PVI Student Receives Type Rating in the Vision Jet SF50

Maddie started the year 2026 with a goal of learning to fly a jet before graduation. She grew up around planes, and her parents let her start lessons at Leesburg Airport just before her seventeenth birthday. Since then, Maddie has gone from being able to fly about 50 miles away as a student pilot to flying all the way to Knoxville, Tennessee, as a fully instrument-rated pilot! "There is so much natural beauty in Virginia that you just don’t see flying at 35,000 feet in an airliner," she says.

Maddie's father gave her the opportunity to get a type rating in the Vision Jet SF50. She spent two weeks in Knoxville, Tennessee in a rigorous class with pilots who had over 1,500+ flying hours. Maddie says, "I can’t say it was easy, and I definitely was holding my breath until the very end of my five-hour-long check ride, but I’m very proud to say that I’m the youngest female pilot to ever complete the course!"

In the future, Maddie hopes to get her ATP multi-engine rating, her seaplane rating, and become a commercial pilot!