When that big FedEx
Boeing 727 made the short trip from Ted Stevens International Airport to
tiny Merrill Field on Tuesday, a senior airport engineer had to certify
in advance that the tarmac could indeed take a 727 -- as long as the
ground was frozen.
Never to fly again, the jet will live out its
senior years as a training tool for UAA aviation maintenance students at
the school perched on the airfield's edge.
The event captured
the city's attention, and drew unusual visibility to the aviation
technology program, how much it costs, and how its graduates fare in the
tough and troubled modern aviation industry.
I met director
Rocky Capozzi the day after the big event. Relief was written across his
face. Like any good pilot, he'd worried Alaska's weather would force
tedious delays. It didn't.
But more key than cooperative weather
were the local industry players who stepped up to solve any problems
this transfer presented. FedEx's Nick Yale and John Parrott from
Anchorage's main airport provided all kinds of gear and personnel that
Merrill doesn't have, Capozzi said. Northern Air Cargo's borrowed tug
was still on campus, waiting to move the big jet to a final spot for its
maintenance classes next fall.
Capozzi, 60, is a retired Air
Force fighter pilot who also worked for the Federal Aviation
Administration before taking on the aviation school. The curriculum he
and 11 faculty oversee offers four core tracks: professional piloting,
aircraft maintenance, air traffic control and aviation management for
running airlines and airports. Just fewer than 450 students are
enrolled, with the option of earning maintenance certifications, or
associate or bachelor of science degrees in aviation technology.
The
U.S. has about 120 aviation maintenance technology schools. UAA's
original facility was built at Merrill in 1981; a federal grant from the
now-defunct federal Airways Sciences Grant Program in the mid-1990s
(thank you, Sen. Ted Stevens) resulted in an expansion to house all four
aviation tracks in one spot.
UAA draws students from around the
country, Capozzi said, because the school is one of only a few offering
simulated control tower and radar approach labs for students.
Capozzi
answers a lot of aviation career questions. One of the most asked is
"How do I become a pilot?" He's very clear: If you only want to tool
around Alaska for fun on weekends, head to a private flight school. But
if you aspire to work professionally for a major carrier, you'll need a
four-year college degree to compete successfully. Even certified
aviation mechanics moving into management need that degree.
The
most expensive degree track is piloting, with tuition and flight costs
topping $67,000 for private, instrument, commercial, single- and
multi-engine certifications.
Aviation management is the least
expensive because it's taught in traditional classroom settings, ranging
between $10,000 to $20,000 for associate's to bachelor's degrees.
Air
traffic control makes use of high tech labs and runs from $13,000 to
$24,000 for associate's to bachelor's degrees. In maintenance, the
complete airframe and powerplant certifications are nearly $16,000, and
an associate's degree tops out at just more than $18,000.
How
about jobs for graduates? Because of deregulation and fierce
competition, the industry remains highly volatile. Mergers and recent
congressionally mandated FAA rules (for example, steeply increasing
pilot qualifying hours) constantly add new wrinkles to the employment
picture.
Paul Herrick heads up the aviation maintenance track,
which took possession of the 727. He says he has 100 percent placement
for all aviation maintenance graduates -- "They're all over the state
and in high demand." He's both proud and frustrated when Wilfred Ryan of
Ryan Air calls UAA's aviation maintenance program the best kept secret
in Alaska.
Opportunities in other tracks, like piloting and air
traffic control, can be cyclical. Five years ago, fearing a pilot
shortage, the FAA pushed mandatory retirement to 65.
"But even
without that," Capozzi says, "many pilots had to keep working anyway
because the national economic downturn had cost them their pensions."
The
end of that extension would seem to bode well for new pilot graduates.
But the FAA also raised total pilot qualifying hours from 250 to 1,500,
effective this summer, "with no clear path how to get there," Capozzi
said. Now major and national airlines are busy stealing time-qualified
pilots from regional airlines, leaving regionals shorthanded until a
fresh cohort of pilots has logged their 1,500 hours.
Still, it's
not all bad news for pilots. The FAA's new rules also increased rest
times between flights, which requires more crews overall and increases
pilot demand.
At one point, air traffic control jobs were a
shoe-in for UAA grads. This school is one of only 30 nationwide whose
graduates get an automatic recommendation to the FAA Academy in Oklahoma
City. But that pool of potential controllers also has grown, and
depending on retirement cycles, new grads can still struggle to secure
one of those jobs. Capozzi recommends that students add a management
degree to broaden their job opportunities.
But the romance of
flight endures. Alaska-born Amanda Zharoff, 24, graduated as a pilot in
2011 and is busy racking up her 1,500 flight hours with Hageland
Aviation -- all in pursuit of her dream job, piloting a FedEx MD-11.
Read more here: http://www.adn.com
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