Sfcc To Offer Aviation Training Grads Can Transfer To N. Dakota School

Spokane Falls Community College will help prospective airline pilots learn to fly in a new program beginning this fall.

Community college officials will announce today a new two-year program the school will offer in conjunction with University of North Dakota, one of the nation’s premier aviation institutions.

The program also involves cooperative agreements and partnerships with Spokane Airways and local airports.

“We really hope it takes off,” said Lyle Parker, a pilot for Alaska Airlines who helped bring the university and community college together.

College officials estimate they will have about two dozen students in the first set of classes this September.

Airlines once recruited most of their pilots from the military, Parker said. But as the number of military pilots has declined, airlines increasingly have looked to private programs.

The University of North Dakota is one of the main colleges that train pilots with a four-year bachelor’s degree program, Parker said.

The agreement with Spokane Falls is similar to an agreement the university has with the Maricopa County Community Colleges in Phoenix.

“The Northwest is one of (UND’s) biggest recruiting areas,” Parker said.

Spokane’s airport facilities and weather were judged to be better for the program than Seattle, Tacoma or Portland, and the Spokane Falls officials were the most enthusiastic about offering it, he said.

Students will take a mixture of liberal arts courses, aviation courses and flying lessons. After two years, they will have earned both a private and a commercial pilot’s license.

Students who complete the six quarters of courses at Spokane Falls will be able to transfer as juniors to the university’s Center for Aerospace Science.

Judy Hall, Spokane Falls dean of instruction for business, computing and science, said the agreement with the university means there will be “no surprises” for students who transfer.

“It will be as if they took their classes at the university,” Hall said.

Washington students will pay lower out-of-state tuition than students from most other states for their junior year, and be eligible for in-state tuition their senior year.

Still, the program has a substantial price tag. Tuition at the community college is relatively low - about $1,500 per year. But the cost of aviation courses and flying lessons adds another $12,000 the first year and $10,000 the second.

Through the university, students will be eligible for more financial aid because it is a four-year program, Hall said.

The program also will start students toward degrees in air traffic control, air transport, commercial aviation and flight education.

PILOT PROGRAM After two years, students in the aviation program at Spokane Falls Community College will have earned both a private and a commercial pilot’s license.