Balancing school, sports, and a precarious and complicated social scene can push any high schooler to the limit. However, being alone 10,000 feet above the Earth can put everything in perspective, as Hopkinsville High School senior Jacob Bealle can attest.
After first taking control of an airplane with an instructor at 15 years old, on the day of his 16th birthday, while still not allowed to operate a car on his own, Jacob received a ride from his mom to the airport for his first solo flight.
The confidence to take to the sky at such a young age has also served Jacob well on the football field and in the classroom. As a senior, he was fifth on the team in tackles with 53, including four for loss with a sack and a fumble recovery. The Tigers finished 6-6 in 2022 and knocked off Franklin-Simpson in the opening round of the playoffs before seeing their season come to an end with a loss at Logan County.
Jacob’s academic performance is even more impressive, putting him on track to earn an associate degree in science from Hopkinsville Community College by the time he graduates from high school. He plans to go pre-med and major in biology and will only have two years of school left before attending medical school. Jacob wants to pursue a future as a plastic, ortho, or neurosurgeon, but he also won’t rule out turning his love of aviation into a career path.
That affinity for flight began as many things do today, on a phone. In middle school, Jacob began playing an iPhone aviation game, which led to him asking for a flight simulator for Christmas a couple of years later. With a yoke and throttle, the simulator left Jacob itching to climb into a cockpit for real, and with some hesitation, his parents consented to flight lessons.
Things accelerated quickly from there, and a year after that first solo flight, Jacob took his Private pilot check-ride. He holds a Private pilot’s license with a complex and high-performance rating and is pursuing an Instrument rating essential to flying in nasty weather.
Jacob draws a comparison between football and taking control of an airplane, saying, “the same adrenaline rush you get in the locker room before taking the field is the same you get when lining the plane up on the runway for takeoff or coming in on a rough crosswind landing.”
His most memorable flight so far was a trip with some family from Hopkinsville to New Orleans to go fishing. His nights under the lights of big Friday football games were undoubtedly valuable in dealing with the stress of flying into New Orleans’ class bravo airport.
Many promising young people are told “the sky is the limit” as they embark on their lives after high school, but that is rarely more appropriate than in the case of Hopkinsville’s Jacob Bealle.
