By: Anika McCleve
A five passenger Cessna 172 plane soars over Bosie Idaho. The pilot has a heavy beating heart as she watches the city fall beneath her. She flies until the buildings begin to slowly fade out into empty land scarce of any people. For the first time in her life, she practices sharp vertical turns, and stalling the plane where all power is turned off. Despite the large struggle, she still manages to make a safe landing, keeping her and her twin sister safe.
Who is this mysterious pilot…? It’s MMACHS freshman Abby Warmuth with a beaming smile, positive outlook, and two years’ experience in the civil air patrol.
Abby first joined the civil air patrol with inspiration from her grandfather in the Air Force and her own curiosity to figure out what it was all about. From a young age Abby found herself fascinated with airplanes, pointing them out to those around her when they flew by, and even being able to identify what kind of plane they were.
In the beginning she found the program nerve-wracking and stressful. Now she thrives, knowing that she’s knowledgeable about what she’s doing. Abby started out in a small squadron of only twenty-four people in Colorado. After moving to Idaho, she joined a new squadron of one hundred cadets. Within just two weeks she was offered a large position and was admired for being (as other cadets said) “The only one keeping the squadron together.”
Abby prides herself in being hardworking, and constantly persevering. During a program called Encampment, she was brought away from her parents for a week. She was placed into a squadron (also called a flight) notorious for being tough. Even despite this challenge, working as one of two girls in the squadron, and the massive amounts of adapting she had to do, Abby was able to turn her group into one of the loudest and most supportive flights in the program.
Abby has rather unique goals for her future. She plans to become an aerospace medical specialists especially for women. Abby wants to provide special care to the women of the Airforce and learn more about how female bodies are affected in flight.
All in all, Abby Warmuth is an incredibly resilient young women ready to face anything that comes at her with a strong attitude and smile on her face, whether that be flights dangerous enough that she was advised to go alone, difficult squadrons, schoolwork, or whatever she may face in her exciting future.