The pre-flight inspection is complete. Ground control has been contacted. He has already taxied and done a run up check on the plane’s instruments. He contacts tower and gets the okay. Senior Mark Sulimov is ready to take off.
Sulimov is an experienced flier, with his student’s pilot’s license and 130 hours of flight time under his belt, he said. On December 14th, Sulimov will do his checkride, the final step towards obtaining his private pilot’s license, which will give him more freedom than the student’s pilot’s license he currently has.
“Your private pilot’s license allows you to dictate your own personal minimums, which are essentially the rules that you set for yourself about whether to fly or not,” Sulimov said. “[With a student’s pilot’s license], my personal minimums are still set by my instructor, so I can’t change those.”
The other opportunity Sulimov gains by earning his private license is the ability to take passengers with him on flights, he said.
“[Right now], I have to be the only one in the airplane when I go flying, unless it’s my instructor with me or another private pilot,” Sulimov said.
Sulimov’s instructor and Chief Pilot at the Alameda Aero Club Liz Sommers said that Sulimov has impressed her since their first flight together.
“[Sulimov] is very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about flying, aviation, and aviation history,” Sommers said. “His flying skills and ADMS [Aeronautical Decision Making Skills] have continued to progress and develop into [those of] a safe and competent pilot.” 
Sulimov said that he has been working towards getting a private license ever since he first began to study flying by reading textbooks on its fundamentals in the early summer of 2017.
“I have two close friends who live up by Skyline,” Sulimov said. “They’re both ex-military, and we frequently go up to Travis Air Force base in Fairfield.”
Sulimov said that these trips to the Air Force base ignited his passion for flight.
“[Travis] is a transport base, which means that you have a lot of the large C5 & C3 aircrafts that do their touch and go practices there all the time,” Sulimov said. “That’s what inspired me, just watching them practice their touch and go’s. I was like, ‘Man, this would be a cool career, becoming an Airforce pilot.’”
Sulimov, although passionate about his Air Force aspirations, is motivated by pure fascination with flight, not a sense of national pride, he said.
“I’m not a very patriotic person at all,” Sulimov said. “I just wanted to become an Air Force pilot because I thought it would be really cool to fly the world’s most advanced aircraft.”
For a year and a half, Sulimov intended to make his way to the Air Force through the Air Force Academy, he said. However, Sulimov has since undergone a change in plans.
“I recently changed my mind because I found out that if you go in through the Air Force Academy, you have a ten year contract that you have to fulfill as an Air Force pilot working full time,” Sulimov said. “I want to become a reserve Air Force pilot, not full time. I want to work a full time computer science job as well.”
As a solution, Sulimov has decided to attend a University of California (UC), obtain his Bachelor’s degree and then pursue the Air Force through the officer’s training school, an alternate route to the force.
Sulimov served as a teacher’s assistant (TA) last year for computer science teacher Nathan Mattix. Mattix said that Sulimov was not only an exceptional student, but the best TA he’s ever had.
“[Sulimov] is the best graphics programmer that I have ever taught,” computer science teacher Nathan Mattix said. “The quality of his work is jaw dropping.”
The blend of these two careers seems appropriate as well, Mattix said.
“If he pursues a career in the Air Force, his computer science skills will make him more valuable,” Mattix said.
Sommers said that she is also confident in Sulimov’s ability to thrive in the Air Force as a well-rounded individual.
“I believe [Sulimov] will be successful at whatever he sets his mind to, and I wish him the best of luck in his pursuits,” Sommers said.
