Sullivan Vande Voort of Pella celebrated his 16th birthday in a big way—by soloing 13 different airplanes in one morning. A student at Pella Christian High School and third-generation pilot, Sullivan took off from the Pella and Oskaloosa Municipal Airports in a variety of aircraft ranging from vintage taildraggers to modern tricycle gear planes.
He’s no stranger to the skies. Having logged over 200 hours of flight training across 24 airplane types before his solo flights, Sullivan has been around aviation his entire life. His family owns Classic Aviation Inc., a flight school and aviation services company.
The birthday flight lineup included classics like the Piper Cub, Cessna Skyhawk, and Cirrus SR22. He flew more than four hours total before noon, then headed straight to work at the airport.
Sullivan plans to earn his private pilot certificate and instrument rating at 17. Until then, he’ll be flying solo around the Midwest.
