When Olivia Schwallier was nine years old, she would hop into the cockpit of the Global 6000 jet that her father piloted and stare in awe at the wall of lights and buttons in front of her.

A 27-year corporate pilot for NetJets, Schwallier’s father, Bill, would start the engine and run through his operating procedures. Young and impressionable, these bright and colorful memories were stamped in Schwallier’s mind. Little did she know that less than 10 years later, she would earn her private pilot license at the age of 17, the youngest age allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to navigate an aircraft by themselves.

It was three years ago that Schwallier took her first introductory flight with an instructor. In the air, she looked down to see “tiny little ants” with different families, different backgrounds and different life journeys.

“When I’m flying, I think of, like, a whole world aspect. A universal aspect of life,” Schwallier said, who always envisioned a career in the medical field, but slowly shifted toward a career in aviation. She considered marrying her pursuit of medicine with her joy of flying, but it didn’t take long for Schwallier to commit fully to a life in the sky.

“As I got more experience with the actual aviation world and the culture, I fell in love with the feeling of flying and I’m really looking forward to continuing this for the rest of my life,” Schwallier said.

High achiever

It took two summers for Schwallier to obtain her private pilot license. In between those summers, she was racking up hours in the air - both solo and with an instructor - to reach her goal of 40 hours of flight time.

A senior at Rancho Solano Preparatory School, Schwallier is enrolled in the international baccalaureate program, a rigorous schedule that allows high school students to earn credits toward a college degree. After school hours, Schwallier can be found at Falcon Field in Mesa, piloting a Cessna 172.

When the time came for the final written/flying exam, Schwallier was more than ready, spending countless hours studying for the flight, mastering the textbook, flipping through flashcards and memorizing emergency procedures. Her biggest hurdle, she said, was overcoming herself.

“It was really stressful and not because I was unprepared. I was actually really prepared,” she said. “But with flying, you can get in your head a lot and especially with me, I like making everything perfect. I just kept thinking, ‘Oh, am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong? What will the examiner think if I’m, like, dropping altitude or picking up airspeed?’

“On the ground, it was actually harder because I knew the material, except I didn’t want to say the wrong answer. I was constantly concerned of either saying too much and the answer not being right or saying too little and him wanting me to dig more into my answer.”

Despite the conflict going on in Schwallier’s head, her actions didn’t show it. Calm and collected, Schwallier cruised through her oral exam, kept a constant altitude, landed the plane and shook hands with the FAA flight examiner.

“It felt, like, just such a relief and a weight lifted off my shoulders,” she said. “I’ve been preparing for this moment in my life for, gosh, for years. I’m 17 now and I started when I was 15, so it took two years of me just constantly building up my hours and constantly working up the time and being the best that I can be.”

Like father, like daughter

Fountain Hills residents Bill and Theresa Schwallier could not be more proud of their daughter. As a pilot, Bill is well aware of the excitement his daughter is experiencing.

“We did very little in the way of helping her. It was more moral support,” he said. “I really felt that if this is something that she wanted to do, that she really needed to do it on her own and prove to herself and that would help her gain a lot of confidence in life.”

Schwallier said her knowledge about aviation pales in comparison to what her dad has learned over the span of nearly 30 years.

“He does it so effortlessly but I mean, that’s what you get when you put in the work to fly. He spent years doing what he loves and so it just shows that though I may have a long journey, there’s a lot of reward that could come from it.”

With her private pilot license under her belt, Schwallier has already begun the next step in her journey as a full-fledged pilot; obtaining her instrument rating. After high school, she plans to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott and obtain a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering.

As a girl eager to continue her journey as a pilot, Schwallier offers a word of hope for young people curious about what life has in store for them. She especially encourages young women to chase their dreams no matter the circumstances.

“It’s okay to go into a field that’s predominately male. Don’t let gender stop you, don’t let age stop you from doing what you want to do,” Schwallier said. “If you want to do it, then do it and be the best that you can be.”