One of A-B Tech alum Andrew Leih’s earliest memories helped to ignite the 23-year-old’s passion for flying. When he was in fourth grade and living in Dallas, Texas, his dad, an airline pilot, surprised him at school one day by picking him up and taking him along on a flight to St. Louis. He wanted to show his young son what it was like to ride in the cockpit and to visit the BBQ joint next to the airport for a delicious lunch. The two adventurers were back home in time for dinner.
“I thought to myself after that, ‘I could do this for a job; my dad gets paid to do this; are you kidding me?” Leih smiles. “I thought, ‘Sign me up. I want to fly and go get BBQ!”
Leih’s dad Mark, fed his young son’s interest in machines by encouraging him to take gliding lessons when the family lived in Dallas. By the time he was 14, Leigh had learned to operate gliders -engineless planes that rely on air currents and other factors to stay airborne. It was love at first flight. Leih obtained his private pilot’s glider license before he had a driver’s license.
Leih’s dad also encouraged his son from a young age to start on the right footing. “He told me to get an airline job as soon as you can and put in time with the same company,” Leih said.
Leih’s father knew from experience: After 9/11, he lost his job when the U.S. economy took a nosedive. He’d started his own business operating vending machines, but decided to return to flying years later at a different airline, taking a pay cut to pursue his passion once again. Now a captain for American Airlines, the elder Leih lives nearby in Hendersonville, where the family relocated from Texas several years ago. (Flying planes is in the family bloodline, as Leih’s grandfather was also a pilot.)
While in A-B Tech’s program, Leih thrived in the college’s close-knit community and quickly caught the eye of Aviation chair Timothy Anderson. Anderson recalls noticing the soft-spoken man’s confidence and strong communication skills. “One day, I had trouble explaining something to a student, and Leih jumped in and was able to explain it to him.” At that moment, Anderson recognized Leih’s potential to teach as a flight instructor, which the student did for nearly a year after graduating in 2021.
After graduating, Leih was offered a job flying as a first officer at PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines. Airlines were in great need of pilots at the time, so he was offered a captain’s higher wages to do a first officer work. A captain, Leih points out, is the most senior position a pilot can hold. Captains make all major decisions on a flight from start to finish. In the cockpit, the captain and first officer work together, one flying the plane, the other working the manual controls.
Leih enjoys being a first officer because he gets to choose his schedule and have weekends off. Captains, he points out, have more responsibility and generally earn more pay. Within the next year, Leih will be eligible for captain status and a promotion. For now, though, he’s enjoying the flexibility of being a first officer. There are other perks as well. During his four-day work week, Leih flies out of Charlotte and lands in one of many different cities, everywhere from the Bahamas to Texas to Toronto. “It’s not monotonous; that’s the part I love,” He says.
Not one to sit in an office, Leih also loves the bird’s eye view of sunsets and storm clouds.
Leih enjoys walking, or flying, in his father’s footsteps. These days, he is flying the very same American Eagle planes his father flew more than a decade ago, when he worked for the same airline. “I am touching the exact same controls as he did,” he muses.
One day, Leih hopes to join his father at American Airlines as a captain. The two once flew a small private plane together on an 11+ hour flight from Asheville to catch an airshow in Lakeland, Florida. They took turns flying the plane and operating the radios. In the future, Leih would like to team up again, this time as professionals steering a commercial jet to its destination.
“My father helped me make the right decisions,” Leih reflects. “He solidified my plans and was my mentor … we’ve made a lot of memories flying together.”
Learn more about A-B Tech’s Aviation program at Aviation Management and Career Pilot Technology.
