AQHA Youth exhibitor, Theresa Moran of Laguna Hills, California may be best known in the industry as the owner of Vital Signs Are Good and Show Diva, but she is also literally flying high after completing her first solo flight in a Cessna 172 SP.
It’s all in the genes. Her father, Joe Moran, is a aerospace engineer and a pilot, so airplanes have always been a prominent aspect of their lives. At the end of last summer, Theresa and her father decided that it would be a great opportunity for her to start working toward getting her pilot’s license.
“My dad told me that flying a plane was easier than riding a horse,
which proved to be a sick joke upon the completion of my first lesson,” Theresa said. “Luckily for me, a lot of our family friends are pilots that are just as excited as I am for getting my license. They have always been there for me if I had any questions, needed a Chuck Norris motivational line, or a pep talk.”
GoHorseShow asked Theresa, who celebrated her 19th birthday on May 8, if she was nervous about her first solo flight. “Of course, I had some butterflies when I first went out and did some landings with my instructor to make sure my timing was good, she recalls. “I mean I was flying a plane by myself so death is an option. Yet once he got out, told me I would be perfect and turned me loose, the nerves went away, and I was surprisingly calm. Since it was only my first solo I was required to complete three takeoffs and three landings, but ended up doing four. Since I was just doing standard takeoffs and landings, I remained in the pattern around Orange County Airport.”
According to Moran, the FAA requires a minimum of 40 hours of flight time to get your license, but the program she is in requires 65 hours. She will have to complete five official solo flights- the one that she first completed, two more hour long solos in the pattern, a short cross country to another airport and lastly her long cross country, where she will have to fly to two different airports before returning to Orange County. There are three written tests and also oral tests along with four stage checks where she is required to fly with the head instructor before continuing on with her training and lastly going for her FAA Check ride.
Moran also plans on getting instrument rated–which means she is allowed to fly in “instrument meteorological conditions” such as inside clouds. “My instructor always tells me that flying is half aviating and half being a nerd, so I’m just going to throw out there that I love flying through clouds which I cannot do unless I am instrument rated,” she explains.”It’s always been a joke in my family that I was getting my license to go fly through any clouds I could find for a few hours and then come home.” (pictured left is Theresa with her flight instructor)
Theresa says that she is basically at the half way point to getting her license. This week she will have to complete two more solos where she will fly by herself for over an hour each time. Once she starts doing her cross country flights, she will be able to accumulate more hours and plans to start flying five days a week instead of three.
GoHorseShow also asked her if she plans to fly her plane to any of the horse shows. “At the rate that my little Cessna flies, I’ll see everyone in November,” Moran says and laughs. “Kidding aside, once I do get my hands on the Bonanza (her family’s plane), I would be able to fly to shows in Arizona such as the Sun Circuit, and also be able to fly to Scottsdale to ride with my reining trainer. As for the Texas shows, I’ll stick to flying the jets!”
