This is OmahaNebraska.com with…
Olga Sannikova.
Tell me a little bit about yourself: how you got here and what you did before you were a pilot.
I am originally from Latvia, and I grew up in Canada. I moved to the States in 2001 right after high school.
I started flying in high school. I took my first intro lesson, and I instantly fell in love. From there I started working random jobs to pay for flying. I continued flying small GA planes like Cessnas. I flew photographers. I did scenic tours. I also volunteered with animal shelter organizations, flying animals to rescue centers. But throughout that time I worked as a piano teacher, so for about 20 years my full-time job was a piano teacher and my side jobs were flying. But my dream was also to be a pilot.
In 2020 I purchased my first airplane. I bought an experimental home-built RV-4, and I started formation flying. I joined a formation team, and that was my first exposure to air shows. I still fly with them, Dawn Patrol air shows, and I continued on. Also in 2020 I got my first jet job, and I started flying for a medevac company. We flew organs and flew them all over the West Coast, and then I got on with a company called NetJets and I fly a Global 6000.
But my air show experience and my jet experience was what led me to the Pink Jet. And the two combined are what got me a recommendation from a good friend of mine, Jason Soames, who volunteers for CAF and flies numerous airplanes, including a MiG-17. And so he was the one that recommended me to the Pink Jet organization. I interviewed with them, and now I am privileged and fortunate enough to get to be a volunteer pilot with Aerial Angels.
Tell us a little bit about Pink Jet.
Pink Jet is a nonprofit organization. It is Aerial Angels. The plane is owned by the nonprofit, and we are all volunteer pilots. Myself, Olga Sannikova, and Stephanie Goetz, our president, are the two female pilots, and we travel to air shows and we do speaking engagements and meet with the crowd. We also have several volunteer pilots as well. There’s four others that help with ferrying, with maintenance, and all sorts of other things. The organization is run entirely on volunteers and donations.
What’s the website or contact information for that?
The best way to connect with us and to find out more about us online is “thepinkjet.org” and on Instagram it’s “thepinkjet. The thing I should have mentioned about the pink jet is our ultimate mission, which is breast cancer awareness and early detection. We emphasize early testing for breast cancer. We also empower women in aviation and try to encourage young women and girls to pursue a career in aviation and show them that even though it’s primarily a male-dominated field, there is still room and a place for women to fly.
Any advice for young people wanting to become a pilot?
I think the advice is that it could be a tough road depending on what route you take. A lot of it depends also on industry and whether they need pilots or there’s a shortage of pilots. Sometimes it takes a while to get hired as a pilot, regardless of how many hours you have. But the advice would be stick it out, stick with it, keep working at it, keep trying. If you ever have a bad day, don’t let it get to you, just keep trying and working through it. It’s tough, it’s a steep learning curve, but it’s well worth it.
That’s great advice for everyone.
Yeah, great advice in life. If it doesn’t work out and if it’s harder, then it’s probably even more worth it just to keep fighting on.
Thank you very much. Is there a question you wish I would have asked or something you want to tell us that I haven’t put the seat out there for?
Gosh, I guess if it’s applicable, professional aviation was always my dream, but it is my second career. Sometimes with our final goal, the thing that we want to do most, there are different ways to get to it and it’s not necessarily a direct path, but it really is a journey. So after 20 years of working with kids and teaching piano, I was able to put myself in a position where I could wait out the hiring slump in aviation and 20 years later was able to finally apply for my dream job. I did love teaching, so teaching was also my dream job unexpectedly as well.
I don’t think many people are fortunate to have their first job be the one they really love.
Yeah, my first job was pizza delivery driver. I was a waitress, I was a nanny, I did all sorts of jobs to pay for flight lessons, and then out of all the random things I did, piano took off, and I ended up loving it and really enjoying it. So yes, I was fortunate to find something that really made me happy.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Learn more about the Pink Jet:
https://thepinkjet.org
https://www.instagram.com/thepinkjet
