SIA occasionally reaches out to people in the aviation industry and talks with them about their career journey. Ashley is one of those people! We recently talked with her about her journey so far.
Ashley Campbell
What is your present career in aviation?
I’m the Assistant Chief Certified Flight Instructor at the Baraboo location for Spring City Aviation. So basically, I’m the Chief of this location. I have one other flight instructor who works with me, but he’s part time, so I’m the only full time flight instructor. And then I have my Certified Flight Instructor Instrument license, so I can teach Instrument to students as well.
What inspired you to become a flight instructor?
Just being a pilot in general has always been a dream of mine ever since I was really young. And I think my inspiration really came from going to air shows and watching the Blue Angels. So ever since I could talk, I was telling my parents that I wanted to be a pilot or racecar driver. My mom told me I couldn’t be a racecar driver, so here I am. It didn’t really make sense that I could be a pilot or flight instructor until I was a sophomore in high school.
What’s your greatest achievement in aviation?
I think just overcoming the hurdles of flight training and everything that came my way, especially since I started when I was fourteen. And there were a lot of people who – they said that they believed me but I don’t think that they actually thought that I’d become a pilot until I proved them wrong and got my license at eighteen. I think that was the biggest thing, just overcoming other people’s thoughts about me. Like, there were many opportunities for me to just stop doing it and give up and go an easier route and get an office job or something like that. But all I really wanted to do was fly.
Do you have other goals you wish to achieve in aviation?
My main goal is to become a corporate pilot, maybe a charter pilot, but definitely a corporate pilot. Staying here in Baraboo or at least staying in Wisconsin would be good. And I love teaching and it’s a great opportunity to get your hours, because you need enough hours to get a jet job. It’s a really good opportunity because I want to share the opportunity that I had at such a young age. I can see myself in [the students] and I remember being in their shoes. So not only is it a good time-building job, it’s also just a good job in general.
What can you tell young aviators that may help them with a career in aviation?
Definitely go to your local airport and start making connections. All of us out here are super great people and they would love to talk to people that are interested. It’s just so cool to see the young [opel in it. Just don’t give up no matter how hard it gets. You always find a way around it. There are so many opportunities in aviation in general, it’s not just being a pilot. So if something doesn’t work out with being a pilot, you can still be in the aviation industry. And mainly just being grateful for what you have while also looking into the future, being humble while also having goals, like a balance between those is always good.
What is your favorite part of your day?
It’s kind of changed recently. When I was going through training, flying by myself was really cool, but I like flying with people more. And just sharing the love for aviation we have, that passion, and being with people who are like me, who want the same things as me is super cool to see.
What is one thing that you would want to say to people looking into aviation as a possible career?
This is such a male-dominated industry and seeing more and more young girls get into it is so cool, because not only was I the only one in my school that wanted to do flight training, but I was a girl. So I think being the only one in flight training in my school but also a girl inspired others, and I hope I’m inspiring people. I hope more girls get into it and we change the percentage of pilots who are girls. I’ve seen it in the past few years that there is a lot of women in aviation and it’s growing and growing. So if you’re in the minorities in aviation, if you want to be a pilot, you can. You can get over the hurdles.
