CJ Lindsay: Flying high with track and aviation career

Coming off a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Lovell High School track and field record holder CJ Lindsay’s career is flying high on and off the track.

The son of Chad and Lindsay Lindsay and a 2021 graduate of LHS, CJ holds two school records at LHS, one individual and one as part of a relay team.

He set the school record in the 200-meter dash at 21.95 his senior year, and as a sophomore he ran with Jacob Grant, Tyler Nichols and Zeke Newman to set a school record and Class 2A state record in the 1,600-meter sprint relay at 3:37.39 (state record since broken).

Upon graduation, Lindsay served a two-year mission in Brazil, the Teresina Brazil Mission, serving in the poorest and second to poorest states in Brazil, Maranhao and Piaui. He also served initially in Orem, Utah, while visa issues were worked out, arriving in Brazil in January of 2022.

Upon his return from the mission in July of 2023, Lindsay had a track scholarship waiting for him at Rocky Mountain College in Billings. He started training in August with lifting and basic conditioning, and the indoor track season started in December, with Lindsay running the 60-meter and 200-meter dash.

“I could tell I’d been off for two years,” he said. “I was working hard in Brazil, but the working hard wasn’t in sprint training. I was walking 15 miles a day house to house.”

He continued into the 2024 spring season, running the 100, 200 and a leg of the 400-meter relay team.

“I wouldn’t say I’m back yet, but I would say I’m heading in the right direction. My times are getting lower, and I know they’re not where they need to be, but if I keep up my training in the summer and keep working hard over the next year or two, I’ll be back where I was and even better.”

Lindsay can now add another school record to his resume. On May 5 during the Frontier Conference Track and Field Championships at Montana Tech in Butte, the Rocky Mountain College 400-meter relay team broke the school record in a time of 43.02, with Lindsay running the key second leg. He joined a senior, junior and sophomore on the team and noted, “We have some good sprinters coming up.

“I was excited I was able to do that and know I can do a lot better and will do a lot better,” he said.

He noted that RMC practices and holds meets at Lockwood High School.

Flying career

When CJ Lindsay isn’t running, he’s often flying, attending RMC to become a pilot, majoring in aeronautical science. He noted that Rocky Mountain offers a four-year Part 141 aeronautics program, which is more in-depth to educate professional pilots compared to a Part 61 flight school, which is more for recreational pilots.

The RMC aviation school is accredited through AABI – Aviation Accreditation Board International, which puts the program on the same footing as programs at the University of North Dakota, Ohio State, Purdue and Embry-Riddle, among others. But while accredited with “the big boys,” the Rocky Mountain has advantages in being a smaller school, including better access to airplanes and the flexibility to allow students like Lindsay to study, fly and run track, he noted.

There are numerous levels to a career in aviation. First, Lindsay soloed on November 4, and he recently obtained his private pilot’s license. Next comes instrument rating, followed by a commercial pilot certification, which allows a pilot to be compensated to fly.

Next comes a multi-engine rating and/or becoming a certified flight instructor, which Lindsay called “an optional thing,” adding, “I personally am not much of a teacher and would rather not be a CFI.”

What Lindsay does intend to pursue is his Airline Transport Pilot certificate, and he’ll be working on that for years to come.

“The name of the game is building (flying) hours to get your ATP,” he said. “You generally need 1,500 hours, but Rocky Mountain has an agreement with the FAA to get a restricted ATP at 1,000 hours.” An ATP-R certificate allows a pilot to fly passengers as the second in command or co-pilot on a commercial flight.

He added that RMC owns 10 single-engine planes and one twin.

Lindsay will start work on his instrument rating this fall and is pleased that he was recently able to get permission to use his Daniels Fund Scholarship for aviation expenses, which is the most expensive part of an aeronautics degree.

He said he currently has between 60 and 70 flight hours and will have around 300 when he graduates. After that he will work to build flying hours in jobs not involved with carrying passengers until he can get in the cockpit of a commercial airline with his ATP, perhaps a regional airline initially, then moving to what he called a legacy airline  like Delta, United or American.

And someday, he said, he’d love to be a bush pilot in Alaska.

He is currently working for Envoy Air in Billings, a subsidiary of American Airlines.

And so, Lindsay’s schedule is certainly full during a school year in the classroom and running, flying and working. And for this talented young man, the sky’s the limit.