Josh Rower…The Future of Aviation
I went to the Fort Drum Air Show this year, not only to see an exciting air show, but to see Gary and Gwen Rower and do a follow up article on Gary Rower and his fabulous Stearman and see old friends, Billy Segalla and Bill Gordon, The Iron Eagles and their announcer, Al Loncto and do an article on them and their incredible mirror imagine routine. What I really didn’t expect was to meet a young man with, what I perceive as, an old soul. He isn’t shy, in fact his poise is astounding, but he is humble and very unassuming. I had met him briefly last year and knew he had flown to Fort Drum from Georgia in the Stearman with his Dad.
On meeting Josh Rower again this year, I had more time to chat with him and he is an amazing young man. I had known he was a student at Western Michigan University and will graduate with his degree in Advanced Mathematics in December 2010 and will also be commissioned into the Air Force at that time. He is ROTC and wants to fly for the Air Force. That is his first choice and passion. If he is selected for pilot training, he will have a ten year obligation with the Air Force, which Josh eagerly looks forward to.
Josh’s passion for flying started very young and it was natural, as his dad was an Air Force pilot and then a commercial pilot for Delta which he has done for well over 20 years and now a performer as well, so Josh was raised around planes and aviation in general and it seemed a natural for him. He feels that although his Dad has been a big influence in his choice of careers, more importantly, his Dad has given him the opportunities and exposure to pursue a career in aviation, a field he has a passion for. This is an experience that a lot of young men and women aren’t lucky enough to have and Josh feels fortunate. He soloed on his Dad’s birthday in 2004 and he took his check ride in his senior year of high school, the same day his Dad took his check ride many years earlier ………all unplanned and a coincidence, but very meaningful to Josh.
Currently, Josh flies a Christen Eagle and has become very proficient in a plane built for performance and aerobatic flying. When not in school, he spends the majority of his time developing his flying skills and building his hours in his plane. Josh is impressively serious about his education and ROTC responsibilities and when he isn’t flying, given the opportunity, he likes to ski and SCUBA dive and will be joining the Army Shooting Team this semester, but his passion is aviation and ultimately, Josh wants aerobatic performance to be a part of his life.
As Josh puts it, “The nice thing about my degree's major and minor is that I learn a lot about dynamics and stability. Being a math major and physics minor, I learned a lot about forces on an object and gyroscopes. Gyroscopes translate into aviation as propellers. I have been able to sit down and think about certain maneuvers and find out what the airplane will try to do because of the different forces involved. I am then able to go out, practice, and observe the aircrafts tendencies. It gives me something to do when I'm bored in class, too! The instrument and commercial ratings really only help with weather and financial flying, respectively. Am I able to fly to commercial rating standards? I wouldn't be able to do well in competition if I didn't fly to those standards. I wanted to go a seperate path from the normal pilot who just goes for ratings. I felt like I needed to learn to "fly" before I learned to "fly.”
It is obvious there is a very strong closeness in the Rower family, but I found it both interesting and very touching that when I was talking to Gary and asked him what stood out most in all his experiences as a military, commercial, private and aerobatic pilot, his immediate response was the sensation and pride he felt when he flew formation with Josh this summer for the first time. Now how cool is that? As they say…. “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”…….. and as similar as the paths father and son seem to be following, keep Josh Rower’s name in mind….this won’t be the last time you hear it.
There will be two sets of footprints in the Rower sand………side by side, not one behind the other.
Written by: Joyce Oster Palmer