AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – North Augusta High School is celebrating a milestone achievement for one of their students.
Jailyn Leyda is a junior at the school, which has one of two aviation programs in the state of South Carolina.
She joined the aviation program her freshman year, and says that’s where her love for the air started.
“I won a gift certificate for one free hour of flight time in the simulator, so that just really kicked it off for me,” said Leyda.
There are two simulators that Leyda has had the opportunity to use.
One of which is at North Augusta High School, but the other is at Augusta Aviation Inc., which is where a bulk of her flight training has taken place.
But Leyda says flying airplanes wasn’t always what she wanted to do.
“Originally I was terrified of heights, but then I saw people flying and was like ‘That’s really cool’. So I was like ‘yeah, I really want to do that,” said Leyda.
Travis Spears teaches the aviation program at the high school, and says students like Jailyn get valuable tools to further a potential career in flying.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL WJBF NEWS CHANNEL ARTICLE AND TO VIEW THE INTERVIEW.