When a New Airplane Taps Into Old Dreams

Here's how a Nashville coffee shop owner turned his passion for flying his taildragger into a new career.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023 at 12:15 PM ET

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Your first airplane will inevitably provide you access to new adventures…but it can also provide access to a new career. [Credit: Ben Lehman]

Key Takeaways:

Ben Lehman, despite an early passion for aviation, initially pursued a less financially risky career, successfully building a coffee company.
Encouraged by his wife, he later transitioned careers, earning advanced flight ratings to become a full-time flight instructor.
He leveraged his entrepreneurial spirit to establish a successful niche business offering taildragger flight instruction using his own Cessna 140A, also providing pro-bono training to aviation minorities.

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For most people, their first airplane opens up adventure and possibility. It enables them to access new destinations, and it provides a rewarding means of developing new skills. For my friend Ben Lehman, his first airplane opened up all of those things, but it also unlocked an entirely new career.

Like many of us, Ben’s love affair with aviation began in his early years, and it was kicked off by his father. Perhaps wanting to lure him away from less-desirable paths in life, his father paid for a ride in an old Cessna 172 in rural West Virginia. The plan worked. Ben was enchanted by the ratty 172 and to this day, clearly remembers being surrounded by vibrating pieces of loose, faded trim and watching the ground below fall away into the New River Gorge as they climbed out from the airport.