15-Year-Old Mossyrock Boy Works Toward Pilot's License

Timothy Bowes took his first flight when he was 10 years old and has been hooked on aviation ever since.

Now, 15, the Mossyrock resident is working toward his goal of obtaining his pilot’s license.

Bowes said he played with toy airplanes as a young child and has always been fascinated by flight. His first flight was in Quarter Lane, Idaho where him and his family booked a flight as a vacation excursion and a way to see the area. For Bowes it lit a spark in him, and aviation became his passion.

“I have been interested in aviation for as long as I can remember,” said Bowes last week at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport, where he hopes to start taking lessons to obtain his pilot’s license.

The local Young Eagles chapter, based at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport, was a big part of what furthered his interest in aviation. Brandon Rakes, chapter president of the local Young Eagles chapter took Bowes on a flight on this 13th birthday, which he said was an amazing experience.

Bowes is homeschooled which allows him to dedicate more time toward his passion in aviation and he spends about 45 minutes a day working on ground school lessons or learning more about the steps to take to reach his goal.

“It’s one of the blessings with homeschooling is that you can, even early on, find out the passions and interests of your kid and resource those. There’s much more flexibility,” said Ted, Bowes’ father.

Bowes has an interest in becoming a missionary pilot, which are pilots that fly to remote towns or villages, often in third world countries, to deliver food, medicine or other goods that they may need, but he said that he will follow the path the Lord lays out for him.

“Really I’m just leaving it up to the Lord right now. I’m just going to try to get my license and see where it goes from there,” said Bowes.

Bowes attended the Mission Aviation Training Academy (MATA) for a 5-day camp with 13 other campers. He said he learned a lot through experience during the course of the camp and enjoyed being around like-minded individuals who shared the same passion as him.

“They gave each of us about four hours of flight time in the cockpit with the controls. Pretty much everything but landing we got to do. It was amazing,” said Bowes.

The MATA camp also gave the campers 12 hours of ground school which Bowes is no stranger to after completing Sporty’s ground school online, provided by the Young Eagles program, which covers about 2 to 3 months worth of lessons.

Bowes explained his long-term plan and the steps he would like to take next.

“Once I get my private pilot’s license which I can get at 17, I’ll be aiming for my instrument rating and go on to get a commercial license which just allows you to fly for hire, so you can make money doing it. So then from there I will probably go for my instructor rating so I can teach other people to fly which will be very fun,” said Bowes.

Bowes recommends any young person that has any interest in aviation take a Young Eagles flight because in his experience that will get them hooked. He also said that by signing up for the Young Eagles the ground school lessons are given to the young person for free and they normally would cost about $150.

The Chronicle asked Bowes’ father, Ted, what he thought about his son’s passion for aviation.

“I’m thrilled. It’s been really neat to see him go after this. He’s been very intentional about it, taking a lot of initiative and I think that if you’re able to pursue your passion at a young age it’s a pretty neat thing,” he said.

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