Amy Sanchez earned her Private Pilot Certificate in 2021, taking advantage of the unexpected gift of free time that came with the pandemic in the middle of an otherwise non-stop career as a professional musician. Amy’s love of wildlife photography and conservation had already lead her to Africa and Alaska, taking bush plane flights into the wilderness whenever possible. One particularly stunning float plane ride to Katmai National Park solidified her desire to become a pilot, and she pursued her first rating quickly, before her music career filled her schedule again.

Amy is a music professor at UCLA, and freelances in Los Angeles as a performing musician, but she continues to pursue flying with the eventual goal of becoming a bush pilot in Alaska and Africa. She volunteers with the South African wildlife non-profit Nkombe Rhino and started the US 501(c)(3) organization Nkombe Wild in support of endangered species and habitat protection. Amy has had the special opportunity to fly with pilots in South Africa and Namibia for wildlife monitoring, veterinary procedures, and anti-poaching protection. After purchasing an unfinished cabin on an island in Sitka, Alaska in 2023, she spends much of her free time there, with the goal of gaining valuable flight experience in Southeast Alaska.

Currently working on her instrument rating, Amy then plans to pursue her commercial seaplane rating and hopes to one day fly float plane charter and sightseeing flights for fishing, bear-viewing, or environmental work in remote wilderness areas- or flying for wildlife safari and conservation work in Africa! She is not only grateful for the help of the Dare to Dream organization and the support of Women in Aviation, but inspired by the community of aviators who have blazed these paths for women and lend their wisdom, expertise, and encouragement. In turn, Amy hopes to inspire other adventurous women who may be coming from other careers mid-life, by joining the ranks of being a female bush pilot.