After completing his private pilot check ride, Gabriel Carothers, a 17-year-old student from Albuquerque, New Mexico, becomes the state’s youngest pilot.
“I wasn’t really thinking about making history, I was just thinking about flying and doing what I like to do every day,” Carothers told Live5News.
Carothers, who grew up in Albuquerque, has truly been passionate about flying since he was a kid. He said, “My father had a family friend who had an airplane that used to fly us. So, he thought it’d definitely be interesting to take me and my brother up for a flight when we were 5 and 6 years old.”
His father, Alex Carothers, a retired United States Air Force pilot, has also been a big inspiration and support to him.
Carothers’ enthusiasm got even stronger when, at the age of eight, he was given the opportunity to fly an airplane for the first time during a ‘Experimental Aircraft Association Young Eagles’ event at Moriarty Airport in New Mexico.
He had already developed his own flight simulator when he was 14 years old. He conducted his own research and studied everything from design to programming.
Gabriel Carothers accomplished his private pilot check ride in August 2022, just 10 days after turning 17 years old, making him the youngest pilot in the state of New Mexico.
Gabriel Carothers is currently a member of General Lloyd “Fig” Newton local chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, where he helps teach the youth and adults the basics of flight at STEM events.
“Leaving a trail behind and leaving a path for other kids to follow really lightens up my heart, and to make sure that they have a future no matter what they do,” he said.
Moreover, Gabriel Carothers aims to soar even higher as he wants to learn to fly vintage aircraft and participate in airshows and follow in his father’s footsteps by joining the Air Force.