Flight Time: Jamie Patterson-Simes

Running a flight school is hard work. Doing it in Alaska is even harder. Doing it as a woman in Alaska? That’s practically unheard of. But Jamie Patterson-Simes isn’t just running a school in Alaska, she’s crushing it. Patterson-Simes is the owner of SkyTrek Alaska, AOPA’s Best Flight School of 2017. AOPA Hangar Talk co-host David Tulis sat down with Patterson-Simes to discuss what it’s like to run a school, working at Wal-Mart to support herself when she first started instructing, and the challenges of being a woman running a business in a man’s world. This conversation is part of the Flight Time series from Hangar Talk, where we revisit some of the most popular interviews for the Flight Training audience.