Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Whorton.
Matt, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As a kid, I always had airplanes for toys and talked about wanting to fly, nothing has changed in all the years. My grades were never the best, so one year in middle school I got A’s and B’s and as a reward, my Dad got me a discovery flight and to this day, I can remember that hour long flight over Lake Lanier and Stone Mountain; that cemented my love of aviation. Fast forward to April 1st, 2002, sophomore year of high school, the date of my first flight lesson. Good day to learn something new, right? That kicked off my aviation career. Throughout high school, I always had my flight training books with me and would study between classes. I completed my Private and Instrument ratings in high school and finished my commercial rating the summer out of school.
Now that I have my commercial rating, I wanted a job flying. I found a job in Florida towing advertising banners along the beach. After the summer, I moved back home to Atlanta and found a job towing advertising banners around the city. I flew banners for eight years and loved doing it but I was offered a job giving sightseeing tours in vintage biplanes. With the biplanes, I was scheduling and flying most of the flights and was the general manager going to events in Atlanta trying to get more business.
While I was flying the biplanes, I would talk to Mr. Epps at the restaurant that I would meet my passengers at. Mr. Epps is the son of the first pilot in Georgia and the owner of Epps Aviation. He eventually asked me if I would like to move up to charter flying on an evening he was telling me some of his aviation stories. That conversation on the restaurant patio has led me to where I am today, enjoy flying passengers with private charter.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The struggles for me have been the same struggles many pilots have. It is always hard to build hours for the next step, I chose to tow advertising banners to get my hours. I loved the flying I was doing but worked for some not so good companies. Unfortunately, some of the companies that hire beginning pilots do not treat the pilots the best and do not keep the planes up that well. I got lucky and only flew with one company that was not good and I left after about four months. Of course, when you move up to new planes or a new company, you have to go through their training and that can be like trying to drink from a fire hose with all the new information you are learning.
I started my aviation career young and I have heard countless times, “Are you old enough to fly?” This statement alone has pushed me to be my best to prove that younger pilots are capable.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I fly for Epps Aviation at the Dekalb-Peachtree Airport. Epps Aviation does private charter flights taking people to wherever they would like to go… While I was flying, I thought people would like to see a glimpse into my job and life, so I started making TikTok videos. Some of my videos are funny, some are serious and others educational about aviation, my job or the plane I fly. I’ve really enjoyed creating a community on TikTok for others that share my same interest.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
The major thing for aviation is to get new people interested into making it a career. I hope that my TikToks and Instagram posts help people either make their mind up about wanting to start to fly or be the last little push that it takes for someone to start. I enjoy sharing some of what I do and why I love aviation.
As a father of two girls, I really feel that there needs to be more exposure of the aviation field to them. My oldest mentioned a few years ago that she had never met a female pilot. We were able to contact the local flight school who helped us arrange a meeting with a female pilot. Over the last few years, the percentage of female pilots has grown from 7 to 8% and my goal is to instill confidence in my daughters that they can achieve an aviation career in a very male led position.
Contact Info:
- Email: whortonaviation@aircraftmail.com
- Website: TikTok.com/@whortonaviation
- Instagram: Instagram.com/whorton_aviation
- Facebook: Facebook.com/whortonaviation
- Youtube: YouTube.com/c172skyhawk2
