Our Crew
Seosamh Somers
In Ireland, the cheapest way to get a ride in an airplane is to promise to parachute out of the plane halfway through the flight. And so began the soaring saga of Seosamh Somers, the shilling starved space student from…somewhere in Ireland.
Although Seosamh (pronounced, “SHOW-SEFF” (obviously)), graduated with Honors in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Hertfordshire in 1995, he soon decided that he would rather fly planes than design them. Armed with the goal of bringing to general aviation the same professional approach, attention to detail and technological resources generally only reserved for space flight, Seosamh founded Angel City Flyers in 2000.
Seosamh holds both European and US professional pilot and instructor certificates, has over 5,000 hours of flight experience, flies a Citation jet when he is out of the office, and is proud of his phonetically impossible name.
Erick Bryant
As an army brat, Erick Bryant grew up in six states as well as in Stuttgart, Germany where his morning wake-up call came from the thumping of Apache helicopters flying over his home. After earning his bachelors degree in business administration from Gonzaga University, Erick followed his love of the culinary arts to manage a Mediterranean bistro. During his time at the bistro, Erick began to pursue another dream earning his private pilot certificate in 2002.
In 2005 while attending the Reno Air Races, Erick made the life changing decision to pursue aviation as a profession. He joined Angel City Flyers in 2006 as a student, became an instructor in 2007, and has since logged over 1,000 hours of instructional flight time in Diamond Twin Stars and Diamond Stars. As he did while working at the bistro, Erick employs the philosophy that developing interpersonal relationships will enrich the experience of the student and instructor alike.
Erik Degernes
Erik Degernes has the claim to the second most phonetically challenging name at Angel City Flyers. Erik claims to have decided on a career as a Pilot when he was two years old, yes that is worth repeating, TWO YEARS OLD. He was in the cockpit of a Challenger jet, courtesy of his dad, when he saw all the buttons and switches on the ceiling – this sold him and since then, he hasn’t stopped looking up. After studying Banking and Finance at college and Aerospace at Embry Riddle, he had all the tools to work out how to approach a bank to get the financing to be able to fly.
When Erik is not to be found flying around the country in a Twin Star, he can be found singing about it while playing his guitar. He lists his influences as the B52s, Jefferson Airplane, U2 and of course Wilco.
Nate Ehlers
Nate spent his younger days in the Bay Area playing baseball and dreaming of flying. In the third grade he took the first step in becoming a pilot when he purchased, and attempted to read “Becoming a Professional Pilot,” a 200 page technical book detailing the process of becoming a pilot.
Following high school Nate began his journey southward in search of sunnier skies. First stop was San Luis Obispo, where he studied Business Administration, went to the beach religiously, spent a year playing the drums in a local band, and took the next step in achieving his flying dreams by earning his private pilot certificate. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, Nate moved to Athens, GA to earn his flight instructor certificate at a Diamond aircraft training facility.
Eager to return to Southern California, Nate discovered the perfect match for his Diamond flight experience at Angel City Flyers where he has been an active instructor since August of 2008.
Nik Gavalas
Most guys are distracted by girls in college; Nik Gavalas was distracted by airplanes…literally (and also girls). As a computer science major at Cal State Long Beach, Nik often found himself looking skyward to follow another plane on its dreamy approach into Long Beach Airport.
While working for Electronic Arts, Nik earned his Private Pilot certificate. But being paid to design and play video games wasn’t enough for Nik who decided that he had to have the real thing. So in 2008 he made the difficult decision to leave the software industry and pursue flying full-time. Fortunately Nik found that he was able to combine his knack for technology and his passion for flying in the state of the art G1000 equipped Diamond Aircraft. Now Nik is finally “living the dream,” as one of his students likes to remind him.
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