When he was a young teenager, his sister married an Air Force pilot, so from an early age, Drew Steketee had an extra push in his interest of becoming a pilot. By the time he was able, he became a licensed pilot and turned aviation in to a career.

Now CEO of the Be A Pilot program, Steketee works to dispel the myths about becoming a pilot, such as it costs too much money and that it’s only for rich people.

"Anyone who wants to get a pilot’s license can do so," Steketee said. "I took a job at a local airport, and the airport was so small it had a grass landing strip, and it was my job to mow the grass. Instead of payment, I got flying lessons."

Flying lessons themselves can run between $80 to $120 per hour, depending on the type of plane flown and the airport, and a pilot must train for 40 hours (20 hours with an instructor and 20 as a solo pilot).

When my stepson Travis and I showed up for a Be a Pilot lesson at Mount Comfort Airport, we were greeted warmly by Kortney Storms, the flight school manager. Travis took the lesson while I observed.

One part of the program that surprised me was the fact that Travis could prepare for that first lesson – by playing a computer game!

"Kids who have been working with flight simulation games have the edge over those who don’t work with those games," Storms said.

After an initial lesson on the ins and outs of the plane, we were in the plane. Travis was in the pilot’s seat, Storm’s in the co-pilot. With Storm’s help, Travis actually took off. And then he was flying!

"He’s a natural," Storms said. By the end of that first lesson, Storms let Travis handle most of the landing, and the interest was sparked for this young man.

Be a Pilot is a project that involves the whole aviation community, he said. The organization started in 1997 and offers an interested person that first flying lesson for only $49, hoping to spark an interest in flying.

"The Pilots Association is a major sponsor and the EAA is a major sponsor," he said.

There had been a surge of interest in becoming a pilot 30 years ago, he said.

"In the 1970s, it shot through the roof when people realized how efficient flying was," he said. "It’s twice as fast as driving 55 miles

per hour on the highway and 20 percent shorter because you’re in the air."

He said that in the 1970s, the baby boomers were out of college and wanted to try flying as a hobby. By the 1980s, however, those same boomers went in to the "family mode and bought expensive homes and BMWs."

"It can be expensive but it’s manageable," he noted. "A good plane can be bought for the price of a family car – or even for the price of a second family car."

Planes can also be rented for trips. "People misunderstand how rental planes work," he said. "You pay for the aircraft just for the time it’s in the air. It’s not like a rental car where you rent it for the whole day."

Rental prices range from $60 to $100 per hour – and that includes gas, unlike with rental cars.

Additionally, a pilot can share expenses with his passengers. "This is something a lot of middle class people do," Steketee noted. "A private pilot can not be paid to fly, but it’s legal and customary to split equally the cost of the flight among the passengers and the pilot."

There are 13,000 airports in the U.S., 6,000 of those are open to the public for landing. There are 1,700 flight schools that participate in Be A Pilot.