New Heights: Fly SPS marks inaugural flight school year as OTC sets stage for aviation mechanics program launch

When Parkview High School student Aundrea Nelson first learned about the emerging Fly SPS program, she said she was intrigued. “When we talk about pilots, we tend to think of them as male, especially from TV and movies,” Nelson said. “I wanted female pilots to be seen a bit more.”

Nelson, a junior, was one of 80 sophomores across the Springfield Public Schools district who applied to Fly SPS, and one of 10 who were accepted to the program after a random lottery selection and interview process.

“I was so shocked,” she said.

Fly SPS, launched in August 2023, is a two-year career and technical education program through the district that allows high school students to earn high school credit and, upon graduation, 27 hours of college credit and a private pilot’s license.

“I still don’t think it’s clicked just yet,” Nelson said.

Katie Kensinger, director of college and career readiness for SPS, said the program, which is a partnership with Ozarks Technical Community College and Premier Flight Center LLC, was developed because of the increasing demand for aviation careers.

“Whenever we start a new program, we like to engage with our community industry partners, and learn about the needs we can help meet,” she said.

The job market for pilots is anticipated to expand by 4% through 2032, with an average of 16,800 job openings per decade for airline and commercial pilots, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. This mirrors the average growth rate across all professions.

However, due to air travel demand continuing to surge, the Boeing Pilot and Technician Outlook 2023-42 highlights the importance of investing in early career-development programs that will “spark excitement among future aviators.”

The program is free for SPS students, Kensinger said, adding, “We cover their textbooks, their equipment, their uniform, their program tuition and flight hours.”

The tuition cost per student, per semester to the district is approximately $9,000 to $10,000, according to SPS officials, totaling the first cohort’s expenses across two school years and a summer term at an estimated $450,000-$500,000.

Bledsoe said there are other costs to the district associated with the program, like textbooks and flight instruction fees, that could not be provided by press time.

“Fly SPS is among a variety of career center programs which SPS students participate through OTC, so tuition for all of those programs are incorporated into our total budget,” said Teresa Bledsoe, SPS director of communications, in an email. 

According to the 2023-2028 SPS strategic plan, getting students college and career-ready is the top governing priority. The 2023-24 operating budget, adopted in June 2023, is nearly $364 million. Bledsoe said the costs associated with Fly SPS come from the district’s budget.

Lessons from the sky
Nelson said her first year in the program has been eye-opening, with field trips and site visits to the Springfield-Branson National Airport, learning about the aviation industry’s opportunities, and studying history, weather and safety.

“I didn’t realize how important and hard it is, and all the people through history who had to try and fail so we could go on a vacation,” she said.

Over the summer, Nelson will continue classes, including in-air flight practice with an instructor, and complete her senior year with an internship in the aviation industry.

Kensinger said that the student experience has been great so far, and even more so with community feedback.

“The final semester is an internship component,” she said. “We hope with that, we can connect students with work they want to do in the future and start the employment component early.”

She added that regardless of what students want to pursue after this opportunity, having employment-readiness skills and up to 27 hours of college credit will set the students up for success. “Those are things we want for all our students, and seeing it happen through this program seems like a dream, and here we are doing it,” she said.

The next cohort of Fly SPS applicants will be announced this month, and Kensinger said that interest has grown, with over 90 applicants this year.

“The second cohort will be ten students, so next year we’ll have juniors and seniors,” she said.

OTC, which currently has 70 students enrolled in its aviation program, has seen this partnership with SPS as nothing but a success so far. Bledsoe said that as the first year of the program draws to an end, SPS will evaluate its success and work to identify opportunities for improvement and possible expansion.

“This is an amazing opportunity for these students to earn a private pilot certificate for free,” said Kyle McKee, the college’s aviation technology department chair.

OTC’s aviation program launched in 2017 with 20 students and three training aircraft, according to previous Springfield Business Journal reporting. Tuition costs for OTC’s two-year program run approximately $72,502 for in-state students, and cover topics like airline operations, aviation weather, air traffic control systems and personalized flight instruction through Premier Flight Center LLC, located at the Springfield-Branson National Airport.

Mechanic program takes flight
In October 2023, OTC broke ground on a facility that will make way for more careers in the industry, with an aviation mechanic program opening for students in the fall 2025. The program, according to McKee, will allow up to 24 students due to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) limits on student-to-teacher ratio.

“This was started due to the large need for aviation maintenance professionals in our community, the nation and globally,” said McKee. “The projected need for aviation mechanics is just as great, if not greater, than the need for pilots, but is much less publicized.”

BLS data show the median pay for aircraft and avionics equipment mechanics and technicians in 2022 was $70,740 per year, with about 12,800 openings projected each decade through 2032.

The aviation mechanic program, the only of its kind in the region, according to McKee, is a $13.2 million facility located at the old Springfield-Branson National Airport terminal on West Kearney Street and funded in part by $5 million from American Rescue Plan Act funds, $3 million from a U.S. Department of Labor grant, $750,000 each from the city of Springfield and Greene County, and $3.7 million from OTC’s general funds, according to past SBJ reporting. McKee said that concrete has been poured and metal beams started going up in March.

“We expect students of the aviation mechanic program to complete their training in two years, earning an associate degree in applied science and FAA-recognized mechanic certification in both airframe and powerplant,” McKee said. “This should open a large variety of options to begin work right away, either locally or beyond, in general aviation, business jet or commercial airline maintenance operations.”