Augusta, Ga. - Augusta baseball player Ryker Benz came to the Jaguar program from Missouri. He's a Cybersecurity major and while he's a freshman, he's grown to like the school and the program. Benz also has one of the most unique hobbies on the team, aviation. He's training to become a pilot. 

His desire to take to the skies comes from advice from his dad - enjoy what you do. Since Benz wants to travel the world, what's a better way to do so, than becoming a pilot. 

"I was just trying to see where life takes me. Once I started aviation, I fell in love with it," said Benz.

Needless to say it takes a lot of work and time to get your private pilot license and Benz is well on his way. He's already logged well over 40 hours of flight time and next up is to take a written test and then do a checkride, which is a practical two-part test to get his license. Just getting to this point has been a tall task.

"It's taken me about a year and a half. I've had struggles with baseball since it's taken me away from studying. It's hard balancing baseball and aviation," said Benz.



For the spring semester, he took a different route to get back to Augusta for classes from Missouri. He flew into Daniel Field in Augusta with his instructor. Some can say an unconventional route, but Benz wouldn't have it any other way. 

Even his first time flying was not the norm by any stretch of the imagination and Benz remembers it clearly.

"It was my first ever flight, my introductory flight, and my instructor said 'go ahead and do the takeoff. I was like how do I do that? He was like, it's pretty easy, just pull back. I was like alright.' It was pretty cool." 

Benz has also done a solo flight which was from the downtown St. Louis, Mo. airport. He said it was "very surreal," to fly by yourself for the first time. 

"I was very nervous because I'd never done it before. It was really cool talking to the tower for the first time by yourself, having my instructor on the ground to make sure you're doing everything right, it was really just a surreal moment," said Benz.

His eventual goal is to see the world flying cargo planes, maybe flying for FedEx. Possibly even flying private planes since he's not big on having to deal with passengers. 

With the Masters golf tournament having just finished up, Benz found himself cruising by Daniel Field and making note of the type of planes parked. He even spotted former Master's champion Adam Scott's private plane. He even catches himself looking up and trying to identify the type of aircraft flying above. 

Benz knows he has a long way to go, but he is enjoying every moment of it. He's excited for the summer so he can really dive back into getting his pilot certification and license. One big things he has to do, get his instrument rating.

"You still need to solo a little bit to get your bearings but mostly it's with an instructor sitting next to you," said Benz. "For instruments, it's flying through the clouds where you can't see. So you need to have that guy next to you telling you how to do that." 

Before then, there's still baseball to play with Augusta with a couple of weeks left in the regular season.

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