GREELEY — About a year ago, Aims Community College was ready to jettison its pilot-training program over worries, in a budget-cutting era, that it was costing the college too much.
But today the program, one of the few in the country offered by a college, is ready to ride the wave of a pilot-training boom as fleets of aging pilots fly into the sunset.
As many as 3,000 pilots may leave United Airlines over the next eight years, say some industry watchers. Other major airlines will see the same drain as pilots near retirement age, said Vaughn Hanson, Aims aviation- program director.
“It’s a good time to be training to be a pilot,” Hanson said. “And we will be there to fill that void.”
The Aims aviation program — based at the Greeley-Weld County Airport — started because the grandson of the college’s first president wanted a place to learn to fly, Hanson said.
These days, students can get a two- year degree in air-traffic control or as a helicopter pilot, an airline pilot or a general-aviation pilot. In general aviation, a graduate will get private and commercial pilot certificates and instrument rating.
The career possibilities are numerous, Hanson said, including piloting a commercial jet and working in law enforcement.
Doug Ball is thinking he might use his degree to enter aerospace engineering or become a bush pilot in Canada or Alaska.
“The natural-gas industry in Canada is exploding, and companies need someone to shuttle them from job site to job site,” said the 21-year-old Ball. “Plus it would be interesting work and something I’ve always wanted to do.”
By far, the most popular degree is in air-traffic control — the program currently enrolls about 110 students.
About 40 are enrolled to get a helicopter-pilot degree, and 25 are learning to be fixed-wing pilots.
The fixed-wing portion of the program was nearly dropped last year when the college stopped accepting new students. School officials were wrestling with the expense of maintaining the school’s flight center as well as rising fuel costs and paying flight instructors.
The college leaned toward leasing the flight center out to a private firm to handle instruction, Hanson said. But officials worried that an outside company couldn’t provide high-quality instruction.
They also noticed that when enrollment was capped in the pilot program, interest in the helicopter and air-traffic-control segments sagged.
“We just decided we didn’t want to lost part of our program; it would hurt the others,” Hanson said. “Plus, we could keep the quality of the program up. We could continue to call the shots.”
Dennis Scholl, 29, is relieved the flight program is staying with Aims. Scholl, an Air Force veteran, is using his veteran benefits to pay for his schooling to be a helicopter pilot.
“It’s funny, but I didn’t fly at all in the Air Force,” Scholl said. “I spent all of my time in the back of the helicopter. But now I’ll get my chance.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
