Ready for Takeoff
Republished from Golf Course Management magazine at the GCSAA
Scott Rettmann is flying high these days.
Really.
Sure, he is thrilled that things have been looking up in his job as greens superintendent at Walnut Creek Country Club in South Lyon, Mich. The golf course never looked better than it did mid-summer, he says. So much more, though, has him soaring.
It’s his plane. When you have your own pilot’s license, the sky’s the limit. A 15-year GCSAA Class A superintendent, Rettmann secured his pilot license Jan. 14. “I wanted to be a pilot for as long as I can remember,” Rettmann says. “Now I’m in the front seat.”
His first lesson: Aug. 4, 2021. It happened at his home away from home of sorts now, Ann Arbor (Mich.) Airport. “I flew with a woman who gave me an intro. I sat in the airplane on the taxiway. We talked to the tower. I remember saying, ‘This is a lot; this is cool,’” says Rettmann, a Michigan State University graduate whose first view from above on the flight was over his rival school’s football home stadium at the University of Michigan. “She let me take controls for a while. We were in the air for about 30, maybe 40 minutes. It was both intimidating and exciting.
“I was like a kid at Christmas.”
It cost Rettmann roughly $15,000 for everything to acquire his license. It was no simple decision to move forward with the plan. His high school friend’s father owned his own plane and passed away in a crash. “I was 20. I wondered if it was safe. I put serious thought into it, like why did it happen? Accidents can happen. Pilots make errors. I figured I’m not getting any younger. I said go for it,” Rettmann says.
His wife, Ashley, has faith in her husband’s decision. In fact, one of her main concerns wasn’t only about safety. “At first, my reservations were about the time commitment,” says Ashley, a University of Michigan coordinator in research studies. “I was more worried about it all early on.”
Her mood now is more upbeat, especially when recalling the first time she and their children Ellie and Grayson looked upward when Scott was on his maiden voyage solo flight on Feb. 21, 2022.
“The kids pointed to the sky and said, ‘Is that dad up there?’ It’s been fun so far,” she says. “Him being up above the clouds is the coolest thing.”
He vividly remembers it, seated in a Cessna 1722, tail number N572RJ. “It was beautiful. Cold day. Couple clouds. I wore a golf pullover,” Rettmann says. “I did three loops in the pattern, essentially an oval shape around the airport. So exhilarating. I was confident because I had done it a hundred times. Before I went out, I was like, ‘holy cow, this is going to happen.’ On the downwind leg I thought this is incredible. It felt like such an accomplishment.”
Rettmann’s achievements are applauded by his instructor.
“He’s great. He makes it fun too. He always has a smile, very positive, always prepared,” says Grace Hu, Rettmann’s certified flight instructor who is now a pilot for Delta Connections. “It’s not always smooth during training. There are some curveballs, like how to handle the aircraft when its stalling. Some have a fear to put it in that position. He stayed positive and handled it very well.”
Hu even caught a glimpse from up high over Walnut Creek CC, a 27-hole facility located about 45 miles west of Detroit. “We flew over it. Really nice golf course. He showed me things they were working on. It all looked great to me,” Hu says.
Dan Meersman has known that for quite some time. Chief Planning Officer/Director of Grounds and Facilities and a 23-year GCSAA member at Philadelphia Cricket Club, he hired Rettmann, a fellow MSU Spartans graduate, as his first intern there.
“It was a good starting point. Quickly, he was like an assistant,” says Meersman, who has no doubt that Rettmann has what it takes to be a pilot. “He’s a really smart guy, careful, cautious guy, not one to be flying by the seat of his pants. He’s awesome. He’s the kind of guy you would be happy for your daughter to marry. He has consistent, positive energy every day. Nothing ever seemed to get him down. That’s an attractive quality.
“Would I fly with him? Absolutely.”
Currently, Rettmann’s status is considered single-engine land Visual Flight Rules (VFR) pilot and is allowed to fly up to 17,999 feet SML until he earns an instrument rating to exceed that limit. He earned a high-performance endorsement to fly airplanes with over 200 hp and he is currently in ground school to earn his instrument rating. He can only fly under VFR, which means not flying through clouds and maintaining proper spacing above, below, and side-to-side from them. He can fly night or day as long as conditions are in VFR. For now, he can only fly a single-engine prop plane, but there is no restriction on where he can travel.
Already he has capitalized on his license by flying assistant Luke Martell and mechanic Victor Anderson to a Michigan GCSA/Wee One Foundation event in northern Michigan. Rettmann also is a member of the Ann Arbor Flyers, one of the oldest aviation clubs in the country, having been in continuous operation since its inception in October 1940.
When he flies the four-seater, Rettmann carries his I.D., pilot’s license, iPad plus a paper map in case his iPad fails, ForeFlight App (Ashley also has an app to monitor him when he flies) and an aviator Bose Aviation Noise-Canceling headset. One thing not by his side is water. “I don’t drink in case I have to go to the bathroom,” says Rettmann, who is airborne two or three times monthly.
Meanwhile, Rettmann understands what keeps him grounded when he’s not up in the air. “I love to fly,” he says, “but I also have a real job with a wife and kids.”
