Flying High with Apogee Air
Valerie and Josh Clark, and daughters Lily (7), Leia (5), Lana (3, and Lucy (1 1/2)
Photo by Christianna Meyo
BY SARAH KITTLE
Valerie Hermiz Clark has always been a traveler. She took her first job in high school specifically to fund trips around the world. As a Chaldean, she attended Western Michigan University on a full Cultural Diversity Scholarship Award. Valerie studied abroad in Spain and graduated with a degree in Secondary Education and Spanish/English majors.
Valerie met her pilot husband Josh in college. Although he is not Chaldean, he shares the same values and has tremendous respect and love for Middle Eastern culture. His nature made it easy for her to pick up and follow him across the world. She’s a traveler, remember?
The economy in the United States was tanking, so off they went to Indonesia, where Valerie learned about aviation firsthand. Josh was flying for a charter airplane company and Valerie was holding down the fort. After a while, Josh was sent to a different continent to fly for the Royal Flying Doctors of Australia, flying doctors and medicines in and out of the bush. The Outback in central Australia is difficult to traverse but the Pilatus planes they used made the most of space and maneuverability. This was a government program and the planes were essentially ambulances. Josh made the news once as the pilot that saved a preemie by flying them to a hospital.
“We would have stayed there if our families were there,” says Valerie. “I loved Australia.” There was also a three-year wait after becoming a citizen before becoming eligible for medical benefits, and Valerie didn’t want to wait that long. When they decided to return home to be closer to their families, they had two children with another on the way. Josh didn’t have an easy time finding employment in Michigan and was flying big jets for Amway. They decided they had to create their own happiness, in the form of an airline.
Apogee means “highest point” in astronomical terms. Their parent company is called Yousif Air, named for Valerie’s father and grandfather. It is a family-oriented company that looks out for its pilots and participates in family-friendly events like “Apogee Scares,” a trunk-or-treat-like spectacle with airplanes instead of cars, and “Operation Good Cheer” which distributes planeloads of wrapped gifts to orphanages around the state. “Our plane owners have the biggest hearts,” says Valerie.
Apogee offers aircraft management, pilot services and flight training, including a full motion flight simulator. Just recently they received their Charter Certificate which means they can offer charter flights like any other airport.
They’ve partnered with Cirrus Aircraft, a well-respected and vetted aircraft maker. The beauty of their fleet, which includes ten Cirrus SR22 (single piston aircraft), two Cirrus SF50 Vision Jets, two Pilatus PC12 (turboprop aircraft), a Diamond DA62, a Cessna Citation Jet CJ1, a Cessna Citation Excel Jet and a Honda Jet, is that their size allows them to access runways and airports in rural areas that other planes can’t reach.
Apogee Air supports all Cirrus aircraft with maintenance, crewing, cleaning, purchasing, transporting, training, and storage. All a fledgling pilot needs to do is show up. Cirrus sells about 400 single-person airplanes annually worldwide. Valerie is a big fan of Cirrus and especially likes that some models have parachutes that will hold the entire plane aloft. “It saves lives,” she says enthusiastically.
They sacrificed a lot to start this business but it has been worth it according to Valerie. Her and Josh love being together, working together, and raising their kids together. “My kids used to think Daddy lived in a hotel,” she says about his days flying for Amway. Together, they run the business and Valerie’s mom helps with the kids: Lily, 7; Leia, 5; Lana, 3; and Lucy, 1.
Valerie is in charge of the office and all the paperwork, but she puts her teaching degree to good use as well, designing and teaching a course called, “Partner in Training” for partners of pilots. She used her own experience to consider what should be taught, and ended up with training in airplane safety features, pilot lingo, turbulence, plane instruments – what you can touch, and what you must not, and a behind-the-scenes tour of the tower. It’s really helpful for partners to be included so that they can be supportive as well. “It’s the unknowns that scare people.”
The spread of coronavirus has people scared, but it’s been good for business. People don’t want to fly commercially but still need to travel, and they are finding that chartering a flight is safe and economical. Three people can fly to Chicago in a chartered plane, do their business and be home for dinner for less than it would cost normally, saving on hotel bills, too. Corporations are cancelling big flights and chartering smaller ones. “It increases productivity for already busy people.”
Some who have waited until “one day” to learn how to fly are now finding they have time to take lessons and others need to be picked up and brought home for quarantine, or have opted to go the opposite route and “quarantine on the beach.”
You’ll find the airport in Waterford/Pontiac quite busy these days, and Valerie wouldn’t have it any other way. “We offer efficiency, ease and simplicity,” she says, “and people appreciate it.”