Flight school lets students earn their wings

The DR South Alberta Flight Academy is the only school of its kind in Canada

So you’re getting ready to enter high school and you want to get a pilot’s license ... and build a plane ... and get your diploma ... what do you do?

You enrol at the DR South Alberta Flight Academy. One of a kind in Canada, the program enables students at Eagle Butte High School in Dunmore to learn about flying and earn their private pilot’s license by the time they graduate, all while maintaining a regular course load and earning their diploma.

“It’s something that is truly, truly unique and transformational that they are experiencing,” said lead teacher Dana Marshall.

The program is a partnership between the high school, Prairie Rose Public Schools and Super T Aviation, which operates a flight school out of the nearby Medicine Hat Airport.

Just like any other aspiring pilot, students in the program begin learning the basics of aviation in classes that are referred to as ground school. The difference is the classes take place during regular school hours. Flight lessons, paid for by students and their families, are offered at a reduced rate and take place outside of school hours.

“Many of our Grade 11s just soloed their airplane for the first time,” Marshall said.

In Alberta, individuals must be 14 years old to fly solo and 17 to earn a private pilot’s license.

The program has experienced significant growth in recent years. Three years ago it had 17 students. This year: 38. The program accepts worldwide registrations and currently has a student from eastern Canada billeting with a local family.

In the last four years, the program has trained 10 private pilots — one has gone on to earn their commercial license and three others are following suit. With the airline industry facing a pilot shortage, the program is setting students up to be ready to apply to the major airlines by the time they’re 21 or 22, Marshall said.

She added that the program’s benefits go far beyond teaching students about aviation and flying.

“There’s an inherent maturity that flight students have ... they walk through the halls proudly because of the things that they are accomplishing, I believe, in flight academy.”

Four students surround the a small airplane engine — Students of the DR South Alberta Flight Academy are able to earn a private pilot’s license during high school while also building an entire plane from a kit.

Some assembly required

As well as learning to fly, flight academy students also spend a weekly session working on assembling a brand new airplane from a commercially manufactured kit.

After having completed the assembly of its first plane last year, the program is now working on a second build, a three-year process. Belonging to the school division, the completed plane is available for students and former students to use to increase their hours (there’s no rental fee but students pay for the fuel). However, because the plane was not commercially built, it can’t be used for flight lessons.

The DR South Alberta Flight Academy

The DR part of the program’s name stands for Dave Rozdeba, an avid aviator and Eagle Butte teacher who died in 2017.
The program is a participant in a program that Alberta Education announced early in the year that provides funding for high schools to increase the delivery of career education, collaborative partnerships and dual credit opportunities. This program is enabling the flight academy to add two new streams: aircraft maintenance engineer and air traffic control.

Call for submissions

Success Stories is an ongoing feature that enables teachers to share their successes with their colleagues. To submit an idea or an article about a new program or approach that you’ve instituted, please contact managing editor Cory Hare at cory.hare@ata.ab.ca.