RE Log - Spring 2024

26 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2024 more I had to do sailing-wise, the tighter the schedule, the better I was performing academically, because there was no time to goof off,” he said. His time management skills came in handy when, toward the end of middle school, he decided he wanted to fly – an interest that required significant time, money and, most importantly, hustle. Johansson mowed lawns, gave sailing lessons, even sold lemonade. (“It’s cuter when you’re a kid. Not so much a 13-year-old.”) He bought his first flight books and a USB plug-in flight yoke. He started logging so many hours on the flight simulator that, by the time he had his first flight lesson, the experience felt familiar. On the day of his 16th birthday, the earliest possible moment allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration, he was in the cockpit of a propeller plane, flying solo. From that point on, Johansson began the grind that awaits any aspiring pilot, cramming as many flight hours as he could into his busy RE schedule. He had barely logged 20 when one flight in particular, one life-threatening trip over the Everglades, changed his approach to aviation forever. Everglades sailing team. In more ways than one, he found himself relying on skills and habits of mind that he’d gained at RE, a school that stays close to his heart no matter how far afield his career takes him. “My sailing, boating, being out on the water – they all came together to help me on one very critical day where the airplane and the ocean met,” he said. Johansson’s fascination with planes began at an early age. His father, born in Sweden, came from a long line of sailors and shipbuilders, and encouraged Johansson when he started showing an interest in “planes, big machinery – anything that moves,” as he told me. After he started middle school at RE, he immediately began sailing, a sport that formed the cornerstone of both his RE experience and his interest in aviation. In the seven years that he sailed for RE’s team, he learned principles that he still applies in his daily life as a pilot. “It’s just fluid dynamics on a different level. Sailing is producing lift. That’s what makes the boat go from point A to point B,” he said. Being on – and eventually becoming captain of – the sailing team also taught him how to do more with less time. “The He was flying solo on his way back from Tampa to Tamiami Airport. Seeing thunderstorms on the horizon, he delayed the return flight. He hadn’t flown at night before, and he assumed the process was similar. “I figured, the airplane doesn’t know it’s night. So let’s go,” he said. The lesson he hadn’t learned yet, from either flight school or practical experience, is that flying at night can leave you spatially disoriented. The plane entered a descending spiral. Johansson struggled to regain control. He was eventually able to right the plane by finding the true horizon, but he never forgot what it felt like to be in that position and unprepared. Later on, he would write his college essay about how the experience changed him, instilling both skepticism and a spirit of self- reliance. “I stepped out [of that plane], and I was an adult,” he reflected. “[Before that,] my instructor was everything, and whatever my instructor said was truth. It was an almost spoon-feed mentality: ‘Hey, this is the experienced person. They’re going to give you everything you need, and don’t worry about the rest.’ I said, ‘Absolutely 2013 RE Flyers Club officers L-R: Ezan Kothari ’14, Nathaniel Johansson ’14, Claudio Miro III ’14, Kat Smith ’16 RE flight simulator ribbon cutting Feb. 6, 2013. L-R: Matt Stock, Nathaniel Johansson ’14, Elana Oberstein-Harris ’93 , then-Head of School Ellen Moceri, Kimberly Kyle Smith, the late Kevin Smith First flight, April 2010