RIDGEWAY – A Ridgeway teen is launching skyward toward his chosen career after receiving his pilot’s license this spring – and plans to attend an aeronautics program next fall at Charleston Southern University.
“It’s not stagnant – it’s not all in one place – and there’s a lot of different careers that can come from it,” says 18-year-old Mason King, who says he’s not sure yet what specific kind of pilot he wants to be – only that he wants to be in the air.
“As long as I’m flying,” he says, “I guess that’s all I need.”
His dad, Drew King, says he’s made a point to let Mason and his siblings, who are homeschooled, try a bunch of different things while growing up in order to see what would spark a dedicated interest.
For one of his older siblings, that was traditional music – she’s an award-winning fiddle player – and, for the other, horseback riding. Mason is the third oldest of six.
Mason says the interest in flying began with a beach tour over the Outer Banks in a small plane.
“It was obvious that the flight had sparked an interest,” Drew King says of Mason’s enthusiasm for flying, so he arranged for his son to take another flight when he turned 16 – this time a discovery flight offered by S & S Aviation for prospective flying students at the Fairfield County Airport.
“After that, he’s like, ‘I want to do this. This is like the coolest thing I’ve ever done. I want to be a pilot,’” the proud dad recalls.
Mason King says he began flying lessons at S & S Aviation in 2022. This past spring – after passing a written test, a test of his flying skills in the plane, and other requirements – he achieved his goal of becoming a licensed pilot.
“None of us had ever been in the plane with him until about two weeks ago, and, so, to see him going through the safety checks for the plane, and then to get into the air, it was such a well-oiled process,” his dad says. “He knew everything that he needed to know.”
The feeling, Drew King says, was like that of getting into the car with someone who’s been driving for a decade. He said it was really neat to observe that his son had mastered this skill.
“It’s always good to see your kid love something and then just dive into it with passion and interest,” Drew King says.
“To see them at a point where this is the thing – you see the energy in their eyes, hear it in their voice when they’re talking. It’s very clear that it’s something that he loves to do and he’s genuinely interested in it.”
While becoming a pilot at age 18 has certainly helped to demonstrate how serious he is about the aeronautics program, his dad says, it’s also been a part of Mason’s preparation for college.
A big part of his high school curriculum as a homeschool student, he says, has included dual enrollment classes at Midlands Technical College, where he was able to complete classes that count for both high school and college credit.
Having filled enough general education requirements to count for his first year of college, Mason will need to complete just six semesters instead of the traditional eight to graduate.
And if he attends a summer semester each year, he’ll will be able to graduate from the aeronautics program in 2026, effectively completing three years of college in two.
“Like a lot of kids, he’s ready to be done with school, so he wants to just ‘pedal to the metal’ get everything done, school behind him, so he can just work and live his life going forward,” Drew King says.
Mason says he hopes to figure out his ultimate career goals as a pilot while he’s in college. But the first job he plans to get when he graduates, he says, is as a flight instructor, where he’ll have the opportunity to teach others to do what he loves while also logging flight hours that will open up eligibility for future career opportunities.
He says he’d also like to do something else fulfilling, such as charity work, that makes use of his skills as a pilot – though he’s not sure yet what that might look like.
Having found the career path he’s passionate about, Mason King’s advice to other teens looking toward their future is simply to explore.
“Try out new things,” he says. “Talk to people who are working different places. You never know when you’ll come across something that might appeal to you.”
