Taking off at Van Nuys Airport in California, I felt gravity release its hold as my body lifted with the single-engine Piper Warrior airplane. I sat behind the controls, but I wasn’t flying. Instead, Capt. Gema Goeyardi, founder and CEO, 14DayPilot Flight Academy, flew me over Hollywood, Santa Monica and Malibu as I looked around, wide-eyed and giddy, wishing I knew how.

Growing up, I dreamed of becoming a pilot. Although I didn’t follow that dream, United Airlines’ Capt. Ryan Tatnell did. “It was this passion I’ve had since I was a kid,” said Tatnell. His mother stoked that fire with a sightseeing flight around the Catskills when he was 10. “We flew around the mountains. That was very cool.” Although he couldn’t qualify for a pilot’s license until age 17, his mom bought a flight simulator to attach to his computer. He learned about the instruments, air traffic control systems and airport locations. However, he didn’t take his first flight lesson until he was 20 and already in college. “I was good at it, and it came easy.”

He realized this was what he wanted to do as a career, but because he was juggling full-time work and school, it took nine months to get his private pilot license. “There are definitely faster ways to do it,” he admitted.

© Ryan Tatnell

“We are here for the busy professional,” Goeyardi told me after our flight. “People come here; they don’t have time, but they have money.” So in three weeks, they can get their license and buy a plane.

The FAA requires students to have 40 hours of flight experience for a Private Pilot license. Goeyardi said with their accelerated program, a student can fly four or five hours a day for 14 days, easily meeting the requirement. “We have a 95 percent success rate.”

This license limits pilots to Visual Flight, defined as flying outside of clouds. For pilots to fly inside clouds, they need to receive their Instrument Rating, which takes an additional 10 days through Goeyardi’s program but can take two to four months traditionally.

Finally, a flyer must earn 250 hours of flight time to receive a Commercial Pilot license. Tatnell did it by joining a flying club, which costs less than buying or renting a plane. Once he had that, he, like Goeyardi and many others, became a flight instructor to earn the 1,500 hours to qualify as a regional airline pilot, eventually ascending to the rank of captain.

Hawra Tustari, one of Goeyardi’s successful 95 percent, wrote in an email, “Never stop chasing your dreams. If you feel like the world is going against you, just remember that an airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”