CityView Magazine

14 September 2023 "ey can kind of look into it, look at the costs and see that the cost of pilot training is similar to that of a college degree. A college degree isn't necessary to become an airline pilot," says Smith, who took over ownership of the business from his father, Dale Smith, a pilot and mechanic. "You can go straight into your pilot training. e costs are similar, and it's a great career. "You're looking at the training to take a year and a half to two years, and then you're looking at about another year and a half to two years of flying time building to meet the minimum requirements." Another company that supports ACE Academy is Sierra Nevada Corp., an aerospace and national security contractor specializing in aircra modification and integration. "With these guys. It's just a general overview of the airplane," says SNC pilot James Gregg, another academy instructor. "Basically, I'm just explaining to them the flight instruments and what they do, the flight controls, how it makes the airplane react to basically how to turn the airplane as it climbs and descends and the different rows of throttle control, prop control, stuff like that." A pilot's license can lead to a profitable career. Crystal Byrd, director of corporate communication for Piedmont Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines that mainly serves regional airports, noted during a session with students that a first officer at Piedmont earns a starting salary of $93 per hour and a captain, $153 per hour. And it's not so much a male-dominated field anymore; there's much more diversity, she says. "You can get a pilot license before you get a driver's license," Byrd tells the students. "ere's a lot of programs out there for women and people of color to be a pilot." More than flying a plane ere's a lot more to aviation than just flying an airplane, as the students learned in the two-day academy. Meeting at the airport's firefighter training center, they heard about air traffic control, including a tour of the control tower; air carrier operations; aircra rescue and firefighting; and the history of aviation. ey had lessons on flight planning and the physics of flight; hands-on drone piloting; aircra design and maintenance; and flight simulations. "We're trying to let them know that there are different career fields that they can go in when it comes to aviation, from the maintenance side to the air traffic side, flight attendant," Airport Director Coleman says. "It's just not the pilot perspective that we're looking at. … e bottom line is, we need them wherever they can possibly fit into the aviation industry." The ACE Academy is for students who are interested in aviation and aerospace careers. The two-day program was held Aug. 7-8 on the airport campus and was attended by 41 students from Cumberland County Schools, according to Airport Director Toney Coleman. The communications team of Piedmont Airlines leads a discussion of career opportunities in the aviation industr y. Students were actually at the control panel, and they were flying the plane.

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