Support network helps 20-year-old pilot get airborne
San Antonio native first in family to pursue flying
Last summer, Mariana Lozano flew solo for the first time.
The 20-year-old ran through her preflight list, checking instruments, safety gear and equipment. Cleared for takeoff, she piloted her single-propeller plane from DuPage Airport, an hour from the heart of Chicago, more than 1,200 miles from her San Antonio home.
Lozano soared into blue skies with a bird’s-eye view of Illinois farmland. She leveled between the ground and white, billowing clouds. Below, rivers snaked through green and brown country, resembling patches on a giant quilt. Amid the scenery, she focused on what she’d learned from instructors and intense flight training classes.
“You get into the rhythm of the steps,” Lozano said. “The rhythm of not feeling overwhelmed.”
Before the San Antonio native flew solo, she stayed on course with support from family, mentors and peers. Lozano, a sophomore at Texas A&M UniversitySan Antonio, is the first in her family to pursue a career as an aviator. She got her private pilot’s license through an eight-week Tuskegee NEXT flight training program, named for the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first African American military flyers, who fought in World War II.
The nonprofit program teaches minority youths about the aerospace industry and helps them obtain their pilot’s license. Last June, Lozano became one of nine cadets to receive a $36,000 pilot school scholarship from the organization.
She’s studying for a bachelor’s degree in computer science with a long-term goal of becoming a software engineer and a commercial airline pilot. Lozano said her training was an “exhilarating experience,” especially since she’d never flown or been in a small aircraft.
“It felt like diving headfirst into the unknown,” she said. “But after everything, I still think flying is much easier than driving a car.”
Lozano was a youngster when thoughts of flying a plane first swirled in her mind. When her father, an airplane mechanic, shared photos of aircraft he’d worked on, Lozano imagined she was flying commercial jets.
Things picked up speed when her adjunct professor, Brandi Coleman, learned of her interest. Coleman founded the Lemonade Circle, a nonprofit that mentors and empowers girls of color from the fifth through the 12th grades. Aviation was the group’s STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — theme.
“I knew from the first time I met Mariana that she was destined for greatness,” Coleman said. “She is reaching beyond the stars to achieve her goals. This is just the beginning for her.”
The East Central High School graduate took a step closer to her dream after Coleman introduced her to Eric Warner, special projects manager with the San Antonio International Airport. She took ground pilot school via Zoom and went to Stinson Municipal Airport to train on the airport’s mobile flight simulators.
Warner encouraged her to apply for the Tuskegee program. Lozano had to pass a final exam for which she often studied after midnight. Last May, her long study hours paid off as she received a congratulatory email — she’d made
Tuskegee NEXT’s class of 2023.
She’s the first San Antonio student to make the program.
Lozano’s parents, Maricela and Victor Lozano, drove her to Chicago.
The students bonded and supported one another as they took aviation courses, trained on simulators and participated in flight training. They worked at their new craft from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and on weekends for three hours.
During study time, they helped one another. Lozano mulled the information over and over in her head. One night, in a moment of anxiety, she called her instructor. He calmed her, going over everything step by step, with assurance that she was ready.
Midway through training, Lozano made a video call to her mother and showed a clip of her flying solo.
“Where is your instructor?” her mother said. “Mariana, I can’t believe you were flying by yourself !”
To prepare, Lozano completed a phase check with an instructor. On the flight, she answered questions about safety precautions and emergency procedures. She explained how she’d return to the airport if disoriented, with methods such as using a map marked with signs.
“It was a lot of them trusting me,” she said, “and them knowing I have trust in myself.”
On her final solo exam, Lozano climbed into the plane, motivated to make her parents proud. The flight portion of her test was a three-hour, crosscountry trip, on which she touched down and flew from three airports in Illinois.
When her name was called at graduation, her parents beamed — a moment that still brings her joy. But, one more flight awaits her in the distant future. It’s when she plans to pilot a plane with special passengers — her mother and father.
“It would be an incredible moment to show my capabilities,” Lozano said. “I’m putting in the work for the sacrifices they made for me.”