The Family That Flies Together

Nicole Robbins is a third-generation pilot balancing flight training with building a family.

Amy Wilder

Friday, March 17, 2023 at 04:20 PM ET

Verified

Nicole Stoddard Robbins is learning to fly in her father's Super Decathlon. [Credit: Chloe Martin]

Key Takeaways:

Nicole Stoddard Robbins, a third-generation pilot and mother of three, began her flying journey—learning in a challenging Super Decathlon under her pilot-counselor father's instruction—as a way to find mental stimulation beyond motherhood.
Her father's patient teaching style, informed by his counseling background, helped her overcome significant learning hurdles, particularly with radio communications, by building skills incrementally.
Robbins demonstrates how to balance aviation aspirations with family life, emphasizing that motherhood is about relationships and that women can pursue personal dreams with a flexible career timeline.
She is actively working towards her commercial and multiengine ratings, with goals to fly professionally with her father's Part 135 company and eventually for an airline once her children are older.

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The aviation community can sometimes feel like one big extended family. For Nicole Stoddard Robbins, an IFR-rated private pilot and mother of three boys in Utah, that’s more true than it is for many. Robbins is a third-generation pilot whose grandfather served in the U.S. Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force) during World War II, and in Korea and Vietnam. Her dad, Kris Stoddard—who flew for United when Robbins was a kid—is her flight instructor.

Her dad wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and fly for the USAF, but his eyesight was not quite 20/20. So he took an airline job, retiring early after 13 years and earning a master’s degree in social work. He works as a counselor and a Part 135 pilot.