The sixth annual Aviation Career Education Academy was recently held at the Metro Technology Center.
More than 50 metropolitan-area middle school student attended the academy.
Academy students participated in a number of activities with airplanes, helicopters, drones, hot air balloons, among other aviation aircraft.
The academy is sponsored annually by the Mike Monroney Federal Aviation Administration Center and Metro Tech.
The two-week day camp works to expose students to the different career pathways to aviation careers.
The future aviators launched their experience on the first day of the camp at the AAR Oklahoma Center to learn about maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft, as well as the “aviation alphabet, Bernoulli’s Principle and forces of flight before traveling to the 137th Air National Guard Special Operations Wing.
Next, the students spent time at Metro Tech’s Aviation Careers campus, where they saw hot air balloon demonstrations and helicopter fly-in from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
After lunch, the students explored the aspects of aircraft maintenance with Metro Tech Aviation adult students and instructors.
There, they learned about riveting.
Also, that day campers went on a “taxi ride” in general aircraft before they learned how to fly drones, and about the different parts of airplanes and how weather affects flight.
“This camp gives students an expanded view of aviation,” Michael Branch, Metro Tech Aviation Career site director, said.
“It shows them that some of the most important people in aviation are the ones who work behind the scenes people like mechanics and those in the control towers.”
On the next day of the camp, students toured the Will Rogers World Airport and the airport’s fire department before visiting the Monroney Aeronautical Center, the FAA Academy and the center’s Systems Training Building Annex.
There, students experienced hands-on operations in an Airbus 330/340 and Boeing 737 flight simulators.
Then, students visited the Transportation Safety Institute and the aircraft “boneyard,” where they learned about post-accident investigations.
After a visit to the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, the students traveled back to AAR Oklahoma for a National Aeronautics & Space Administration presentation.
To end the week, students received awards and recognitions, and visited Fly, an indoor sky-diving facility in Oklahoma City.
“It’s exciting to see young people getting involved in aviation,” commented Laura Shepherd Madsen, communications program specialist at the Monroney FAA Center.
“As kids, these students don’t know what they don’t know, so, we try we try to teach them about all the different fields of aviation there are and letting them know they have a lot of options for aviation careers.”
Sponsors of this year’s day camp were AAR Oklahoma, the True Sky Foundation, and Metro Technology Centers.
