
©Sandy Hansen Photography
A group of aviation enthusiasts led by Dick DeVos of Amway has created an unusual, perhaps totally unique, public high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is the West Michigan Aviation Academy now in its third year of operation.
The Academy is a charter school under the Michigan state education system. That means it is open to any high school age student in Michigan with absolutely no tuition or fees. It is a public high school, but with a very special aviation emphasis.
Under the Michigan charter school system the government pays for the cost of the basic education, including all of the normally required classes and subjects. But privately raised funds coming from aviation businesses and flying enthusiasts make the aviation emphasis possible.
The West Michigan Aviation Academy (WMAA) has a beautiful purpose-built facility on the Grand Rapids airport with access to taxiways and runways. The building is made possible by the support of private companies such as Gulfstream and private foundations and individuals making donations.
The WMAA emphasis is on science, technology, engineering and math. Whenever appropriate aviation is the example of how classroom instruction can be applied to real world application. Students study aviation specific topics, have a chance to fly in gliders and the school’s Cessna 172, and many are actively building and flying radio control models.
At WMAA all aspects of aviation are the inspiration for students to study and learn, but the structure and discipline required to succeed as a pilot, aircraft designer, manufacturer or maintainer are the core of the curriculum. Parents bring some of the nearly 300 students from as far away as 60 miles to give their kids the opportunity to learn in an aviation inspired environment. The fundamental concept that DeVos and the others who pioneered WMAA believe is that it shouldn’t matter what your zip code is, all students deserve the opportunity to receive the best possible education.
This week the WMAA hosted its third “The Leaders of Tomorrow Gala” fundraising dinner that was held in the Amway hangar on Grand Rapids airport. More than 900 people attended and the featured speaker was past President George W. Bush. President Bush arrived several hours earlier to spend time with the WMAA students. The President was candid about his own educational career, humorous and as entertaining as anybody from any political persuasion could have hoped for.
Gulfstream was the underwriter of the Gala and its president Larry Flynn was on hand along with a new G280 super midsize Gulfstream that was the backdrop for the speaker’s podium in the hangar. Several other aviation companies were sponsors, including Waco Aircraft that builds those beautiful classic biplanes. But support for WMAA is widespread and not limited to aviation and dozens of business and charitable foundations were very generous in their support.
All of us in aviation believe that flying is special, an activity with great risks and challenges that must be managed, but something that offers unmatched reward. Could there be a better environment for public high school students than to me immersed in our world of private aviation? I don’t think so. And neither do aviation industry and community leaders in West Michigan.
The WMAA slogan is “A High School Where Attitude Meets Altitude.” And I would add it is a place where private aviation and the people who love it work together with government to make a very special public high school.
Most of us remember from ground school that air circulates clockwise around a high and counter clockwise around a low pressure center. It’s useful, I guess, to know this to help understand what is happening overall with the weather. But most of the time I just look at the streamlines on the winds aloft forecast map, note that the arrows are blowing directly from my destination to the departure airport, and groan about the yellow or orange color that indicates the headwind is really strong.
This week the rocket motor on the Scaled Composite built SpaceShipTwo was fired in flight for the first time. The Burt Rutan designed rocketplane accelerated beyond Mach 1and reached an altitude of about 55,000 feet during the short rocket burn. It was an important step in testing what will probably be the first civilian craft to carry passengers into space. The initial suborbital flight is expected to happen next year. Price of a passenger ticket is said to be $200,000.
The bill that Congress passed with unbelievable bipartisan support late last week directs the FAA to take $253 million from the airport improvement fund to avoid furloughing controllers for the rest of the government’s fiscal year that ends on September 30. That should be enough money to also keep many, even most, of the contract control towers that had been facing closure operating until September.
Non-pilots often ask us what the hardest part of flying is. I think most pilots reply that it is landing. But I believe airspeed control and management is the most difficult and also the most fundamental piloting skill.
Underwriters consider many factors when deciding what premium to charge a pilot to insure his airplane. But increasingly the age of the pilot is a big factor. In fact, for many underwriters, there is a maximum age cutoff for a pilot where the company will not issue a policy for any price.
The budget sequestration deadline came and went at the end of March and very few of the predicted dire consequences have happened. Yes, the military has been forced to end its air show participation, and the FAA is threatening to close many control towers, but the air traffic delays and other painful cuts in service just haven’t happened.
Sun n Fun was blessed with darn nice weather this year. Temps were in the mid 80s, but by central Florida standards, humidity wasn’t bad, and a breeze kept it comfortable. Perfect summer weather.
The closing of nearly 200 control towers has been getting the attention as the FAA cuts spending to comply with the federal budget sequestration. But other spending cuts that are coming raise even more troubling questions about the FAA’s future programs that will affect all of us who fly in one way or the other.