My name is Connor Cragg, and I’m currently a second-year aviation engineering major from Chantilly, Virginia – just outside Washington D.C. Ultimately, it was only through a string of good luck and coincidence that I ended up pursuing aviation at Ohio State. When I was still a senior in high school deciding where to go to college, Ohio State was not even in the top 3 schools I was considering. I had only originally applied based on the fact that it was similar to the other schools I had applied to; a good engineering school with a large student population. Eventually, my decision came down to choosing whichever school was the cheapest, and I committed to Ohio State as a mechanical engineer. I had never really considered a career in aviation but have always had a passion for everything aviation related. Growing up in Chantilly, I had the privilege of living just down the road from the Udvar Hazy National Air and Space Museum – home to an incredible collection of just about every era of both air and spacecraft. Some of my personal favorites include a P-38, SR-71, FW-190, the B-29 “Enola Gay”, and the Space Shuttle Discovery. I’ve had a healthy obsession with warbirds and flying from the first time I visited onward. After learning about and reading into OSU’s aviation program, I decided to make the switch and pursue a career in the field.
As far as what I hope to do after graduation, I’m a little less certain of how I might work specifically. Right now, my goal is to become an airline captain – so right out of school my immediate need would be to find a job that I can sustain myself off of while building as many hours as I can. Thanks to the ability to get an RATP, I hopefully won’t be in this position for too much time. At the moment, the option I’m most seriously considering is becoming a certified flight instructor for OSU’s flight school, as it’s a relatively safe bet and I wouldn’t have to move too far away anywhere.