Reinstituted class helps students aim for sky
JACKSON TWP — Some Seneca Valley High School students will soon be soaring to new heights thanks to an ambitious district physical education teacher.
Christopher Brown, an 11th- and 12th-grade educator, was trying to bring a free curriculum from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), a nonprofit meant to boost general knowledge about aviation, to the high school when he realized the aviation program hadn't been offered for a few years.
“It sat vacant for two or three years,” Brown said. “It wasn't even offered because there was no one to teach it.”
The program was established initially by a physics teacher and was passed to a private pilot who has since retired.
Brown said teaching aviation “kind of fell into (his) lap.”
The minimum requirement for teaching aviation, according to Brown, is to have a private pilot's license, which he said he earned in December 2017.
Sixteen students are currently enrolled in the one-semester elective class, but Brown said this is partially due to a lack of awareness.
“It's a new class now,” he said, “so awareness of it wasn't really out there.”
Brown said those who are taking the class have chosen it out of a general interest in aviation, but some want to be pilots or involved in air travel in other capacities, such as maintenance or cabin crew.
“I think a lot of it was curiosity,” he said. “They were curious about it. They wanted to see what was happening. They saw 'aviation' and thought 'Oh, hey, that sounds cool.'”
The class is primarily for introducing a general overview to students who may not know much about aviation.
The course includes lessons about pilot instruments, flight instruments, aerodynamics, communications, aerospace navigation and flight planning.
Brown said it could become more in-depth or be offered for multiple semesters as he tries to incorporate the newly developed curriculum by AOPA and Purdue University into what already exists at the school.
The class took a field trip Nov. 9 to the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport where they were be able to experience flight simulations.
Will Hohman, a Seneca Valley senior in the aviation program, said the opportunity to use the plane simulator “definitely was the best” part of the field trip.
“It was pretty fun,” Will said. “Basically he explained it to me as the same exact thing as a regular flight except there's a lot less risk in it — you can crash it as many times as you want.”
Although the weather prevented the students from actually flying for the day, they all seemed to take a lot away from the experience.
“One thing I pushed early in the semester is the opportunity the students had in taking this class and maybe pursuing a career in aviation,” Brown said. “There's a huge pilot shortage across the world. (They) actually have the opportunity to get pilot's licenses before driver's licenses. It's a great opportunity for a younger generation to get involved and get started in a career at 16.”
Brown said he hopes to be able to expand the program in the future and increase interest and awareness of aviation careers.
