There’s a pilot shortage. These Las Vegas aviators aim to fill the need — PHOTOS
Nick Pizzariello Jr.’s fascination with aviation kicked into gear when he was 7 years old. Now, at age 13, Pizzariello wants to become a commercial pilot.
Pizzariello’s career decision was reinforced Tuesday afternoon at All In Aviation in Henderson.
There, he walked into a medium-sized room, framed by a large panoramic screen, designed specifically to accommodate the flight school’s immersive ALSIM ALSR20 fight trainer. In the cockpit, Pizzariello quickly took to the controls.
“It was fun to fly, but kind of scary. I crashed,” Pizzariello said. “I felt like I was actually in a plane. There was pressure on the sticks.”
His experience was part of a free flight demo event for National Aviation Day, which falls each year on Aug. 19. All In Aviation welcomed dozens of guests Tuesday afternoon to its Henderson Executive Airport headquarters to experience the flight trainer, tour the hangars and learn more about pilot training.
Like many others, Pizzariello attended to get a taste of their future career. Some, like Jake Harper, attended simply for a fun experience.
“Honestly, I thought it would be a lot more difficult. It was surprisingly easy,” Harper said. “I’ve played a lot of video games, so honestly, there was very little difference from controlling that versus, like a flight sim on the computer.”
The event also served a deeper purpose for the flight school.
According to an analysis by consulting firm Oliver Wyman, demand for commercial pilots in the U.S. outstrips supply by roughly 13 percent, constituting a pilot shortage. The existence of a shortage has been a hot button debate within the industry, but All In Aviation isn’t taking any chances.
“It’s really important that we make sure that everyone knows that we’re here and that there is an opportunity in aviation right now — a great one,” said Carl May, director of flight operations at All In Aviation. “There is a mandatory retirement age of 65 for airline pilots, and so as they’re retiring, we’re literally in a shortage right now, and there’s a need, so we’re here to help facilitate that need for the pilot shortage.”
The school remains the only independent flight school to offer an ALSIM ALSR20, which it acquired for more than $300,000 in 2022. The cockpit and avionics are exact, life-sized replicas of Cirrus aircraft, May told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
May added that All In could host a similar event next year, and will definitely continue to host its annual spring open house.
Throughout the afternoon, guests filed in and out of the room for their 5-minute sessions in the cockpit. Most left grinning, while some were disappointed by nosedives and other forms of unintentional landings.
Pizzariello, for one, ended his session by crashing his Cirrus into the realistic-looking desert somewhere in the Las Vegas Valley.
“I want that landing back,” he said.
Contact Isaiah Steinberg at isteinberg@reviewjournal.com. Follow @IsaiahStei27 on X.
