Jeff Van Orsow finds his future vocation through OSU flying club

By Cliff Kirkpatrick
Corvallis Gazette-Times

A family visit during Jeff Van Orsow’s first season with the Oregon State football team changed his goals in life.

The junior defensive end was redshirting and had extra time during the weekend with his relatives. He came up with an idea the guys would love.

Van Orsow saw ads for an OSU flying club at the Corvallis Airport, and wanted to go up into the bright blue sky.

He hoped to rekindle his aerospace memories from childhood when there were many air shows and up-close tours of military planes from his father’s days as a B-52 pilot.

“My dad was in the Air Force, so I’ve always been around planes,” Van Orsow said. “I’ve always been fascinated with them. My grandpa built model planes. I visited his house and he had them all over the house and hanging from the ceiling.”

However, the plan took his father, Dave, by surprise. It seemed out of character for his son because he didn’t like the structure of military life and wasn’t interested in his career.

Even though there would have been a good opportunity to attend the Air Force Academy, since his father was an academy grad, Van Orsow wanted to play football in the bigger Pacific-10 Conference. There was a difference in each of their goals.

“All through high school he didn’t seem like he wanted to fly,” Dave Van Orsow said. “But when we went to Corvallis and put him and his brother in a plane, he was bit. I didn’t think he was going to like it. But it was a different environment he was in. You are on your own. It’s a pretty good feeling to go up.”

From there Van Orsow was determined to become a pilot. It took 1½ years to find the funding and time for lessons, and another 1½ years to complete the training of ground school, flight school, solo flights throughout Oregon and written tests.

He’s on the verge of reaching his goal, and is eager to complete his training.

“It took forever to get it going,” Van Orsow said. “I had to convince my dad I really wanted to do this. And then I used my college money to pay for it.”

Most of his work was done during the summer when he took OSU classes and worked out in the morning so he could spend afternoons at the airport without worrying about football.

Learning to fly was relatively easy for him. His father said the Air Force found athletes have better hand-eye coordination than most people to help with the precision needed in the cockpit.

“It’s really peaceful,” Van Orsow said. “It gets you away from everything. It’s my time to be by myself. A lot of people don’t realize it’s something anybody can do. You just have to be committed to it.”

There were only two minor scares being a student. There was one time Van Orsow leaned on the door of the small plane and it popped open at 3,000 feet. He looked down and felt the adrenaline rush.

Van Orsow also got lost on a night cross country flight with his instructor. That gave him some anxious moments, but he found his way home.

His biggest setback was his original instructor took a job in Hawaii, flying planes around the islands. He left without letting Van Orsow know, so extra time was spent finding a new instructor and he had to almost start over.

Van Orsow had to prove he was at the level his log book said before the new instructor approved his progress. That cost more time and money.

The final step is passing his final half-day oral exam and proficiency test. It was scheduled for the bye week, but he was delayed. Now he’s racing against the weather and his football schedule.

“It’s always one of those things that you always want to do it, but you don’t think you’ll get the opportunity,” Van Orsow said. “I came here and found out there’s a flying club, and thought I really do have the opportunity to do this. It was a dream come true.”

The joy of flying has gotten to Van Orsow so much he’s looking into an advanced flight school in Arizona after graduating from OSU. He hopes to earn all his ratings to become a commercial pilot after a two-year program.

So much for the political science major.

“I don’t have a plan with my major,” Van Orsow said. “My passion is with flying, so I’m leaning to that pretty hard.”

And now Van Orsow’s conversations with his father have become more intimate with their shared interest. Flight stories are told and pointers commonly given.

However, this just gives him mother, Sharon, something else to worry about.

“His mom says one pilot in the family is enough, but I know he’s had the basics, and if he runs into a problem he can handle it,” Dave Van Orsow said. “He didn’t seem to have any problems learning or disappointed in how he did. He was never hard on himself. We’re pretty proud of him, and happy he found this. He’s a good kid.”

JEFF VAN ORSOW

• WHO: Starting right junior defensive end

• SIZE: 6-foot-4, 266 pounds

• AGE: 21

• MAJOR: Political science

• HOBBIES: Hunting, fishing and golf

• FAMILY: Son of Dave and Sharon. He has two brothers, Neil and Brad.

• ECT: This is his second season as a starter. He has eight tackles, one sack and forced a fumble in the first two games. ... Made 31 tackles, had one sack and two INTs last year. ... Family lives in Las Vegas, but he was born in Blythville, Ark.