Wyatt Trost is CHS Student of the Month

Wyatt Trost once made an emergency landing in his airplane on a county road north of Concordia.

"A cylinder cracked while I was flying," he said. "The plane lost power and I had to land on a county road. It wasn't too bad."
His father, Justin, was a passenger in the plane at the time.
"He was fine," Wyatt said with a grin. "He was quiet and just let me handle it. I've done it before. I sometimes land on county roads just for fun."
Wyatt, the son of Justin and Jonna Trost, has been a star student-athlete at Concordia High School (CHS). He participates in football, basketball, baseball, Student Council, National Honor Society, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
His favorite sport? "Basketball. It's fast-paced, more intense."
In his spare time, Wyatt enjoys photography, skiing, skateboarding, flying, fishing, and hunting. He arrived for his interview at the Blade-Empire office after a 5 a.m. hunt for wild turkeys.
But it is flying, and airplanes, that Wyatt enjoys the most. He earned his pilot's license at the age of 17.
"My grandpa was a pilot. I had a lot of remote-control helicopters when I was growing up, and then I started flying drones. My mom and dad found a local instructor, and I started taking flight lessons. I fly my grandfather's 1956 Aeronca Champion."
The Aeronca Model 7 Champion, commonly known as the "Champ", or "Airknocker", is a single-engine light airplane with a high wing. It is most often configured with fixed conventional landing gear and tandem seating for two occupants. The airplane, which began production in 1945, was designed for flight training and personal use.
"I love flying," Wyatt said. "You have to respect it. But at the same time, it's so peaceful."
His longest flight so far was a nine-hour roundtrip to Iowa.
Wyatt is undecided as to his exact plans after he graduates from CHS. He will either attend Cloud County Community College (CCCC), and hopefully play basketball, or go straight to Kansas State Polytechnic in Salina, work on his aircraft mechanic's license, and continue flight training.
In the future, he envisions himself living in the Concordia area. "I'd like to be on the farm and working as an Ag pilot (crop-duster). Maybe even working as a bush pilot in Alaska during the offseason."
One final question: after he made an emergency landing on a county road because of engine failure, how did he get the plane off the road?
"We used a truck," Wyatt replied with laugh. "We towed it to a neighbor's farm, and brought out an airplane mechanic to repair the engine."
Once in a while, you can hear the throaty roar of an airplane flying in the skies over Concordia. If you see a blue-and-white single-engine plane gliding in low to land at Blosser Municipal Airport - or even on a county road - it's just Wyatt having some fun.
Congratulation to Wyatt Trost, the CHS Student Of The Month for April.