farragutpress

From FHS to Alcoa High, then back again: a pilot

Moye now sets her sights, as a high school rising senior, on being a commercial pilot

July 16, 2025 by Alan Sloan

Willing to uproot herself and transfer to a high school outside of Knox County for one school year to help fulfill a dream — and perhaps start the path toward her occupation — Georgia Kate Moye of Farragut, 17, ended up earning her private pilot’s license (visual flight rules) about a month ago.

Setting her sights on becoming a commercial pilot, “I’ve always loved traveling, and basically what motivated me was the traveling aspect,” the Farragut High School rising senior said, having just transferred back to FHS after one year of aviation courses upon transferring to Alcoa High as a junior in 2024-25. “And then my parents — my dad, especially (Adam Moye) — was a really big influence in me wanting to fly.

“He is not a pilot, but he’s always enjoyed learning about aircraft,” she added. “And he enjoys the idea of me possibly becoming a (commercial) pilot … He was in the Air Force when he was younger, but he was not a pilot.”

During her high school freshman year, “I decided then that I wanted to go into it,” Moye said.

Growing up in Farragut and an FHS student her sophomore year, Georgia Kate was motivated to transfer as a junior. “The (aviation) program that I went through was at Alcoa High School, and I started that program in August of last year,” she said.

“So at Alcoa, the process was we learned our ground school training — which is all the equipment in the aircraft, how to use equipment in the aircraft, what we need to know when we’re flying, what we need to calculate before our flights and what the systems of the aircraft are,” Moye added. “We learned all that in ground school for the first nine weeks of the school year.

“Then once it turned to fall break was when we actually got to start flying planes through the company called AVZ Flight Academy” at nearby McGhee Tyson Airport.

Overall at AHS and the pilot training, “It was everything I hoped for,” Georgia Kate said. “I had an amazing year there. Met a lot of great people. The staff was amazing with helping me through the transfer process. And the AVZ instructors were amazing with helping me through that process as well.”

Starting to fly last October, “I got my license in June,” she said.

Solo ’terrifying;’ mom

Flying a Cessna 150 — but also training some in a Cessna 172 — Moye said she’s been on “seven or eight” solo flights.

“My first solo flight, for me, was terrifying,” the teen pilot said. “It was great because I knew I had control over the plane, and I knew that I was going to be OK. And it was just around the McGee Tyson Airport.

“Going up for the first time is exhilarating — but also terrifying,” she added.

“For my first solo flight, I was up for about an hour,” the teen pilot said.

Another solo was with her mother, Ashlee Moye. “She was a bit scared in the beginning, but she really enjoyed it once she got up there,” Georgia Kate said.

“Oh, I was absolutely a little nervous,” Ashlee said. “But more than anything, I was in awe. She ran through her checklists like a pro, communicated with the tower — none of which I understood — and had total control of the plane. Once we were in the air, it stopped being scary and became surreal. You’re sitting there thinking, ‘My teenager is flying this plane, and she is doing it beautifully.’”

“For my flight with my mom, I was up for about an hour-and-a-half,” Georgia Kate said.

“The longest one I’ve been on was, I think, a three-and-a-half hour solo,” she added. “I went from here to Cleveland, Tennessee, to Dalton, Georgia, and then back” to McGhee Tyson.

However, “There was quite a bit of worry about weather changes, and I had to go over a bit of a mountain ridge there coming back from Dalton, Georgia,” Georgia Kate said. “So that was a bit of an issue at the time because the clouds came lower as I was coming back, and you can only go so low to the mountains.

“But I figured out a way to manage just the perfect in -between and get back safely,” she added.

Training challenges

As for doubts early on, “I did have some second thoughts at the beginning of transferring because I transferred from a school that I had known for years into a school that I didn’t know anything about and traveling there and back,” said Georgia Kate, both a swim instructor at National Fitness Center and employee at Riverview Family Farm in Concord. “I didn’t know anybody there. So I had some second doubts when I first started. But once I got further into the school year, it became easier and less difficult to connect with other people and throughout the training.”

Occupation training

To fulfill her goal of becoming a commercial pilot, “I really want to get the airline transport pilot license,” she said. “… At the moment, I’m going to try and continue my training with AVZ Flight Academy” at McGhee Tyson.

“I want to continue with them because I found some amazing instructors there — they’re really good people,” the teen pilot added.

“At the moment, I’m debating whether I go through a college or AVZ. But if I go through AVZ, I’m hoping to do that before the end of my senior year. But if I go through a college, that’ll be my freshman year.”

Georgia Kate pointed out two universities in the Southeast with “a flying program” of note she’s strongly considering: either Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro or Auburn University (southeast Alabama).

“For the college route, most colleges offer an advanced airline transport pilot’s license,” she said. “So it basically means that you don’t have to have as many hours to have the license versus going through AVZ.

“And especially if you go through Auburn or MTSU, where they’ve got very well-known programs, you have closer connections with airlines,” Georgia Kate added.

“The advantage of the AVZ is that currently, as I’m looking at it, it is more than likely going to be cheaper than college. And they have good instructors that I know that I’m going to get flight time with.”

Also, “I don’t have to worry about lining up schedules with everybody because some colleges, they have students as flight instructors,” she said. “So I don’t have to worry about a student not being able to be my instructor for the day.”

Good habits

About flying in the coming months, “I’m going to try and fly at least once every week just to stay in it and keep my skills up,” Georgia Kate said.

“I would really, really love to fly into Nashville or Atlanta,” she added, but admitted, “Atlanta is a tough airport to fly into.”

Final thoughts

Overall, “I would say that it has been an amazing journey, and an amazing group of people I’ve worked with — and I hope that the next generation of Alcoa (pilot training) students have as much fun and find as much joy in it as I did,” Georgia Kate said.