Denali Georges left an exciting career as a flight instructor to return home and help her family for the next year or so. While she is on St. Croix, she has offered to help aspiring pilots on their way to a profession that is “not easy at all.”
Georges grew up on the east end of St. Croix and graduated as the valedictorian from Free Will Baptist School in 2020. During her high school years, her mother pushed her into joining the V.I. Chapter Tuskagee Airmen Inc., an aviation club. She didn’t look forward to flying or participating in the club for the first year.
“It took my mom waking me up each day and getting me going,” she said.
Then Georges was chosen to attend the Solo Flight Academy in 2018 through the Tuskegee Airmen. During her solo flight, she felt a feeling of freedom after “slipping the surly bonds of earth” (from the poem “High Flight” by John Gilles). That was the beginning of her love for flying.
Georges is still involved with the Tuskegee Airman and the St.Croix Island Paradise Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization for female pilots, and volunteers for other aviation groups as well. She said she considers Cenita Heywood, leader of the Tuskegee Airmen and the Ninety-Nines, “her second mom.” Over the years, Heywood has helped numerous students find and follow their goals in the field of aviation.
The first member in her family to be involved in aviation, Georges has immersed herself in all things flying. Before she returned to St. Croix, she was a flight instructor at Liberty University in Virginia — her college alma mater.
Before she entered college, Georges googled colleges that offered flight schools and chose Liberty because it seemed “a lot like Free Will Baptist.” There, she passed private, multi-engine and commercial pilot certifications. The instructor certification came after that.
During her first year at Liberty, Georges completed her ground school courses and earned her Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics. She graduated in May 2023 from the flight instructor program and started teaching in June.
“They (Liberty) like to hire graduates of their CFI (flight instructor) program,” she said.
So far, the Crucian pilot has flown C-172 and Piper Seminole aircraft. “Way down in the future,” she hopes to own her own aircraft and perhaps run — not own — a flight school. She said she will probably go back to Liberty or another teaching program when she leaves the island and work towards getting a job with an airline as a commercial pilot.
“Now is a great time to become a pilot. They have enough first officers but not enough captains,” she said. “If you can’t become an airline pilot, you can instruct.”
Asked if she liked teaching or flying best, Georges replied.
“Totally flying — my love for it. It’s being up there. Some of my best flights have been with people that are better pilots than me, like mentors and that. Just going up there and just understanding and learning what the airplane can do. Though I really like being in the air, teaching is also nice as well. I like being able to get students up to that level or like kick-start their curiosity.”
