2023 Newsletter > Braden Martens Q & A
After your checkride, you took your mother, father, sister and grandmother up for flights. What was it like taking them flying? Were you nervous?
“I wasn't nervous at all, The only real difference was that it was more distracting. Lots of questions and phones in the way but nothing too distracting. If it wasn't a good time I would ask to wait until after tow or when we get on the ground.”
Not too long ago you were new to the scene and lo and behold, now you’re one of our senior Line Crew members. What’s it like training the new Line Crew members like Coleman?
“I feel like when I teach other people, I learn It better myself. I really enjoy seeing new line crew and then at the end of the year seeing how far they've come. It's cool to look back and see how much everyone has grown up.”
You soloed the PW6 a few weeks after getting your PPL. What was the hardest part of making that transition? What is the biggest difference flying the PW6 vs. the SGS 233?
“The hardest part was definitely the landing, the whole pattern was a lot faster and you had to adjust a lot faster and the PW6 picks up speed so much faster then the 233s too. The biggest difference between the two was definitely the speed, and the fact that your glide ratio is 34:1 instead of 23:1.”
You’ve had a lot of flights at this point. Do any stand out as being most memorable?
“I've had more than one memorable flight, but one of my favorites was definitely my flight with my dad over sugarbush. It was over 2 hours and we were flying over sugarbush on a beautiful day. We were even thermalling with a bald eagle for some of the flight. I went up with him thinking we were going to be up there for like around 30 mins, and sure enough we were up for over 2 hours.”
What is your dream job?
“I'm not sure yet, but it will definitely involve aviation. Maybe some sort of CFI.”
A young Braden learning to fly in 2018