Aviation academy opening at airport Joint effort will serve high school students
PENN TWP — Butler County Community College, the Community College of Beaver County and High Flight Academy are offering Butler County high school students a chance to earn credits toward an associate degree in the aviation field.
Officials from the colleges and High Flight, based at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, announced the opening of the Community College of Beaver County Aviation Academy at High Flight at the airport Wednesday.
Beginning in the fall, county high school juniors and seniors with a grade-point average of at least 2.5 can take the four-semester, 28-credit program at High Flight.
CCBC instructors will teach ground school subjects such as introduction to aviation, flight theory and aircraft systems. BC3 instructors will teach English composition and statistics, which students will attend for one hour and 40 minutes five days a week.
Then they can apply those credits toward CCBC's School of Aviation Sciences, which offers associate degrees for careers in air traffic control, aerospace management, unmanned aerial vehicle operations and as professional pilots.
The announcement of the joint program included Wendy Grimm, manager of the Federal Aviation Administration's Flight Standards District Office in Pittsburgh, presenting High Flight owner Bob Ferree with a Part 141 Flight School certification authorizing it to teach and prepare students for their private pilot certificate and instrument flight rating.
Students in the program can work on obtaining their pilot's license.
Alex Ola, who will be a senior at Mars High School in the fall, enrolled in CCBC's Aviation Academy as a junior.
“I've known I wanted to be an airline pilot since I was 8 years old,” Ola told the audience that gathered in a High Flight hangar.
He said he attends his high school classes in the morning and goes to CCBC for the afternoon, and plans to have an associate degree at age 19.After the event, he said he is also working toward getting his private pilot license and hopes to have it by Christmas.CCBC President Roger Davis said 10,000 pilots will be needed over the next 10 years.“We will need a pilot trained every 15 minutes,” Davis said.CCBC launched its academy in 2015. Davis said students work all over the country and some helped guide planes safely to the ground during the 9-11 terror attacks.BC3 President Nick Neupauer thanked commissioners from Butler and Beaver counties for supporting the program.Partnering with CCBC and High Flight made more sense than trying to start a new aviation program, he said.“This is what education in the 21st century looks like,” Neupauer said.County Commissioner Kim Geyer said the partnership will help fill industrial job demands.“Today sets a new standard, a new and high benchmark of achievement,” Geyer said.
