Amberly and Darrell Dicey at the ribbon cutting ceremony of Dicey Aviation .
Darrell and Amberly Dicey both knew at a young age that they wanted to fly .
Darrell started flying before he graduated high school . He is a 12.5-year veteran of the United States Army , where he served as a helicopter pilot . Upon being honorably discharged , he joined the Air Methods team 11 years ago .
" I ' ve wanted to be a pilot since I was a child ," Amberly added . " I actually took the long way around it . I ended up going to nursing school to be a flight nurse ."
When Darrell and Amberly married , they wanted to incorporate aviation into their life together and raise their blended family into the industry .
" We figured , why not make something to where we don ' t have to retire ?" Amberly explained . " Because we love our job ."
The Diceys were attracted to Lake Cumberland Regional Airport , which Amberly calls " a diamond in the rough " because it has historically been underused . From what they could tell , there had never been a flight school based from the airport , nor much instruction of any kind in at about 15 years .
The couple opened Dicey Aviation , a flight school stationed out of the local airport , in March 2020 — hoping for success but with no idea how ready the community was to support them . According to Amberly , their initial goal had been to purchase their first plane by the end of 2021 but they were able to accomplish it by the end of 2020 , just nine months into their business venture .
" We purchased our second airplane last summer ," she added . " We ' ve already gone past our five-year mark . The people of Somerset have been super supportive ."
With the airport still having aspirations of resuming commercial service , the Diceys have done classroom work in the first-class terminal but are currently working to convert the old terminal across the airfield into a more permanent flight school .
" That is going to allow us to have more office space ," Amberly said . " The building is actually connected to some of the hangars that we ' re using and the hangar that we use for maintenance . We ' ll have a classroom area in the front ."
The Diceys hope to move into the newly remodeled space by March . They credited their membership with the Somerset-Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce for finding assistance with the remodel and signage , as well as networking with other member businesses and community partners .
" That means a lot when you ' re a new business that a lot of people don ' t know anything about ," Amberly said .
In addition to the chamber , the Diceys appreciate SPEDA ( Somerset Pulaski Economic Development Authority , Somerset Mayor Alan Keck and regional airport manager Kellie Baker for their support of the new flight school .
" They ' re all super excited to have something like this because it ' s not something that ' s been done ," Amberly said . " It ' s something that you no longer have to go to Lexington or Cincinnati for . You can stay local ; we thought that would be great for people of the city and bring more tourism into the area ."
" We ' re definitely pulling people from other counties ,"
66 www . somersetpulaskichamber . com Somerset-Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce