Proposed pilot program at Southeast could take flight by 2021

As soon as next fall, Southeast Missouri State University students could have the option to pursue a professional piloting Bachelor of Science degree.

The Southeast Board of Regents approved such a degree program during its meeting earlier this month after some discussion about costs and student demand for a pilot program.

"The regional, national and international demand for professional pilots does continue to grow, even in light of COVID-19, we are still going to ... see that continue in our airline industry," provost Mike Godard told the board.

Citing the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Godard said the pilot occupation has "an aging population."

"In this area, in particular, many pilots on average are at least 55 years old," a Friday news release from the university stated.

The bureau predicts, according to bls.gov, the employment of airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers will grow by about 5% from 2018 to 2028. In the same timeframe, employment of commercial pilots is projected to grow by about 8%, according to the bureau's website.

According to a November article by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), more than 2,000 professional airline pilots will retire in 2020, with an increasing trend over the next five years, "until it peaks with more than 3,100 pilots annually reaching their mandatory retirement age of 65."

The university also cited data from Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI) showing there were 1,218 pilot job openings in the region in 2018, while only 63 candidates graduated from pilot programs.

Asked by regents whether many Southeast students were seeking a professional pilot program, Godard cited other programs in the state which he said were all "at capacity or beyond capacity."

"Having recently come from an institution that had a professional pilot degree program, I can attest that there is a significant demand among students that want to get into this," Godard said.

With the regents' approval, the final decision to offer the program at Southeast next rests in the hands of the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. According to university communications director Ann Hayes, the program will be submitted to the department for review by the end of May, and the university expects to have a response by July 1.

"We have had preliminary conversations with the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development about this," Godard told the board, "just preemptively making sure that we were going to be in alignment with what some of their questions or requirements might be."

The program will also be required to meet Federal Aviation Administration requirements and be approved by the administration in order to offer licensing, Hayes told the Southeast Missourian in a Wednesday email.

"We will be working closely with the FAA and the company we will contract with for the flight training in order to attain FAA certification," she stated, noting the university will need FAA certification as a pilot school prior to admitting students into the degree program.

The program would require a minimum of 121 credit hours of instruction, including 42 hours of general education coursework, according to Godard's presentation to the board.

In its initial cohort, Godard said the program will be able to accommodate 10 students and would gradually increase its capacity to 30 students in year two, 50 students in year three, 65 in year four and 85 in year five.

According to Hayes, specific course fees would not be set until closer to the implementation of the program in the fall of 2021. But she noted such fees will be established to cover the cost of the third-party vendor providing flight instruction, planes and simulators.

"There would be additional flight fees that are associated with these, certainly for the flight instruction but also for the fuel and those types of things," Godard said.

Godard discussed costs in broad strokes at last Friday's meeting but noted the program would be launched with "minimal costs" by contracting out flight instruction and aircraft ownership. Vargas told regents the university would soon issue a request for proposal to open bids for the partnership.

"The flight company will own the aircraft and be responsible for maintaining those aircrafts per the contractual guidelines and FAA standards, and that would also include the flight instructors," Godard told the board.

The university has had initial discussions with the City of Cape Girardeau about partnering with the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, according to its news release. Airport manager Katrina Amos told the university that city and airport leaders are "very supportive" of the program and stated, "We have no doubt [the program] would be a success in our community."

Job prospects

Job prospects may, in fact, be best with regional airlines and non-scheduled aviation services, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's because entry-level requirements are lower for regional and commercial jobs, the bureau's website states, and there is "typically less competition" among applicants in these sectors than among those seeking jobs with major airlines.

Amos stated the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport "has a unique setup" because it owns all facets of the airport, including the air traffic control tower, which makes it the "perfect training ground" for student pilots. Amos also noted the space offered by the airport's hangar facility could be "reconfigured" for classrooms, giving students the chance to learn how airports operate in "real-time."

The professional pilot degree program has been an interest of university president Carlos Vargas for several years, according to a university news release. Shortly after Vargas first arrived in Cape Girardeau in 2015, he was approached by Dexter, Missouri, resident Ken Jackson, who had a similar interest in establishing a pilot program.

Jackson -- who is the state supervisor of instruction with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and former superintendent of Dexter Schools -- earned his private pilot license in 2017 and is a member of the Dexter-based Stoddard County Flyers club and of AOPA, according to the news release.

"I was aware of the fact that Ozark Technical College (OTC) in Springfield, Missouri, began a new aviation program in August of 2017," Jackson stated in the release. "When I reviewed their program, curriculum and facilities, it became apparent to me that Southeast Missouri State University and the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport could offer everything that OTC provided."

Jackson pointed to the Cape Girardeau Public School's Career and Technology Center, which provides students the opportunity to take a basic flight course in which students learn the initial phases of ground and flight training, the chance to log a possible five hours of aircraft practical flight instructions and 10 hours of flight observation, according to the CTC's website. CTC students are eligible to complete the FAA's Private Pilot written exam and pursue a student pilot certificate status upon completion of the course.

In the CTC's course, Jackson said, students do not accumulate enough hours to complete the check-ride, or the "practical test."

Through Southeast, Jackson said a professional pilot program would allow students to meet all degree requirements locally, including class instruction, ground school, accumulation of flight hours, FAA Private Pilot Certificate testing and FAA check-ride with a designated pilot examiner. That, he told the university, could result in increased job opportunities in the area and might even make students more inclined to remain in the area and contribute to the local economy.