South Dakota governor takes to the skies

Many South Dakotans know that their governor, Mike Rounds, is a pilot. Recently, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association profiled Rounds’ path to becoming a pilot, his love of flight, and his use of flying as a tool in politics and government.

Here’s an excerpt:

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds’ entrée into aviation came with the discovery of a hand-written advertisement while he was in junior high school.

“I’ll never forget what it said. It said, ‘Learn to fly, be a Civil Air Patrol Cadet,’” he said. Rounds took his first airplane ride through the CAP, soloed at 16, and earned his private pilot certificate on his seventeenth birthday. Now, in the seventh year of his governorship, he has instrument and commercial single- and multiengine ratings and continues to study for his air transport pilot certificate.

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