If you have ever been on the Ram Van on a Friday in bumper-to-bumper traffic with a particularly contented driver, you’ve probably been driven by Sam Murphey, FCRH ’25. While nearly every other member of the staff avoids rush-hour shifts, Murphey schedules for them earnestly. Whether he’s being paid to be behind the wheel in New York City or driving for pleasure back home in Atlanta, Murphey finds traffic “really relaxing.” He says, “If I’m not pressed for time, I genuinely enjoy being stuck in traffic. You have absolutely no control. There are few times in life where you can sit back like this. It’s like meditation for me.”
His time at Fordham University has proven to be more than just driving the Ram Van and studying history; living in the Bronx has also rekindled a childhood passion that Murphey plans to turn into his post-graduate career. He grew up near a small airport in Georgia, where his grandpa would take him every weekend to watch planes, and said that the ceaseless planes that fly over Rose Hill reminded him of home. Murphey wants to be a pilot.
Murphey took his first leap into the world of flying in his first year at Fordham after trekking out to Long Island to take a discovery flight. Immediately after, he got started with his training. When he completed his first solo flight, his instructor cut off the back of his shirt and wrote the date on it, as per tradition. Luckily, he wasn’t too attached to the shirt and now has it framed. In August 2023, he got his private pilot’s license, which allows him to fly recreationally while he works toward the 1,500 training hours required to fly commercially.
The financial cost of completing training is often the biggest hurdle that prospective pilots face. “Renting a plane is weirdly less stringent than renting a car. But it costs me $105 an hour. And that’s not including gas, or the instructor,” Murphey explained, adding that it was even more expensive in New York. So far, he has logged about 90 training hours, most of which were completed in Cessna 172 planes.
To maintain the currency of his training and complete hours whenever he can, Murphey goes to a flight simulator training center in Manhattan, where he uses an Advanced Aviation Training Device, which he tells me is like flying, but “less stressful.” He took out folders of flight notes, clipboards and an app called ForeFlight, which pilots depend on to check flight notices, weather conditions and route-specific information. Before taking a flight, Murphey says he briefs himself multiple times, starting a couple days in advance. He likes to map out his route, check NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) and weather and visibility predictions.
“I just want to be a safe pilot. I would fly for anybody, for any reason. I really want to see every state in the U.S., I already have 38. I love random places, too. I would be as happy flying to Columbus, Ohio as I would be to Miami,” Murphey told me when I asked him what he’s most looking forward to. Murphey noted that his time in the cockpit has given him perspective on problems in his daily life. Up in the air, he is the only buffer between life and death, which makes long days and running out of gas roadside seem like much more manageable situations.
After graduating from Fordham in May, Murphey will be attending the University of North Dakota’s satellite campus in Mesa, Ariz., where he will begin flight school in August 2025. To avoid the heat both on the runway and inside the planes, he’ll be reporting for flights at 4 a.m. most mornings and saving ground school for the afternoons, because “tires have melted to the runway before.” He chose to go to flight school after getting his degree for a myriad of reasons, one being the transferable education of a bachelor’s in history and another that he attributes coming to Fordham as the ultimate realization that he wanted to be a pilot.
When I asked if he liked being a passenger as well, he was quick to voice his enthusiasm, adding that he has a playlist of songs that he listens to in top-down order every time he takes a flight. Murphey was even willing to share the first three songs on the playlist — though he added he made it in middle school back when Apple Music put songs in alphabetical order — “‘21 Guns,’ ‘Africa’ by Toto and ‘All Me’ by Drake. Pushback from the gate is ‘21 Guns.’”
Those who know Murphey know that he goes above and beyond for both his closest friends and total strangers. Any shift-dropping hopeful at Ram Van might look to Murphey first, who is forever willing to step up and help out his coworkers. Plinio Gonzalez, the director of transportation at Fordham, described Murphey as forever dependable: “Sam is a leader, whether he knows it or not.” As someone who is so willing to be a team player, Murphey has the makings of an incredible pilot. I hope one day to fly to Australia and hear Sam’s voice over the intercom. Even without the meditative effects of New York City traffic, I’d know we were in good hands.
