SEU announces fast-track pilot training program

LAKELAND — A pair of Southeastern University employees climbed into the cockpit of a gleaming white Tecnam P2008 airplane Wednesday morning inside a hangar at Lakeland Linder International Airport.

The two women marveled at the control panel, which held two large screens displaying a colorful map and digital instrumentation that — combined with a joystick-like throttle — gave the cockpit the feel of a video game.

Starting next spring, Southeastern students will be able to enter an accelerated pilot training program that will include learning to fly in planes just like the two Tecnam propeller planes on display Wednesday inside Hangar 2.

During a news conference, Southeastern President Kent Ingle announced a partnership with International Aero Academy Ltd., and Trans States Airlines, a United Express operator. The Missouri-based airline also has a partnership with Frontier Airlines that allows pilots to join the larger carrier.

“When we first began to explore the idea of creating a program to meet this market need, some people were actually shocked — ‘What do you mean Southeastern University is going to join in some kind of endeavor like this, get into the pilot-training business?’ ” Ingle said. “For us, it was really simple to say yes to this opportunity, to this developing program, because of our commitment first and foremost to innovation.”

International Aero Academy is a Lakeland-based flight school certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with the authority to issue foreign M1 student visas for vocational training. The company has a fleet of aircraft and its own 12,000-square-foot maintenance facility at Lakeland Linder.

Ingle and the other speakers stood atop a makeshift stage with an open hangar door at their backs giving a view of the airport, where several small planes were parked. A few propeller planes and a small jet could be seen taking off during the event, and the noise of maintenance work being done elsewhere in the hangar occasionally intruded.

Both Ingle and Steven Markhoff, president of International Aero Academy, cited a worldwide shortage of pilots in stressing the need for the new program. A Boeing study predicted a shortage of nearly 800,000 pilots over the next 15 years, partly because many professional pilots are nearing retirement age.

“When you look at the math, you start looking and saying, ‘The industry’s in trouble,’ ” Markhoff said. “And what we’re trying to do right now with Southeastern University and Trans States Airlines is we’re trying to create a solution.”

The program will offer a two-year path to associate’s degrees and a four-year path to bachelor’s degrees through an accelerated Federal Aviation Administration part 141 pilot training framework, SEU said in a news release.

The program, which still awaits approval from regional accrediting officials, will offer three degree options: associate of applied science-professional pilot, bachelor of science in aviation management and bachelor of business and professional leadership-professional pilot.

Markhoff said the program will allow students to complete their training 18 to 24 months sooner than in other training programs and at one-third to one-half the cost. He said those who complete the professional pilot degree will be able to enter jobs with a starting pay of more than $60,000.

Stacey Ross, director of communications and recruiting for Trans States Airlines, said two other elements make the program distinctive: Students will be able to interview with the airline at the start of their training and receive conditional job offers that will await them upon graduation. She said graduates will be eligible for $6,000 signing bonuses.

And students will begin their flight training at the beginning of the program, allowing them to build seniority early. Trans States Airlines pilot Capt. Rick Brown, who is on the program’s advisory committee, said graduates will be able to attain captain status in their early 20s. That will put them ahead of other young pilots in earnings power, he said.

Traditional aviation programs at universities typically do not graduate students with enough flight hours to move directly into work for airlines, the news release said. Those graduates must build flight hours, usually as flight instructors, for at least a year before they qualify for an airline transport pilot certificate.

It takes students in those bachelor programs five years or longer to obtain enough flight hours to become commercial pilots, the release said.

Students in the program will be eligible for federal financial aid to cover not only their tuition costs but also their flight fees, said R. Joseph Childs, Southeastern’s director of aviation programs.

The training at Lakeland Linder adds to Southeastern’s 112 “extension sites,” a list of partner locations across the country.

Childs, who worked as a flight instructor while in college, said Southeastern learned over the summer that International Aero Academy was seeking a collegiate partner and was in talks with another institution. He said Southeastern’s chief financial officer, Jeff Spear, got in touch with Markhoff to express interest.

“We frankly could not have found a better partner,” Markhoff said, “with the exception that we cannot yell their slogan (team name) ‘Fire’ around the aircraft.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.