Author: Nathan Nothelle

"I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson My name is Nathan Nothelle and I’m a 17 year old senior from Imlay City Michigan. My passion in music goes way back to the four stringed guitar I found in my barn when I was five, and has only escalated since I learned to play when I was 10. My real musical career began in 2010 when I picked up a trumpet for our beginning elementary band. I played trumpet all the way through middle school and learned the real meaning between passion and determination. Going into high school, I auditioned for our top band and began my real study. I was placed lead and section leader in my marching band and concert band my sophomore year. Since then I’ve taken great pride in tutoring students of all ages in all of the brass instruments I’ve learned including trumpet, horn, euphonium, trombone, and tuba. Some of my favorite experiences over the past four years have been playing in 14 various college honors bands, playing for my high schools concert band and wind ensemble, playing for many jazz ensembles, community bands, and so many more that I could go on forever. This year I’ve completed 51 performances so far! My passion in aviation dates back to when I took a flight down to florida when I was 9 and I was stunned by the absolute beauty of being up in the sky. Since that moment, all I ever want to do (besides play horn) is be in the air. My goal in aviation is to fly search and rescue missions with the United States Coast Guard. To reach my career goals, I am currently working on receiving my private pilot license from Flight 101 at KPTK to gain knowledge and accelerate my career. Before I apply to become an officer, I plan to complete a bachelor's degree in Aviation Maintenance Technology from Western Michigan University. While attending school, I’ll devote as much time as I have available to the USCG Aux Air as I’ve recently joined as an observer. Currently, my line of work before I ship off to school includes my day job as a custom fabricator for a local diesel and body shop, my night job as an equipment maintainer for a farm, and my many students that I continue to try and inspire with music as it's inspired me. Happy flying!

Solo!

My first solo was absolutely breathtaking. Me and Joe flew to the Lapeer airport to do some pattern work and to my surprise, he jumped out of the plane after the first landing and said “Give me three goes around the pattern.” I will admit, that was a little scary when he took me by surprise, but after that I was very comfortable. It’s super peaceful being up there by yourself and just enjoying the sky. I had a smooth hot day with no traffic and light wind. This made for some smooth flight and some smooth landings.

Now its time for me to start doing some more studying and get ready to do that solo cross country. Thank you FMA for getting me to solo! I will forever be thankful for all of the help and resources you guys have offered me. It’s so wonderful to be a part of this community.

Latest Progress

Hi all!

I wanted to give a huge thank you out to FMA and all of our wonderful sponsors! I love the recent package I received and I have already handed out most of my flyers to people here at WMU and have talked to numerous more about joining the association. More information to come on our soon to be members and our plans!

I’m having an absolutely stellar time during the week here at Western and it just continues to get better all the time. My A&P program here has been going great for me and I’m happy to say I’m doing what I’ve found I really love to do. With every chance I get, I’m trying to extend myself into our rapidly growing aviation network at the university with all of the programs, activities, and associations they offer. I’ve also been continuing to play trumpet here at our weekly basketball games in the pep band and let me tell you, there’s really no comparison. Beyond that I’m looking at concert bands here on campus that I’ll be able to schedule in the very near future.

Recently, I’ve been able to get up in the air a little bit but am very limited by the weather. Me and my instructor Joe have been taking the weekends to go over more ground stuff through these winter months. As I’m getting a few spots to go up this month, it seems that solo will be within a couple of flight hours or right up next. I’m pretty comfortable in that left seat up there!

Thank you FMA!

 

 

Updates

Hi all!

I recently had a short break to visit my family in Germany earlier this month, it was an amazing trip. Now I’ve been squeezing in great opportunities to get in the air with all of Michigan’s crazy weather. The fall colors sure do look good from the sky! Lately I’ve been working with my flight instructor Joe on moving around different airports throughout my area in Michigan and I’ve figured out how much I really enjoy flying at night.

Life here as a Bronco has been very exciting lately. I’m absolutely in love with my maintenance program, working on planes has proven to be very fun for me! I recently joined WMU’s version of the ASRS to really help put myself into the safety part of aviation for pilots and mechanics alike. Marching band here has also been amazing. Our football team has been doing well, and we’ve been learning new halftime shows in as little time as a week! Overall, we’ve been working very hard in our music and putting out great shows. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Safe skies!

Post Storm Flight

I had a great flight last night with my flight instructor Joe. The weather has held me up long enough so we decided to wait out the storm until the clouds broke. We took the opportunity to get into some post storm air. Yesterday we revisited power on and off stalls, we practiced an emergency landing, and I’m finally more comfortable making my own calls now that I’m used to PTK’s busy ATC. On my flight, we visited Livingston County Airport (OZW) as well as Prices Airport (9G2) for some pattern work. I definitely appreciate doing pattern work at the calm uncontrolled airports.

We believe solo will be very soon in the future, stay tuned!

First week as a Bronco

This Month has been a month of preparing. Preparing to leave, to move in, and to start a new four years of my life that will make perhaps the largest impact of any years. This week it has been an intense week of preparing to march. Band camp at Western Michigan has been one of the best experiences for me. I’m happy to have made many new friends from the band side and the aviation side of Western, a lot of which are new Flying Musicians! All of our musicians, flying or not, are a group of incredibly hard working people that I’m proud to be a part of. Get ready for a stunning halftime show!

Rainy skies sure love the weekend here, lets hope the weather gives me a break this weekend to keep working on solo!

Safe Skies and Go Broncos!

Band Camp

Even though I’m graduated, I still got the chance last week to come help my section out at band camp. They worked very hard on their “Legends of Rock” halftime show throughout the week. The marching is great and the music is stellar! I really do miss playing with my high school. However, in a couple weeks you’ll be able to catch me marching with the Broncos!

Missed these guys!

Flight!

Finally, now that the weather has cleared and I have a path into a plane, I was able to get myself in the air. The weather was gorgeous, the air was super smooth, and the backdrop of the sunset was absolutely incredible.

My instructor got me up practicing slow flight and steep turns today, as well as three goes at the pattern. A few tricks with the trim showed me how easy it can be to hold a steady steep turn, I sure am thankful for that tab. Takeoffs and landings keep me very busy, especially when he gave me a shot at a short final on my last pattern. There’s certainly things I need to practice on takeoffs and landings, and things I need need to study more such as my V-speeds. Overall I’m very pleased with what I got accomplished in a short amount of time!

Thanks for following, next flight up is soon!

FMA Swag

Earlier this week I was able to meet up with flying musician Josh Homet to chat and get my swag, and let me say, I’m absolutely blown away! I’d like to give a huge shout-out to Bose, Gleim, Sporty’s, Avemco, Pacific Coast Jazz, Trade-A-Plane, and FMA for all the awesome stuff. This is absolutely already an amazing journey.

Thank you to the whole FMA for watching and supporting as I get going in my career!

Graduation!

Today was the day!

I’m happy to say that today, all of my work over the past years has paid off and I finally received my diploma! It has been an absolutely crazy busy month for me to finish off my senior year, but it was all well worth it. Now that I’m moving into summer, it’s finally time to get back into the air after hitting the books all winter and I cannot wait!

Thank you again FMA for standing behind me and helping to make my dreams come true. It means the world to me!