Lorain County Community College’s engineering department established the area’s first private pilot ground school this semester.
At its close, the course’s seven participants will be equipped to take the Federal Aviation Administration’s written pilot’s test.
The class is available to people with an interest in recreational flying, but department professor and licensed pilot Terry Paul said he hopes the four-credit course will grow into a two-year aviation program, for students interested in careers as pilots and air traffic controllers.
“The two kind of go hand-in-hand,” Paul said.
The closest schools offering similar aviation programs are Kent State, Bowling Green and the Community College of Beaver County, in Pennsylvania.
There’s a fairly strong demand for air traffic controllers right now, according to Paul, who added LCCC took notice when Lorain County residents left the state to attend another community college.
“A lot of people from Lorain County have been going to Beaver County because we don’t have anything available,” Paul said. “We look at the need in the county for our prospective students and the kind of careers they’re interested in.”
While the program develops, Paul said, students interested in becoming air traffic controllers should consider attending the private pilot ground school, as the FAA currently requires new applicants to be licensed as private pilots.
“They change their requirements,” Paul noted.
For more information, call the school at (800) 995-LCCC.
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