The Flight Academy is a scholarship through the U.S. Air Force that pays for selected cadets to get a pilot’s license through partner colleges and universities across the country.
Bottemiller spent eight weeks this past summer at Iowa Lakes Community College learning to fly a Cessna 172.
“It’s so surreal to me that I can just like go on a plane and fly across states now if I want to,” Bottemiller said.
She was one of 16 at the Iowa Flight Academy, but she said her fellow students were “really qualified and really determined.”
“We all really pushed each other to get through it,” Bottemiller said. “There was no competition, really. It was...if one person’s falling behind, we’re all going to help them.”
Lt. Col. Christine Gangaware (retired), the Bellbrook JROTC instructor, said Bottemiller is one of two students who had completed the Flight Academy. The other, Ethan Bui, got his license in 2022.
“Laney is a very responsible, driven and motivated young woman, and I never had any doubts that if selected, she would work hard and complete the program with flying colors, and she did just that,” Gangaware said. “And now she’s working even harder to improve her skills through Civil Air Patrol and work her way to becoming a pilot in the (U.S. Air Force.)”
Bottemiller had gotten some flight training hours before going to the Flight Academy, but she felt behind compared to others at the camp, she said.
After her first flight in Iowa, she said she was overwhelmed by all she had to do and felt disappointed in herself. But she persisted, and finally, flew on a cross-country flight overnight.
Bottemiller said there was also “ground school,” or programming that simulated flights and taught the students more, during Flight Academy. She was up late studying many nights, she said, and up early in the morning often to get to the airport at 6 a.m.
“But I feel really accomplished at it because it’s the hardest thing I’ve done in my entire life,” Bottemiller said.
Bottemiller said her plans after high school now include either going to the Air Force Academy, going to flight school and either becoming a fighter pilot or flying cargo planes for the Air Force.
Fighter pilots appealed to her since the planes go fast and that’s what many people think of when they think of pilots, Bottemiller said, while she finds cargo planes a challenge to fly and land.
Her backup plan is to either enlist in ROTC at another university or to go to a university like Purdue that’s known for flight school and becoming an airline pilot.
But Bottemiller said these weren’t her plans before getting her pilot’s license.
“I did not have even have this on my mind until two months ago,” Bottemiller said.
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