The Osage PathFinders Development (OPD) Program has turned out seven licensed Osage private pilots, who are continuing their flight studies in hopes of obtaining their commercial pilot licenses, and entering the aviation and aerospace industry.
In an Osage Nation YouTube video introducing the seven young Osage pilots, they walk forward in a row under the sun on one of Oklahoma’s estimated 270 to 300 good weather days, on which private pilots are allowed to fly.
Between the ages of 17 and 21, the newly-minted private pilots are Amory Miller, Bryton Crabtree, Cole Cordrey, Koa Smith, and brothers Ivan, Isaac and Ian Long—collectively, the first PathFinder class to graduate with their private pilot certifications from the Osage Nation’s PathFinder program.
The next step in the Osage pilots’ certification pathway will be studying for and receiving their instrument ratings, which will allow them to fly in bad weather, too. “That’s the next step that they’re working on right now, the instrument rating,” said flight instructor Robbie Sturdivant of Riverside Flight Center, the school the Nation has partnered with to train the pilots.
As private pilots, the Osages can fly for fun with friends and family, but “they can’t be paid,” said Yuri Milner, another flight instructor at Riverside Flight Center. After receiving their commercial licensing—the next step after instrument ratings—they will be able to receive renumeration, Milner explained.
Typically, the cost for a flight student to obtain a commercial pilot license ranges between $70,000 and $80,000, according to Oklahoma State University’s Ray and Linda Booker OSU Flight Center. The Osage Nation is covering the entire cost of the training and licensing, said Lauren Redeagle, the Nation’s tribal education advocate coordinator.
“It’s been really amazing to see the support,” said Redeagle.
As Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said at a small ceremony honoring the Osage graduates, what they will do with the opportunity is up to them. And those opportunities, according to Milner, are tremendous.
“Once you get into aviation or industry, the aerospace industry, the avenues that they can pursue are tremendous. We just had a young lady who did commercial flying and instructing … with her background in aviation and her flying qualifications, she just got a job with Airbus in Washington,” said Milner.
At the ceremony, the young pilots were greatly pleased to receive their private licenses. Osage Nation Education Director Mary Wildcat congratulated them, saying, “You’re leaders in our tribe for what you are doing.”
One of the students, Ivan, is expected to complete his commercial flight training in December, said Milner. After such an accomplishment, pilots often act as certified flight instructors (CFIs), he said, in order to build up enough flight hours to be able to work at an airline.
Once the students finish with their commercial certificate, they will have 250 hours; 1,500 hours are needed to obtain the certificate needed to work for an airline, called an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Certificate.
In the spring, the Osage Nation Education Department hopes to start the internship process, said Wildcat. “Networking to know people, that’s really important,” she told the young men at the ceremony. “So, we hope that opens up more doors for you guys and [your] careers.”
Cole Cordrey, who moved from Tampa, Fla., to join the PathFinders program is the son of an Air Traffic Controller at Camp International Airport. “I’ve been around aviation a little while and I thought it was fun,” he said. The program was harder than he expected, though, said Cordrey. “I kind of locked in to get through everything,” he explained.
Koa Smith is the son of a flight attendant and moved from Hawaii for the program. “My mom … she kept saying, ‘Dude, pilots, they make a lot of money. It’s really fun. I see a lot of young people doing it now.’ … I wasn’t fully interested in it until this program came up and it was a blessing, really, to get in,” said Smith.
Amory Miller of Skiatook is one of the youngest participants in the PathFinder program at age 17, and he started getting into aviation through high school classes in Bartlesville. “I kind of wanted more from aviation,” said Miller. “I took that year-long class and it was really fun.” He said that he enjoyed learning about planes so much he was planning to base his entire senior year on aviation, taking maintenance and the next course in the aviation sequence, aviation 3—but then he got a late-night text from his friend Ian Long, who is also in the program.
“Ian shot me a text late at night. He was like, ‘Hey, you want to be a pilot?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ Then he sent me the program and I signed up.” Miller was thrilled to join the program but also found it challenging. “The landings took me a long time,” he said.
Brighton Crabtree, also 17 and from Texas, has always wanted to be a pilot. His mom works in the aviation-industry regulatory body, the Federal Aviation Administration, and showed him the program. His father, he noted, worked for the Air Force. “I’ve always been around planes, with a bunch of air shows and all that, which has inspired me a lot,” he said.
Ian Long is the youngest of the three Long brothers of Skiatook, who are all in the program. Ian originally wanted to be a doctor but then he saw the PathFinders program. “But my main thing was heights,” he said, sharing that he had a fear of heights. “Yeah, I did not want to do that,” he said but he went up in a test flight for prospective students called a discovery flight, and was surprised that he wasn’t frightened at all. “When I’m in the plane now I look down all the time but it doesn’t cross my mind as if I was on a cliff or something.” Ian also pointed out that through PathFinders, you learn a lot about emergencies so there is no reason to worry if the engine goes out, because you will know what to do.
The second son of the Long boys, Isaac, was at OSU studying to be a veterinarian when he took a discovery flight. He explained, “the discovery flight is when a flight instructor takes you up in a plane and lets you fly it, show you how it works and kind of give[s] you an overview of what it’s like and just see if that’s something you’re interested in, before you actually start school. After that, I was kind of hooked on it and I heard about this program and just decided that that’s what I wanted to do,” he said.
The eldest brother of the Long boys, Ivan, was attending OSU as a pre-med student before he entered PathFinders. “I always wanted to be a pilot too, but I have family members that are doctors so I was going to give that a shot,” said Ivan. “But then I did a discovery flight and started paying … on my own, as well as my parents were helping me,” he said. “It starts to get pretty expensive really fast.” In the effort to pay, Ivan’s private lessons were starting to get dragged out, he said.
“I decided that I wanted to be a pilot fully, so I switched my majors to aviation and then as soon as I saw this program, I thought it was great,” he said. “I ended up dropping out of college, coming here, finishing my private and now I’m working on my commercial multi right now.”
Their instructors were very impressed with all of the inaugural seven students, said Milner. “We have no disciplinary problems with any of this group, they seem to help each other very well,” said Milner. “One [was] from Hawaii, one from Florida, one from Texas,” he said, and explained that they were adjusting to living on their own. “They have to do their own shopping,” he said, noting the burden of having to cook for themselves while studying in an intensive program.
“And then even the other three boys, I know they all work on a farm, help their family, look after hundreds of sheep, so it’s phenomenal for me to see,” Milner said, speaking of the Long boys. “This is a hard program, even if you just do this full time with no other commitments.”
Three of the boys were still continuing high school while in PathFinders as well, said Milner. Even with their various challenges, he was deeply impressed that they excelled. “Normally within a group we lose 10 to 20 percent … where they’re not willing to do the hard work … Some nights they have three, four hours where they have to get all those tests done before the next day,” he said. “They’re phenomenal. They really have done well.”
Sturdivant pointed out that the program teaches responsibility as well. “The structure that comes along with being a pilot does open up their pathways as well, so you’re learning how to make decisions, you’re learning how to deal with situations that are very stressful. You’re learning coping skills and things that you wouldn’t necessarily get with another industry,” he said. “So becoming a pilot is not just about, you know, moving the airplane through the sky.”
The PathFinders Development Program is an initiative designed to cultivate aviation and aerospace leaders through providing Osage students age 18 and up with all FAA certifications to fly and instruct in unmanned and manned aircraft commercially. For more information, contact lauren.redeagle@osagenation-nsn.gov.
 Program at Riverside Flight Center have now received their private pilot licenses.){kind=link}