Anna Varvarkina arrived from Russia on July 4th in hopes of obtaining her private pilot certificate in only 7 weeks. While that was a very challenging goal in itself, she also needed to find a place to live, and a form of transportation on very limited funds. Anna quickly found a room for rent (7 miles from Caldwell Airport) and borrowed a bicycle to peddle her way to school every day. She worked extremely hard to achieve her goal, and passed her private pilot checkride on August 27th – the day before Hurricane Irene completely flooded New Jersey and shut down the airport.

All of us at Century Air were impressed by her positive attitude, determination and high energy. We figured out that she rode that bicycle over 750 miles back and forth to school – and she did it rain or shine. Great job, Anna!