Test pilots

There will be 17,000 openings nationwide each year for the next decade. There’s good pay. There are days off. Sign us up! What do we have to do?

Not much, just fly an airplane . . . Airlines hired more pilots in 2022 (18,000) than any year since 1990. How does the industry hope to fill more of these jobs that require smart, highly skilled professionals?

Enter the University of Central Arkansas Aviation Academy. The university has partnered with several aviation companies to provide students with knowledge, skill and aeronautical experience to meet requirements for pilot certification and assist in career placement. Ground-skill training begins in March, with flight training after. It’s all based at Conway Regional Airport and will use state-of-the-art planes and technology.

Less than 48 hours after announcing the school, more than 750 people asked for more information on UCA’s website.

At that rate, filling a bunch of pilot positions shouldn’t be a problem. But you-know-who lives in the details, and “more information” will certainly include requirements, which are extensive. This is good. Nobody wants a pilot who made it there the easy way.

Pilot academies are where pilots learn how to execute steep turns, shallow turns, and night and day take-offs and landings. They learn about air speed, thermals, and wind direction. And how to read altimeters and gyroscopes and other buzzing and blinking buttons. (Note our technical expertise.)

A commercial flying license requires 190 hours of accumulated flying time with specific hours of experience in several areas such as night flying, cross-country and enhanced maneuvers, sometimes being required to land and take off three separate times in the same outing.

It ain’t cheap—about $57,000. Talk about wanting student debt relief …

But the median salary for an airline pilot is $210,000. The industry takes it seriously and pays accordingly. Human lives are involved.

“This academy allows students to first pursue their workforce training needs, if that is their main goal, but … continue to pursue other degree options with the university if desired,” UCA President Houston Davis said. He added that students can choose a path towards immediate work in the industry or gain another UCA degree while in college.

Hats off to the UCA Aviation Academy and its partners for filling an economic need and becoming a training center where one is needed. Things there are looking … up?