Seeing double

When most pilots hear “twins,” they can be forgiven for thinking of airplanes with two engines. But in this case, the twins are pilots: 17-year-old identical twins Sophia and Scarlette McIntyre, students at Albuquerque Aviation Academy, the public 6th-12th grade charter school formerly known as SAMS Academy.

The twins took their private pilot checkrides before high school graduation in 2024 and are now charting a formation flight into professional flying.

The birth of a flying family

Sophia and Scarlette’s mother, Yukie McIntyre, is a 13-year veteran flight attendant with Delta Airlines and initially the twins considered following in her footsteps. That changed when the family moved to New Mexico in 2020.

In researching schools, the twins discovered the academy. Not being “a huge fan of losing opportunities,” according to Sophia, the twins immediately signed up, joining the school in the 10th grade.

And what an opportunity they got. For students who can simultaneously focus on the twin loads of high school studies and flight school studies, the reward is a pair of certificates: A high school diploma and — at no cost to the student – a private pilot certificate.

Steel and Lotus

Albuquerque Academy Aeronautics Director Dr. Lauren “Doc” Chavez long ago co-opted the military tradition of giving call signs to aviators, bestowing call signs to all her student pilots early in their flight training.

Scarlette, the younger (by 12 minutes) of the twins, impressed Chavez with her strength of character, so Chavez selected “Lotus” for her call sign, in a nod to her strength of personality.

“I read that the lotus flower — while beautiful and elegant — is also the source of a form of silk that’s regarded as the most rare and precious type, yet incredibly strong. That’s Scarlette,” Chavez said.

Meanwhile, older twin Sophia was given the call sign “Steel” in a nod to Southwest Captain Tammie Jo Shult’s book “Nerves of Steel,” but unlike what you might expect, it wasn’t for showing some incredible act of courage on Sophia’s part. Instead, it was for sleeping on the job. Sort of.

Chavez is a proponent of what she calls “maximizing butts in seats,” filling all the seats — when weight and balance permit — on every flight of the school’s Cessna 172. Her theory is that even from the back, as an observer, there is an opportunity to learn.

On one particularly turbulent flight, with Lotus at the controls and Chavez sitting right seat, Chavez began worrying about how the back-seat observer was weathering the storm. But when Chavez turned around to check on the older twin, she found that Sophia was fast asleep, oblivious to the bouncing, lurching movements of the airplane.

“This girl has nerves of steel,” Chavez recalls thinking.

Study buddies

The twins, who have no other siblings, study together and share ideas on flying.

Chavez notes the twins are “very into” systems, and both twins report a life-long fascination with machinery. Lotus or maybe it was Steel — I honestly couldn’t tell them apart — told me, “we talked to our dad for about six hours about carburetors!”

But their dual energy really got fired up once they were in the air.

Lotus, valedictorian of her graduating class, says that she had a hard time with ground school at first, at least until she started flight training. The 17-year-old’s message to other flight students is that the ground won’t start “cooking for you until you start to fly.”

Lotus was actually bitten by the flying bug before her elder twin, ending up with 72 hours of flight training time before her checkride, a number typical for students at the academy. She said that she suffered what she called “maneuver plateaus” that frustrated her but that, in time, it all came together.

Steel, although starting later, quickly picked up the flying and was checkride ready at 39.6 hours, and Chavez had to get her over the minimum 40-hour hump for her flight test.

Although looking virtually identical, Lotus and Steel freely admit that they have very different personalities and, like many siblings, don’t always get along — on the ground. But Lotus says that when they fly, “trouble is left on the ground.”

Academy flight instructor Jacob “Stryker” Chmielenko, a 2020 graduate of the high school who has returned to teach the next generation, says the twins “are two of the brightest and best team players I can think of. They do a fantastic job either with each other flying or while being instructed.”

Because I know you’ll ask, Chavez gave Stryker his call sign when he returned to the academy in the fall of 2023 as an instructor, as he originally graduated pre-Chavez, and didn’t have a school call sign. Chavez chose the call sign because one time, when practicing short field takeoffs, he over-pulled and struck the tail tie-down ring.

