![\"IMG-ORD-FLT-Jakob-Barnard\"](\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/IMG-ORD-FLT-Jakob-Barnard.jpg\" "\\"Jakob")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When was the first moment you knew you wanted to be a pilot?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I can\u2019t remember exactly when\u00a0I wanted to be a Pilot. I just always did as far back as I can remember. I played soccer when I was a young kid in elementary school, and spent a majority of the time stopped in the middle of the field mesmerized by the planes overhead on their arrival into Detroit Metro Airport.<\/p>\n What was your path to becoming an Envoy pilot?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I took my discovery flight\u00a0on March 22, 2008 while visiting family in Huntsville, Alabama when I was 15 years old. I was hooked. At the age of 17, I started my private pilot training at Solo Aviation in Ann Arbor, Michigan.<\/p>\n I received my private certificate a couple weeks after my 18th birthday. I went on to attend Western Michigan University\u2019s College of Aviation in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where I finished the remainder of my flight training.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While attending WMU, I was working for Envoy as an Airport Agent. With a year of college and my flight training complete, I decided to move to New York City and flight instruct at a company called Ventura in Farmingdale, New York.<\/p>\n Along with instructing, I was a Lead Agent for Envoy at the LaGuardia airport. While living in New York, I finished the remainder of my college courses online and officially graduated from WMU in December of 2015.<\/p>\n Once I graduated and had enough flight time, I was able to accept a position as a First Officer on the Embraer 145 and\u00a0began training in Dallas in January 2016 at the age of 22.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n