LAGUHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Capt. Chantal Mortezaee, 86th Flying Training Squadron instructor pilot, remembers her pilot training instructors for more than teaching her how to fly—they were examples to her of what being a leader is like as a pilot.
“Being a leader as a pilot is very different from other career fields,” Mortezaee said.
She noticed that pilots are tasked with a great deal of responsibility very early on. On the other hand, pilot training is the avenue in which many people reach their dreams.
“Lots of my students wanted to be pilots since they were small children,” Mortezaee said.
Mortezaee acknowledges the countless leaning styles of each student and hopes to lead them to being the best pilot they can be through understanding how each person learns individually in order to help them reach their goals.
“Being a teacher for us is sometimes like groundhog day,” Mortezaee said. “We’re just teaching the same thing every single day. The important thing here is, for us, it’s mundane or repetitive sometimes, but for the students we’re teaching, it’s so critical [not to be] complacent. It impacts the rest of their lives, and how they do here carries on into their future.”