Pilotpip

They also just got some sort of really nice FTD that replecates the Avedyne in the Arrows. It replaced one of the frascas. When I last stopped in the instructors were all learning how to use it with a factory rep.

Manoj and Stephen are doing a great job advocating for the program and getting it back from the dump it was in a few years ago.

Yes, there was a time in the not-too-distant past that the AvSci program was on the brink of extinction. Somebody decided to look at the books and try and figure out why the program was hemorrhaging a ton of money every year. The immediate changes were the KingAir going away, mothballing a number of tampicos, selling a couple of the Seminoles and cutting staff. Andora, Eric and a couple others basically had to fight to keep the program going and saved it.

The other immediate change was the institution of flight fees. Apparently the school had them back in the day but dropped them when the Cahokia campus closed because the tuition for classes on the Frost campus was higher and they didn't want to lose enrollment.

The new program is very different. The instructors are basically creating a scenario-based lesson plan tailored for each lesson. The only requirement is to cover all the tasks in the module. There is also no canceling flight slots unless you're sick or the campus is closed. The result is that students are nearly finished with what was the old Flight Ops 2 (instrument course) before they have their private and do the instrument in a semester. Second, lots of brief time mean they are beyond ready for any checkride. The pass rates were much better and there was a huge difference between my students in the new program and those in the old program.