GREENFIELD – Jett Masters couldn’t have a better name.
The 18-year-old Greenfield resident just mastered years of training in flight, earning a private license before he heads off to college to study aviation even more.
But there was turbulence along the way, and his parents are proud of how their son persevered to soar.
Jett Masters is the son of Matt and Andi Masters, and graduated this year from Greenfield-Central High School. But his fascination with the skies began more than a decade ago
For his fourth birthday, Jett took his first flight with a family friend which started a “deep-seeded, innate fascination” with aviation, he said. He started flight training at age 14, and attended space camp and a NASA aviation challenge as a teen.
This month, on Aug. 5, Jett earned his private pilot license after four years of training and a grueling, eight-hour long examination.
But Jett also overcame myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle – a rare side effect after the COVID-19 vaccination.
“There was a great big cloud of a question mark – did this do permanent damage, or can this cause a setback? Luckily, it was just for a few months that he couldn’t fly,” said dad Matt Masters.
Getting discouraged toward the end of his senior year because he also had wisdom teeth and a nasal surgery, Jett reached a roadblock and wasn’t sure if he would be able to reach his dream. Matt said it all culminated with a heart-to-heart talk one Saturday morning at Jack’s Donuts, when the parents realized his grades were slipping and he hadn’t flown in months. Andi went to work to touch base with his teachers, and Matt made phone calls to get his son back on track with his flying passion.
“I was on the phone for three days straight, begging and pleading,” Matt said. “There’s a lot of rules and regulations to get back on track. By Monday morning, I had everything lined back up again. Teenage boys don’t say ‘Thanks’ a lot – they just don’t — but I heard ‘Thanks’ more the couple days after than I heard him say his entire life. I knew he was happy that somebody helped. Kids are hard-pressed to say ‘help’ and sometimes you just gotta do it.’”
Shortly after graduation, Jett took an immersive trip to Germany this summer and came back ready to pass his flight test.
As soon as Matt and Andi got word that Jett had passed his exam, they rushed over to the airport to congratulate Jett. There was 30 minutes of daylight left, and Matt let Andi take the first flight with her son.
“To have the vantage point from the cockpit right next to my 18-year-old son and see him manage the numerous dials and thingamajigs with ease and confidence was surreal,” Andi said. “When we took flight, I cried tears of joy and happiness. It’s been a long, trying ordeal.”
Jett will study aviation at Indiana State University, and is looking forward to new role models. Dr. Troy Allen, the chair of the aviation department at ISU, also had a lengthy phone conversation with Jett to get him back on track and the family is optimistic about his future.
Interestingly, his name has nothing to do with flying. Dad Matt was inspired by the name Jett from the movie “Giant,” which he watched back in the 1980s long before he became a father. It was fortuitous that his son became a pilot; their daughter, Sonnet, is a musician and artist.
Andi said as she was in the sky with her son, she was reminded of the Kurt Vonnegut quote, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”
“He is incredibly resilient,” she said. “He has the demeanor of a pilot; he’s steady and constant. Even if he ends up changing his major in college, this whole experience is something that has built his character and built his work ethic. He knows how much he can push himself, and the sky isn’t the limit for him.”
