High Above Average

Ryan Dashiell admits some might call him a redneck pilot.

This 20-year-old flight instructor comes from a long line of Valley grass growers, among whom hard work and dedication are as ingrained as the love of the soil from which they make their living.

In his office at Felts Field Aviation, Dashiell, who sometimes chews toothpicks, has set up a mannequin’s head wearing earphones with a toothpick stuck in its mouth.

“How do you know if you’re a redneck pilot?” he asks. “Your toothpick keeps poking your mic.”

Dashiell is proud of his farm heritage. His grandfather, Tom Dashiell, was one of the first to grow grass seed in the Spokane Valley.

Unlike his ancestors, though, the younger Dashiell doesn’t keep both feet firmly planted on the ground. He prefers a bird’s eye view.

At age 20, he’s teaching aviation lovers twice his age.

Daniel Melville, marketing director for Felts Field Aviation, said Dashiell is one of the younger flight instructors the company has ever had. He began working there as an instructor about a month and a half ago.

“He’s exceptionally young for his accomplishments,” Melville says.

Dashiell credits childhood experiences on the family’s farm near Mt. Hope with fostering his love of flight.

He recalls the excitement of watching his uncle dust the grass fields with a 185 Skywagon. By the age of 8, he was putting his hands on the airplane’s controls. At 15, he started taking flying lessons.

“Growing up on a farm is different than the city,” he says. “You have so many more opportunities to do stuff.”

He grew up driving and fixing tractors and combines. He drove pickups through the fields when he was barely tall enough to see over the wheel.

Those experiences, he says, taught him to be comfortable around big machinery, prepping him for the feel of an airplane under his sole control.

Dashiell thinks nothing of landing a 172 Cessna on a narrow dirt road that hugs the hillside on his family’s farm. He picked up his high school prom date in a plane.

“She liked it,” he says nonchalantly.

Dashiell made it his goal to get his commercial pilot’s license, which allows him to make money transporting goods and people, by the time he was 18. He missed it only by a few days.

Dashiell finished high school in Tri-Cities and headed off for flight school in Oakland, Calif., where he spent a quick six months getting multiple pilot ratings.

“He did make it through fast,” says John Condon, chief flight instructor at Sierra Academy of Aeronautics. “Speed is one thing, but he spent such little money on his training. That’s the important thing.”

Dashiell, who graduated earlier this year, set the school’s record for fewest hours of air training required. Most students spend between $25,000 and $28,000 for flight training time; he spent $18,000.

“He really was outstanding. He’s the type that you never have to tell anything to twice,” Condon says.

Dashiell graduated earlier this year and now needs only the airline transport pilot rating to complete his certification. The ATP rating would enable him to fly as chief pilot in command of an airliner.

However, Federal Aviation Administration rules require him to be 23 years old before he can get that.

For now, he’s enjoying his job as a flight instructor.

Felts Field Aviation’s Melville describes Dashiell as “highly motivated. He’s a dreamer and an achiever.”

Eventually, Dashiell says, he would like to become a corporate pilot, a job that earns a lot of money and has a flexible schedule.

“I’d like my cake and to eat it, too,” he says.