Cole Smith, a senior at Orcas Christian School, recently made his first flight at the Orcas Airport without his instructor.

“It was really exciting to fly for the first time with no instructor but pretty much what my training taught me,” Smith said. “ I was able to get in some flying during OCS trips and events, things like flying down to the flight museum, in and out of Boeing Field so Orcas was a little more relaxing and felt like home to me.”

Smith completed his aviation training thru the Bellingham Aviation Flight School. Since Orcas is close and other OCS students have completed their training thru the flight school flies a plane and instructor over for consecutive lessons so trip costs are minimal.