Aviation Academy Students Fly High

By Melissa Mummert, Channel One Online
Reported by Sitarah Pendelton, Channel One News

April 1, 1997

Learn to Fly atPlaneDouglas Aviation

Some days, it can be tough to pay attention in class, but the students at Wooddale Aviation Academy in Memphis Tennessee pay close attention to their instructors because they know that they will eventually apply their knowledge at 10,000 feet, where the stakes are far higher than just a failing grade.

Wooddale high school students learn how to pilot airplanes in the high school's comprehensive aviation program formed several years ago in conjunction with NASA. The idea behind the Aviation Academy was to create an enriching learning atmosphere to increase students' knowledge of science and math through use of technology and to spark young students' interest in aviation careers.

If industry analysts are correct, those students who choose to pursue aviation careers will find the field to be secure and lucrative. Many of today's pilots and other aviation professionals are nearing retirement age, and experts predict a serious shortage of trained workers as early as the year 2000. Some estimate that 80,000 pilots will be needed in the next 10 years, a figure that doesn't include the air traffic controllers, mechanics, meteorologists and baggage handlers.

To prepare their aviation proteges for their flight into the future, Wooddale instructors take a hands-on learning approach. "We are not trying just to give them books ... and give them a lot of theory. We are actually trying to give them hands-on ability in the different fields or different areas of aviation," says Vernon E. Shaw, an aviation technology instructor at Wooddale.

English, humanities, and basic math are all critical parts of Wooddale's curriculum, but even these subjects are centered around the theme of aviation. A student might, for example, do a research paper on the history of flight or become computer proficient by learning an aviation drafting software program. Through this thematic approach to learning, students come to understand that aviation is much more than just knowing how to fly safely and land a plane.

One of the most important concepts for the students to grasp is the mechanics of flight so that they will understand how their plane functions. All students design wings from balsa wood and develop and design their own gliders to demonstrate how certain types of designs perform.

With weeks of academic preparation under their belts as well as practice with a realistic flight simulator, the students prepare to fly. After a pre-flight check to make sure that everything in their plane is set to go, the students take control of their plane with an instructor sitting beside them as a safety precaution. They obtain permission to taxi, then push the throttle, which controls the speed of the engine. When they hit 75 nautical miles-an-hour, all of their hard work and study is put into practice. As they fly, they know that it's all worth it. After jockeying her plane to a safe landing, 14-year old freshman Audrey Stewart says, "I'm really glad I studied, because if you're just up there not knowing everything ... you're kind of nonchalant to everything ... I'm kind of glad I did study because now I think I put that to use somehow."

"Sometimes when I fly," says Hamilton Smith, a 15-year old Wooddale student, "I just want to keep on going and never come down because it is so beautiful and wonderful."