Flying Start

Just call him Top Gun with topspin.

Dustin Sorotsky, a senior on the Granada Hills High boys’ tennis team, is nicknamed “Top Gun” by coaches and teammates because he is a pilot.

He earned a pilot’s license at 17 and became a flight instructor when he met the aviation industry minimum age requirement, passing an instructor certification test on his 18th birthday last year. He works for a Valley-based flight-training company.

“It’s kind of interesting,” Sorotsky said. “I look pretty young and most of my students are people in their 40s. When they first meet me, sometimes I kind of see a tinge of fear in their eyes. But once they see I know what I’m talking about, that I know what I’m doing, it’s OK.”

Sorotsky is the youngest of 10 flight instructors for American Flyers, a professional flight academy with offices in Van Nuys and Santa Monica.

When on the ground, he plays No. 2 doubles for Granada Hills with senior Alex Tokar. They are unbeaten this season, helping the Highlanders to an 8-1 record, including 5-1 in West Valley League play.

Sorotsky’s ground strokes aren’t as strong as Tokar’s, so he prefers to play in the backcourt and leave the area around the net to his partner. Because of his speed and quickness, Sorotsky excels at court coverage and has a knack for keeping the ball in play.

“He just doesn’t give up,” Tokar said. “He will get any ball that he possibly can.”

Sorotsky applied the same work ethic to put himself on an accelerated career path.

He has worked at American Flyers for two years, first organizing and posting flight schedules, answering phones and “doing the grunt work” to help pay for flight lessons. After earning a pilot’s license and instrument rating, he was hired to fly.

He has been a flight instructor since October, allowing him to record airtime while waiting to become a commuter-flight pilot at 21, the minimum age.

“I’ve got a pretty good jump on other guys,” Sorotsky said. “I’m really happy that I know what I want to do. A lot of kids don’t really know for a while yet. To a lot of people, flying on a plane is really no big deal. Me, it’s the only thing I want to do. Every time I do it, I love it more and more.”

He enjoys instructing others how to handle a Cessna 172. Because of his work, Sorotsky can empathize with teachers at Granada Hills.

“It’s kind of interesting to see now what my teachers go through,” he said. “It can be frustrating when a student is learning and they’re not quite understanding what you’re saying. But then they’ll get it, and it can be pretty satisfying.”

Coach Ron Wood of Granada Hills said Sorotsky also sets a fine example on the court.

“He’s a great kid,” Wood said. “He’s come a long way from his freshman year when he had virtually no talent, just a big heart and a desire to learn the game.

“He’s driven and he knows what he wants to do. He’s a good leader not so much because of his stature on the team but because his attitude is infectious.”

Sorotsky loves to share his passion for flying, but he doesn’t intend to make flight instruction his career.

He needs 400 hours of flight time to become a commuter pilot, including 40 in multiengine planes. He needs a minimum of 1,000 to 1,200 hours of flight time to become a commercial jet pilot, and he is interested in aviation-related business management and administration.

Sorotsky already has learned decision-making skills that have helped him handle some sticky situations in the air.

He was flying with a student to Seattle on Feb. 28, the day a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Pacific Northwest, throwing air traffic in the region into chaos.

Sorotsky’s small plane was scheduled to land at Boeing Field, but the runway buckled from the temblor and his flight was diverted to Portland.

On another flight to Northern California, Sorotsky dealt with an electrical failure that knocked out navigation and radio instruments on an overcast night.

Rather than risk a landing without necessary radio clearance and communication, he decided not to make a stop and followed the lights along the south-bound Interstate 5 freeway for 3 1/2 hours before finally touching down.

“Fortunately, it all worked out,” he said. “If you look at flying, it’s a lot of responsibility, and a lot of it is decision-making. If you look at most of the accidents that happen, it usually comes down to the decisions that are made.”

Small-craft pilots must pass a medical exam, along with lengthy written, oral and in-flight tests before they can be licensed. Sorotsky is confident of his abilities.

“When I’m flying, I don’t doubt myself,” he said.