Chavez says she doesn’t normally “give call signs based on anything negative, but Stryker liked it because he said the students could learn from his mistakes. He’s a humble guy who is always happy to share his mistakes with students with the hopes it’ll hit home with students more than the experience of unknown people.”

She spelled Stryker with a “y” instead of an “i” because she felt it looked cooler.

Back-To-Back Checkrides

When it was time for checkrides, Steel let her younger sister go first. Partly it was because Lotus started flying first, but also Steel says that “if I had gone first, I would have been too worried about my sister to perform my best.”

There was no need to worry. They both passed with — pardon the pun — flying colors, adding pilot certificates to their driver’s licenses and boating licenses.

On the flight home from their twin checkrides, Chavez — a self-confessed control freak — surrendered the right seat and was in the back of the airplane as the weather began to deteriorate. She said she could not have been prouder of her newly minted pilots as they functioned like a professional flight crew, evaluating options, and ultimately setting up for a diversion, even though family members were waiting to celebrate the twin’s achievements back at home base. That said, the weather gods smiled on the new pilots and the route cleared, allowing a direct-to celebration flight.

Next Step For The Twins

Joining a growing trend among young career-bound pilots, the twins have decided to forgo college — at least for now — and are pursuing the fastest route to the flight deck.

There were several factors involved in the decision: They’ve learned that, with the current pilot shortage, a degree is no longer required by the major airlines and that a degree doesn’t confer the hiring benefit that it traditionally did.

Money played a part as well. The twins are frugal in nature and say skipping college “saves debt.”

The sisters have been accepted to Lift Academy’s Myrtle Beach location, a Part 141 school, where they will start on their commercial pilot, instrument, and instructor ratings in November 2024.

Why the wait? They are still too young. They can’t start until after their 18th birthday(s) in October.

In the meantime, they’re hitting the books, metaphorically, using Sheppard Air software to begin preparing for their instrument written exams.

Have Tickets, But Not Flying

One problem that’s vexed Doc Chavez for many years — and has affected the twins as well — has to do with the flight that follows her student’s checkrides.

Due to operational costs and flight time availability, school policy dictates that once academy students have their certificates, they no longer have access to the school’s airplane. That takes students from free flight to $195-per-hour-flight (the local FBO wet rate) with one stroke of a DPE’s pen.

For many of the academy’s newly-minted pilots, as the school’s mission profile includes assisting economically disadvantaged students, that effectively puts their new passion on hold.

The twins took their checkrides on Jan. 23, 2024, and haven’t flown since. They graduated May 10 and, in the past, would have remained grounded until they reported to flight school in the late fall.

But this is changing.

Worried about skill deterioration in her new aviators who have worked so hard to get their certificates, Chavez dug into her own pockets for a solution. She’s purchased two airplanes and is creating a non-profit flight club for her graduates — one that will allow them to build time and keep their hard-won skills sharp for the next phase in their aviation journeys. The cost to students will be fuel only.

Chavez, who has recently added Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) credentials to her portfolio of FAA certifications, is hoping to cover insurance, hangar, maintenance, and repairs with the money she’ll make giving outside checkrides.

Flying Dreams

What do the twins most like about flying?

“Everything,” says Steel. “It’s one of the best feelings in the world.”

Lotus, for her part, says she finds flight “peaceful and extraordinary fun.”

Steel keeps a list of personal goals on her phone, and one of those is for her and her sister to crew a Delta jet to their mother’s birth country of Japan as a family affair — with the twins running the flight deck, and their mother running the cabin.

“Scarlette and Sophia are not typical teenagers,” their mother notes. “Not only do they know what they want for their future, but at just 17 years old, they have already taken a big step by obtaining their private pilot certificates with the help of Dr. Lauren Chavez and CFI Jacob ‘Stryker’ Chmielenko. As a mother who’s a flight attendant, I always feel that I am not there enough for them, but they have become the smart, focused young ladies that all mothers dream of. I can’t wait for the day when they are the pilots on my flight!”

Lotus says just to make that flight complete, they want Doc Chavez and Stryker in the back as passengers.

I’d be willing to bet that Chavez — the self-confessed front-seat control freak — will sit back and enjoy that ride.

Maybe she’ll even fall asleep.

For more information: SAMSAcademy.com