\u201d Nicole says. \u201cThat was really appealing to me, because I want to be sure that the person I\u2019m working with has the same quality of training that I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides \u201cdoing the ups and downs\u201d at 5 years\u00a0old, Nicole says the first time she flew a plane she was incredibly nervous. She looked at the tiny Cessna 150 in front of her and thought, there\u2019s no way I\u2019m getting in that thing.<\/p>\n

But her family friend, who took it upon himself to instruct Nicole how to fly, calmed her down and encouraged the reluctant Nicole to pilot the Fiat-sized aircraft. Once she finally gave in and got behind the controls, she fell in love with flying.<\/p>\n

After graduating from her high school aviation program, Nicole enrolled at Lewis University and then transferred to the bigger Western Michigan University<\/a>, one of Envoy’s partner universities, where she earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in Flight Science.<\/p>\n

Soon after, she moved to the Dallas\/Fort Worth area to work as a flight instructor at the U.S. Aviation Academy<\/a> in Denton. Between high school, college and working as a flight instructor, Nicole earned more than enough hours necessary to apply to Envoy in 2014 through its Cadet Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Women in Aviation<\/h3>\n

Nicole aspires to upgrade to Envoy Captain and looks forward to the day she will flow through to fly for American. For now, she takes pride in her accomplishments and is proud to be a woman in aviation.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a member of Women in Aviation International<\/a> (WAI) and has attended a few conventions. She loves the feeling of being surrounded by like-minded women and tries to harness that positive energy. Even though she knows the percentage of female pilots is small, she\u2019s encouraged by the many women she does encounter, she says.\"IMG_DFW_New_Uniforms_September_2016-9<\/p>\n

Overall, Nicole doesn\u2019t feel there are any advantages or disadvantages to being a female pilot, and that she wishes more girls would consider a career in aviation, she says. She thinks of herself as an example to young girls that it is possible to be a pilot, and there shouldn\u2019t be any apprehension.<\/p>\n

Nicole cherishes her job and is thrilled every day she gets to fly. She enjoys walking through the terminals in her uniform, meeting new people, seeing new places and feeling like she\u2019s never really working. However, she says she misses the days of flying a Cessna and dreams of owning one someday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun to take your family and friends up and say, hey, you want to grab lunch in a city 200 miles away, or go to the beach just for fun?\u201d Nicole says. \u201cI would just love to go on little, fun trips to remind myself that\u2019s why I fell in love with flying in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve probably seen one before. In front of a neighborhood grocery store, between the soda machines and stacks of firewood, there sometimes sits a bumbling coin-operated kiddie airplane ride. To some, this is the only cockpit fit for a 5-year-old. But think again. At 5-years-old, Nicole Mott was flying a real plane\u00a0\u2013 albeit under adult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":42346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[66,51,68,79,92,80,81,82,83],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}