FMA Solo 2024 – FMA Solo Program

Visiting Purdue’s AFROTC Program and Hall of Music

On March 31st, I participated in “Purdue’s for Me” campus visit event at Purdue University West Lafayette campus.

My first event on my campus visit schedule was the “ROTC Program Overview” meeting, hosted by the ROTC programs (Air Force, Navy and Army) at Purdue University. This was on the top priority list to learn more about AFROTC.

After attending a presentation about Purdue Polytechnic Institute, I walked to the Purdue Armory to meet with USAF Major Rose to get in-depth knowledge about the USAF ROTC program at Purdue University. Before the campus visit, my parent and I both emailed and made phone calls to Purdue AFROTC program to arrange this special meeting during my visit because the quality of their AFROTC program was a major factor for me to make my college decision. I had a great meeting with Major Rose for almost an hour, and I learned a lot more about the AFROTC program at Purdue.

Before heading to back to Virginia, I knew I had to make a special stop at Purdue’s Elliott Hall of Music. Last month I got an email invitation from Purdue’s Leath Scholarship program to submit an application and a video audition link to apply for the Purdue’s Orchestra program. Wish me luck!

First Meeting With My Flight Instructor

On April 1st, after driving back from my college visit with Purdue University, I met with my flight instructor Nick from Aero Elite Flight Training at Leesburg Executive Airport (Virginia). We went over the training plan and schedule booking, and then we went out to check out the airplane. I was very excited about my upcoming flight lessons with Nick.

I took my flight ground school training online with Sporty’s (that came with the scholarship) and completed the video portions, so I am now studying before I take the FAA knowledge test. Thank you for your support, Sporty’s!

Langley Symphonic Orchestra at 2025 District Assessments

To prepare for the annual district orchestra assessments, Langley High School’s Philharmonic Orchestra held a pre-assessment concert at Langley High School on March 4th, 2025. I currently lead the second violin section for the Philharmonic Orchestra.

On March 15th, I went to Herndon High School to participate in the district assessment for Langley’s Philharmonic Orchestra, and we earned the superior rating once again, helping Langley Philharmonic Orchestra retain its Blue Ribbon status for the 17th straight year. Our repertoire includes Grieg’s Holberg Suite movements 1, 3, 4, and 5, Dohnanyi’s Serenade movements 1, 2, and 5, as well as selections from Cinema Paradiso.

Update on My Flying Musicians Journey

Hello everyone! Time has flown since I first received the scholarship, and so much has happened since then. Let me reintroduce myself here and share some updates!

I’m Thomas Ye, a senior at Langley High School. I have been playing the violin since I was six and perform in my high school’s Philharmonic Orchestra. At the same time, I keep myself busy with the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force, where I have recently been focusing on drones.

After earning the Flying Musicians Association Solo Scholarship in 2024, I have been busy with the ground school study offered by Sporty’s. I have completed 80% of my ground school studies, and now with college applications out of the way, I plan to take the FAA test before spring break and start my flight training with Aeri Elite Flight Training at the Leesburg VA airport.

I continued pursuing my aviation passion in 2024 and 2025: in June, I attended the CAP National Emergency Services Academy in Indiana and earned my sUAS(drone) technician qualification; in July, I led a joint team of Boy Scouts and CAP cadets and competed at the AMA UAS4STEM(drone engineering) international competition and achieved the national second place award at 2024 EAA Airventure; I also met with Mr. Zapp, the president of the Flying Musicians Association, at the EAA AirVenture show at Oshkosh, WI.

November marked a big milestone as I passed my FAA Remote Pilot Part 107 test and earned the commercial qualification to fly drones in the US. I continued this momentum in December — after interviewing with the office of Congressman Gerry Connolly, I received his nomination to the US Air Force Academy. I also attended the 2024 winter CAP Lone Star(Texas) South Emergency Services Academy and logged more flight hours for my CAP sUAS(drone) mission pilot qualification; on January 29th, 2025, I represented CAP cadets to visit the Virginia State House again to advocate the CAP core missions to Virginia lawmakers – aerospace education, emergency services, and cadet education.

I continued participating in my high school Philharmonic Orchestra and was honored with the National Tri-M Music Honor Society in 2024. Earlier this year, I was selected for the District Honor Orchestra for my violin performance, and last month, I performed in my local Chinese New Year celebration recital at Reston Community Center.

In 2025, I plan to finish my ground school and solo flight training before heading to college. I also plan to present a UAS4STEM(drone engineering) seminar at the 2025 March CAP Virginia Wing conference in Williamsburg, VA. I plan to compete again at the 2025 Falls Church Music Festival with my violin solo performance. With college applications and other commitments behind me, I’m super excited to start flying as soon as possible!

Thank You Sponsors!!

I just wanted to make a post saying Thank You to all the sponsors who allowed me to accomplish one small step of my long journey!! I can’t thank everyone who has supported me in the association and on this website with all of the encouraging posts!! I am happy that I can keep my greatest supporters from all over the United States updated on the progress that I am making.

My last lesson and today’s my CFI and I worked on performance takeoffs and landings, which are kinda tricky. Today felt a lot better though because I felt more smooth with the procedures and I am getting an even better “eye” for my landings.

Once again Thank You Sponsors!! You made my dreams possible!

And peep the new sunglasses from Flying Eyes!!

Solo!!

I finally soloed!!

It felt so amazing and so weird at the same time! Not having my CFI next to me gave me a sense of independence in the aircraft and gave me a huge boost of adrenaline when flying. It went great, although I thought I could’ve done better on my landings, 3 in total, but I’ve heard that if you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing.

I hope that this chapter is the first of many and I can’t wait to share my future accomplishments.

TO and LND

I don’t have good pictures because I forget when I’m focusing on the lesson, so I usually get one before my preflight.

My CFI and I have been working on my takeoffs and landings so that I can solo. I’ve done two lessons working on them and so far, my approaches have been significantly improving but I am still perfecting the final flare when I am about to touchdown. This aspect has been a little bit of a struggle, mostly because I believe I am focusing on the runway right ahead of me instead of looking down the runway as most people encourage to look there instead. I do have better touchdowns when I remember to look down the runway, but I will just have to keep working at it and develop an “eye” for my touchdowns.

Flying!!

I’ve been kinda slacking on posting my flights that I have been doing but I’ll get you all brought up to date on them.

I’m still trying to perfect my landings to be able to solo but my CFI and I went to KGRI (Class D Airspace) and I worked on my communications with a tower.

Then later in the week, we scheduled the same flight again, but instead of my CFI doing the planning and helping me determine the cruising altitude and runway to use I did all of that and it was pretty amazing being able to make a plan then execute it exactly like it was made up.

I’m hopefully going to solo pretty soon so I’ll keep you guys updated on that!!

Hangar Jam

On the 29th of June, I held my very first Hangar Jam! I’ve been busy flying and working so I couldn’t get this posted sooner. It was awesome to play in front of a crowd and spread the light of aviation and music. I’ve been getting a few more hours in the seat and am starting to become more fluent with the controls and getting more proficient in maneuvers.

Flying Lesson!!

On Saturday I was given the opportunity to fly in my first Skyhawk 152. He is a member of the AAA (Antique Airplane Association) and wanted to take me up and fly me to my flight lesson. It was my first flight lesson with my new instructor. It was kind of a hard cross wind but it was a good time. It was great to get back in the seat and get some hours!