The San Carlos Flight Center

“I had really gotten involved in helping teach things and holding seminars at the San Carlos Flight Center. I really enjoyed it, and I still do it today. I just loved everything about aviation. More importantly, I thought it was fun to share that information with other students who were also interested in it,” Patten said.

Without the support of Dyer, Patten would not have received his role at the flight center.

“Herb used to be a student in my ground school class when I was teaching at another flying club,” said Dyer, “Herb helped to start student activity groups, like the Student & New Pilot Support Group, and then began teaching Sunday morning private pilot ground school classes,” Dyer said.

Dyer started the San Carlos Flight Center in 2012 on the principles of safety, community, and adventure.

“I was teaching as a flight instructor at another flying club, and I saw ways they could improve their instruction and the feel of their club, but they didn’t want to change. So I started my own club/school with all my new ideas,” Dyer said.

Dyer acted as his flight center’s Chief Pilot and co-founded flight clubs, like the Bay Area FlyOutGroup. 

“The FlyOutGroup is a social group of pilots that pick fun destination airports and fly there together for fun. Sometimes, just for lunch or dinner, but other times, to see cool air museums, fly over great parts of the country, or learn mountain flying skills,” Dyer said.

He also co-founded the Upwind Foundation in 2013 with Michael Vowles.

“The Upwind Foundation is a non-profit started by SCFC pilots who wanted to give free flight lessons to high school kids,” Dyer said.

Upwind quickly brought Patten into their team. By 2022, the non-profit helped 27 students from Carlmont, Hillsdale, and other high schools become pilots free of charge.

One of those students was Alessandro Franco, who is the new owner of the flight school.

“I did flight training in 2018 through the Upwind Summer Scholarship Program. I’ve been into aviation my whole life, and I applied as soon as I learned about the scholarship opportunity,” said Franco.

Franco is currently on Upwind’s Board of Directors with Patten.

Upwind also helped Carlmont senior Alex Shetty, who received his license and joined the flight center team in August 2022.

“I’ve been at the front desk for about four-ish months. It’s a fun job, and I like talking with the customers and seeing how they are experiencing aviation. I love seeing student solos and stuff like that. The process is really fun. You meet a lot of new people, and when the weather is good, it’s usually a pretty busy job. But it’s a fun job,” Shetty said.

Patten was one of Upwind’s original four founders, along with Dyer, Vowles, and Terry Fiala.

“Patten has been a core contributor ever since. When Upwind was officially incorporated as a non-profit entity, Herb was a founding board member and currently serves as the chairman,” Dyer said.

Patten’s involvement with the flight school and extracurriculars was extensive, and he was considering becoming a full-time instructor. However, he had another job. He was a Lead Principal-Technical Architect with AT&T.

“I did work in developing some of the AT&T internal systems for employee productivity. It was a great job. It was a very secure job. It had very good benefits, and it had very good compensation, but honestly, I didn’t really like it. There were even times I would have nightmares about being called in to work.”

Patten wanted to switch his profession, though he worried he was running out of time.

“It just felt like I didn’t have that many more years left to teach because you get older and older,” said Patten.

Commercial pilots have a mandatory retirement age of 65 due to health concerns. Flight instructors have no compulsory retirement age but must pass a Medical Certificate if they wish to work, and according to an Oxford Academic study, a decrease in physical performance is prominent around the 60-79 age range.

Patten was in his 50’s when he addressed these concerns for himself.

“Quitting wasn’t a tough decision, but it was definitely one of those decisions,” Patten said.

Patten ultimately decided to quit his job, and in 2018, he became a full-time flight instructor with the San Carlos Flight Center. 

“I transitioned to full-time teaching six months later, and my life is much better because of that.”