Plane and simple...
A massive pilot shortage is projected in the next 15 to 20 years, so why not get kids interested today? Cumberland students did just that thanks to an invite to AirVentures.
CUMBERLAND — With a pilot shortage projected to seriously shock the aviation industry in the next two decades, pilot and local businessman David Bellenoit is hoping students like Cumberland High School freshmen Timory Goggin, Abby LaRose and Maggie Peterson will take a closer look at the aviation industry as a possible career after graduation.
The three girls were among 19 Cumberland High School students studying pre-engineering and robotics who were invited Wednesday to visit AirVentures and New England Aviation at North Central Airport in Smithfield to learn about the aviation industry and its available career opportunities.
The industry is hoping to recruit younger talent. Boeing estimates that by 2035, North America alone will need 112,000 new pilots and 127,000 new aviation technicians.
The all-day field trip on Wednesday included talks by several pilots, including Bellenoit, Graeme J.W. Smith and Doug Auclair; demonstrations and hands-on activities; tours of the airport facility and maintenance shop; and an up-close and personal look at several small aircraft.
The students learned about the basic principles of aerodynamics and even got the chance to sit in the cockpit and learn about the plane’s flight controls.
Auclair, certified master flight instructor at the Air Ventures Flight School, even convinced the students’ robotics teacher, Michael Stead, to be his passenger in a small Cessna, which took to the skies for a demonstration flight over the airport.
In addition, Air Ventures, New England Aviation, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce donated $2,500 worth of flight school education awards to students attending the event, which also included a pizza lunch.
Bellenoit, a member of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, and Paul L. Ouellette, the chamber’s senior vice president, coordinated the event with Air Ventures and New England Aviation, where Bellenoit, a student pilot, learned to fly.
Bellenoit says the aviation profession might not be the first thing that students think about when considering their career plans after high school.
“It’s an interesting field and it’s high-paying and it’s also more accessible than most people realize,” he says.
Benoit, who’s father was a pilot in World War II, said he learned to fly for business reasons. “It allows me to visit clients quickly. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s so much fun.”
Auclair, a private pilot, master flight instructor and designated pilot examiner (a senior pilot who examines applicants for a pilot certificate on behalf of the FAA), said there are 6,000 public-use airports in the United States, including 37 in Rhode Island, which includes airports, helipads and seaplane bases.
Auclair says that over the next two decades, 87 new pilots will need to be trained and ready to fly a commercial airliner every day in order to meet the demand to travel by air.
That’s one every 15 minutes. “We’re on the precipice of a major pilot shortage,” he said.
According to statistics released by Beoing, passenger and cargo airlines around the world are expected to buy 41,000 new airliners between 2017 and 2036. And they will need 637,000 new pilots to fly them. That staggering figure is matched only by how many will leave the profession in the next decade, particularly in the U.S.
Retirements at U.S. airlines will start to rise precipitously starting in 2021 as the current crop of pilots turns 65, the mandated age of retirement. More than 42 percent of active U.S. airline pilots at the biggest carriers will retire over the next 10 years, about 22,000.
In the next 20 years, airlines in North America are going to need 117,000 new pilots,
“Airplanes and airports don’t run themselves,” Auclair says. “There are lots of opportunities in aviation on every level from pilots to support staff.”
Bellenoit says the aviation industry is one of the nation’s largest employing industries, not just for pilots, but engineers, mechanics, government agency workers and airport personnel.
“Aviation is an in-demand, lucrative career field that yields fantastic rewards and a great quality of life,” he says. “An historic number of today’s top pilots and engineers are soon coming to retirement age. The FAA and NASA have recognized this and are actively getting the message out to kids interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields that the path to advancement in this field is getting faster each year.”