Star Trek: Every Ensign Ranked From Worst To Best

The main reason why Travis Mayweather was such a good helmsman for the Enterprise NX-01 was because he grew up aboard a cargo freighter called the ECS Horizon. During his early life, he visited far more planets than the average 22nd century Human and learned to fly just about any type of ship.

Throughout Star Trek: Enterprise, Mayweather piloted the ship through a number of highly dangerous areas. Specifically, when the Enterprise had to traverse the Romulan minefield in the episode Minefield, he had to avoid making contact with the explosives, all while avoiding an attacking Romulan vessel and moving extremely gently to make sure that Reed (who was trapped on the ship's outer hull at the time) didn't fly off into space or take a direct hit from a mine. He was also instrumental in navigating the ship through the Delphic Expanse.

His early experience piloting ships gave Mayweather a significant advantage over other experts in the field, especially since living most of your life in space was very uncommon during his life.