Student Snapshot

Caleb Horton

Hometown: Huntersville, North Carolina
Class: Sophomore
Major: Applied atmospheric science
Career goals: To be a commercial or charter pilot

Caleb Horton wasn’t sure what sort of career he wanted – until he got in an airplane one day.

“In high school, my girlfriend signed me up for an intro flight because I was interested in it,” he said. “The second I pulled back on the throttle on takeoff, I knew this was my career. After that flight, I mentioned that I couldn’t wait to do this after college, but they said I could start now. I’ve been flying for three years.”

Horton, 21, arrived at East Carolina University after transferring from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His applied atmospheric science coursework has a daily, tangible impact on his future.

“Aviation revolves so heavily around weather,” he said. “I felt like before I came to ECU, I had a good understanding of weather, but what I’m learning now is amplifying it.”

The class that’s had the greatest impact on his flying is physical meteorology and thermodynamics.

“I learned a lot in the class this past fall,” said Horton. “I learned how to use skew-t graphs to find the exact lowest condensation level of a cloud to determine the ceiling, which has been really helpful. Additionally, I learned how an air parcel changes in temperature and how it can be affected in the atmosphere as altitude increases.”

In addition to being an ECU student, Horton is a certified flight instructor for an aviation school based at Pitt-Greenville Airport. While teaching, Horton gains flight hours as well as experience that will help him reach his goal of being either a commercial or charter pilot.