Reid Balmelli was bitten by the flying bug at a young age after he took his first flight with the local Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 609’s Young Eagles flight program at 14 years old.
“I went with somebody I know from here in the community. I got up with him in his Bonanza and loved it ever since,” Balmelli said. “He let me control it a bit, go left, go right, and from there I was hooked.”
Now 20, Balmelli recently returned after graduating from the Sierra Charlie Aviation flight school in Scottsdale, Arizona, and has now founded his own flight school at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport called Chehalis Skies Aviation LLC.
The Chronicle visited Balmelli at the airport on Thursday, June 5, to learn more about his new flight school and also take a quick flight around the Twin Cities in the 1968 Piper Cherokee he uses to teach. The plane also happens to have formerly belonged to Chehalis-Centralia Airport Director Brandon Rakes.
Balmelli started his private pilot’s license training at 15 and a half years old, as 16 is the minimum age a pilot needs to be to fly alone.
“I turned 16 that November (of 2020), so what ended up happening was I did my first (solo) flight on my birthday. It’s kind of a fun story. Technically, I flew a plane by myself for the first time before I drove a car by myself for the first time,” Balmelli said.
As he prepared to graduate from W.F. West High School in 2022, he decided he wanted to fly as a commercial pilot. In 2023, he went to Arizona and began training at Sierra Charlie Aviation.
He graduated from the flight school in November 2024 with multiple flight ratings.
“I’ve got an instrument rating, commercial rating. I got my instructor rating, my initial CFI (certified flight instructor). I also got a CFII, which is just a flight instructor that can teach an instrument rating,” Balmelli said. “And also a multi-engine rating, meaning flying planes that have two engines or more.”
Though he enjoyed his time learning at Sierra Charlie Aviation, he noticed a different type of instruction given compared to his initiation into the pilot world in Chehalis.
“I loved my time there, but I kind of liked the style here more than there. Here, when I was going through, I was going through independent CFIs, basically what I’m doing now. It’s a lot more one-on-one. You’re always with the same instructor and they’re more personalized to you,” Balmelli said. “... I like knowing my students. I like seeing how they’re doing and making sure I can give them the opportunities I had here.”
He also wanted to move back to Washington as he couldn’t stand the desert heat in Arizona.
“The airplanes down there don’t have any AC, so you’re in a little metal tin can on the black asphalt and it’s like 140 in the summer there,” Balmelli added.
Having escaped the heat, he now has eight students he’s currently giving flight lessons to at Chehalis Skies Aviation.
“It’s starting to get a little busy but, for now, I still have some slots open. A lot of people do once a week, so a lot of them are (flying) on weekends,” he said.
Balmelli’s ultimate goal for Chehalis Skies Aviation is to be able to give out both instrument and commercial flight ratings.
“By this December-Januaryish, the plane is going to get a whole makeover for digital instruments, auto-pilot, all that stuff,” Balmelli said. “So I’ll be able to train you from nothing to CFI pretty much.”
So whether you’re just looking for a private pilot’s license to be able to fly around for leisure, or looking to earn an instrument rating and commercial pilot’s license and pursue a career in commercial aviation, Chehalis Skies Aviation can teach you.
For more information on Chehalis Skies Aviation, including services offered, training timelines and estimated costs, visit https://www.csaviation.net/.
To learn more, contact Balmelli at 360-269-0070 or reidb@csaviation.net.
