Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? No, it’s a plane, with Stockbridge’s own Deanna McAlister at the controls. McAlister and her husband Don McAlister own and operate Stockbridge Auto Care on Elizabeth Street by day, but this business woman takes to the skies every chance she gets at Mason Jewett Airport in Mason, Michigan.

The McAlisters own a fully restored Cessna 172. Deanna is not only a pilot, but a certified flight instructor as well. Her fascination for flight began at an early age.

“Probably at six or seven, I was playing in the sandbox. I remember noticing a Rutan type plane, which is the Canard. It looks like it’s going backwards, and I thought ‘Wow,’” McAlister said.

When McAlister’s parents found out about her passion for aviation, they thought it was “just a little phase,” according to McAlister.

“I didn’t know I wanted to be an instructor, but I knew I wanted to fly when I was 14 or 15.  My dad and I stopped at an airport, and I went on a discovery flight and he thought, ‘There, she went for an airplane ride.’”

Flying was the young aviator’s and her dad’s little secret. At age 17, she got her pilot’s license. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) set the age 17 to be the earliest age one can get a pilot’s license.

“You first get your private’s license, then you get an instruments rating, then a commercial license, and then from that you can get an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) or Flight Instructor Certificate which helps you get the ATP by building time,” McAlister explained. A pilot cannot fly big aircrafts with passengers unless they have ATP.

“Just getting off the Earth with the freedom and the beauty,” are only a few reasons why McAlister loves aviation.

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Chloe Miner