RICHMOND, Va. –
Spc. Ashley Asselin’s journey into the world of aviation took off during her high school JROTC experience. Since then, she’s earned her pilot’s license, joined the Virginia Army National Guard as a 15E Unmanned Aircraft Systems Repairer, finished her undergraduate degree at Liberty University and joined the full-time staff there as a flight instructor. This summer, she soared to new heights by finishing in the top five of her division in the renowned all-women’s
Air Race Classic.
Asselin’s interest in flying was sparked when her high school’s JROTC program teamed up with the Civil Air Patrol. With them, she flew in small airplanes alongside pilots with decades of experience. Noting her interest in aviation, her JROTC cadre urged her to apply for an Air Force scholarship for flight school. Though initially skeptical about her chances, she was awarded the scholarship and, in the summer of 2019, earned her private pilot’s license at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona, marking the beginning of her formal aviation career.
“It’s a very strict program,” Asselin said. “From there on out, I knew aviation was what I wanted to do with my life.”
After Embry-Riddle, Asselin took some time off to weigh her options. She’d long considered military service, especially after her positive JROTC experiences in high school, but she also knew she wanted to work toward earning a college degree. She just couldn’t decide where she wanted to go. A friend was enrolled in the flight program at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, and encouraged her to investigate the program herself. She did, and, after doing a bit of research, decided to enroll.
“I went there and I never looked back,” Asselin said. “I loved it."
After time away from the cockpit, getting back into it at Liberty was incredible, Asselin said. She started thinking that maybe she wanted to fly for the military. Initially, she considered the Air Force, but felt like it lacked the flying opportunities she was after, and while the local Army National Guard recruiter kept emailing, she kept deleting his e-mails until finally, one day, she opened an email from him to see what all he had to say.
“I was like, ‘Oh wait, I am actually kind of interested in this,’” Asselin said. She emailed the recruiter and talked about her options. She liked what he had to say about the National Guard and ultimately ended up enlisting as a 15E. Today she serves in the Fredericksburg-based 229th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
Earlier this year, Asselin completed her undergraduate degree and started working for Liberty as a flight instructor. A few years before that, she’d heard about an air race from another instructor. It was an all women’s race, called the Air Race Classic.
“Every year a bunch of women get together of all ages, all careers, and any job you can think of,” Asselin said of the participant pool for the Air Race Classic. “They have a different route every year and you race between 2,500 and 3,000 miles or so over four days.”
Ever since first hearing about the race, Asselin had been itching to participate. So much of what she does is in male-dominated fields and the opportunity to fly alongside other women - to learn from them and share experiences with them - sounded like an incredible opportunity. The only problem, Asselin said, was that the race fell during her unit’s two-week annual training in June. She brought the issue up with her leaders and was immediately shown a barrage of support.
“They did so much to get me through and to make it work and they really just wanted me to go out there and do this,” she said. “It was just awesome to be able to make it through this year.”
Liberty University sent two teams to the Air Race Classic this year, each with three highly-sought team members. To make the team, Asselin underwent a lengthy application process that included an hour-long interview that assessed her aviation knowledge.
“They quiz you on your teamwork abilities and all to see if you’re fit for the role because you’re going to be sitting in a plane that’s very cramped, with no AC for 30 hours,” said Asselin. “You have to be able to work in a very stressful environment and get along with people and make very hard decisions during the race.”
Teams are comprised of a backseater who essentially keeps the team accountable while checking for weather, air traffic and race regulations, along with a pilot-in-command and a co-pilot. Asselin served as the co-pilot and, together with her two teammates, flew a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, a small three-seater, single-engine plane.
Racers bring a wide range of aircraft to the competition and to keep things fair, Asselin explained, flyers essentially race against their ghost. Before the race started, crews took flight and flew a standardized route to identify their average speeds. The team that wins is the team who best beats their own average speed.
The race started at the Southern Illinois Airport in Carbondale, Illinois, and included stops in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kanas before ending at the Northern Colorado Regional Airport in Loveland, Colorado.
The race, Asselin said, was intense. Her team was one of 22 in their collegiate division. Racing happened during the daylight hours between dawn and dusk. Competitors had a strict route to follow, one they couldn’t deviate too far from without risking disqualification. For each day of the race, the competitors spent hours in the aircraft and then, once safely on the ground for the day, they’d jump into flight planning for the next day.
“There were plenty of really exhilarating moments in the race where you’re dealing with rough clouds, or you’re dealing with thunderstorms and trying to decide if you go around it, or under it or whatever,” Asselin said. “There’s just so many considerations.”
One of Asselin’s most memorable moments from the race came in Ohio. Massive storms were lined up along the flight path with more on the way. The airport was crowded with competitors trying to determine the best course of action. If they timed it wrong and took flight, they’d risk getting caught in the middle of a storm, but if they waited, the incoming storms would ground them for the day.
Then, a team took off. This, Asselin said, was the push her own team needed so they took off, believing the storm would clear by the time they got to it.
“It was just us two braving the weather together,” Asselin said. “It was clear enough for us to get through and it allowed us to avoid the thunderstorms that were coming over that last airport, so it saved us a lot of time.”
The flight wasn’t without some hair-raising flying though. At one point, Asselin’s team was bracketed by massive storm cells to the east and west.
“These clouds were no joke, they were massive,” Asselin said.
They called a nearby flight service station to gather as much information as possible about the surrounding weather and, after a quick conversation, Asselin and her peers felt confident they had just enough time to get through before the storm cells came together.
“We flew right through the storm. It was parted like the Red Sea. You could see the rain and all these dark clouds. About 10 miles past the storm, we looked back and it was all closed in,” Asselin said. “We flew like bandits.”
At the end of the race in Colorado, Asselin and her team took a celebratory pass over the airport. Colorado, she said, was “unbelievable,” and the experience overall significantly increased her confidence in the cockpit.
“I definitely know what I’m capable of now and it expanded by personal minimums so much,” she said. “Now I know that if I get into a situation where the conditions are less than ideal, I’m very confident that I can fly safely and efficiently and that I can make it on the ground, no problem.”
Flying alongside so many other women was also exactly the experience Asselin was anticipating. Aviation, like the military, is a male-dominated field, and opportunities to learn from female flyers have been slim, which made Asselin’s experience at the Air Race Classic especially special.
“To have all these women from all different backgrounds and places was amazing,” Asselin said. “They just had so much perspective and they were all so willing to share it. To be surrounded by so many of them and get so much advice all in one experience was unbelievable.”
Asselin and her team came in 5th out of 22 teams in their division and now that summer has ended, Asselin is back at Liberty working toward a graduate degree in aviation education while working full-time as a flight instructor sharing her passion for aviation every day of the week with the next generation of pilots.