Words by Jenny Lynn Davis | Image by Al Blanton

Her breath caught a bit the moment Haley Sherer’s flight instructor looked over and said, “Your controls.”

There is no easing into that responsibility. No distance from what’s happening, no autopilot for nerves, no room to ignore that the airplane is yours to fly.

“That first experience was definitely surreal,” Haley says. “It’s like, wow… this all relies on me.”

Even that, she says, didn’t compare to flying solo for the first time. After months of studying, training, and learning to trust both the aircraft and herself, taking off alone brought everything into focus.

“You put so much work and time into it, and then you realize you can do it. You’re capable.”

For Haley, a senior at Jasper High School, aviation started with curiosity. Her home sits beneath the flight path of Regional Air Medical Services, and from a young age she found herself looking up whenever a helicopter passed overhead.

At 15, a helicopter tour turned that curiosity into certainty. From the air, she says, the world looked small but somehow wider too, and she was hooked.

At 17, Haley earned her private pilot’s license, the youngest age allowed. By 18, she had added her instrument rating and commercial license. Now she’s preparing for her final test to become a Certified Flight Instructor through Sanders Aviation, where she plans to begin teaching after graduation.

At first, she imagined becoming a Coast Guard rescue pilot. Over time, that sense of calling took a clearer shape, and she now hopes to work in medevac and, eventually, serve as a missionary pilot with Samaritan’s Purse, using aviation to deliver care, supplies, and hope where they’re needed most.

“I see flying as my ministry. It’s something I enjoy personally, but it’s also a tool I can use to serve others,” she says.

Haley also serves at Eastside Baptist Church and mentors younger students through the Healing House. She helped form “The Well,” a student worship band with her younger brother and friends, where she sings and plays ukulele and piano.

That involvement also means a packed schedule. Many of her days begin at 4 or 5 a.m. so she can fly before school. After that come high school and college classes and band practice. A former drum major and field commander for the Jasper High School marching band, Haley says

those roles taught her how to stay organized and calm under pressure, skills that matter just as much in the cockpit as on a football field.

Haley’s life is full of responsibility many people do not shoulder until much later, but she carries it with a clear sense of purpose. As demanding as the path has been, she knows exactly what she is working toward, and the skies ahead look full of opportunities to serve. 78