Mike Camunas

Talk about a different type of dual-enrollment program.

At the Aerospace Career Academy Program at Sunlake High, students can earn college credits, but they also learn about aviation and engineering — two very different careers that are very much intertwined.

Students learn how to pilot a plane and how to build an aircraft that works.

At the same time, they’re earning college credits from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

It’s possible to earn up to 30 college credits over four years — translating into the potential of $40,000 in tuition savings.

“We are building engineers who can fly and also pilots who know how a plane works from the engineering side,” said Joseph Fernandez, who teaches in Sunlake’s Robotics, Computer Science & Engineering Program.

“There’s one way to make a pilot: you put them in a plane, but we want to also have people who can repair a plane or who know how to design a plane from scratch. But engineers have to know that a person eventually has to sit down and fly the plane, and each pilot is going to come in all shapes and sizes.

“If you don’t fly a plane, you don’t think about where all the instruments and components go, and if you only fly a plane, you don’t think about all the work that goes into making sure it’s designed the most effective way,” the teacher said.

“Having both sides of the perspective help a pilot understand aeronautical engineering better and an aerospace engineer understand piloting better,” he added.

Students, as teenagers, go through this program, and they can earn their pilot’s license. However, it’s more than that — as a dual-enrollment program, they’ll be taking the same courses as a freshman or sophomore would at Embry-Riddle.

That’s where Mark Aragon, an Air Force veteran pilot and professor at the university, comes in. He took over the program three years ago and massively revamped it, knowing aviation and engineering had to go together for the program’s survival.

And, for the betterment of the students enrolled.

“The things we do, we get them through the pilot program. They take their FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) private pilot exam, so they can fly a plane. “They do it as a teenager — that’s unheard of in high school,” Aragon said.

He added: “Then, there’s the engineering side. They learn why a plane does this or how I can make a plane do that. When they’re using the (flight) simulators, we want them to be able to understand a plane better.”

The program has several simulators, including virtual reality (VR) headset apparatuses that put students in the cockpit of an F-16. The program also focuses on drone piloting and technology, as unmanned aircraft is a very sought-after career now.

Students use drones to do many things at the school. Such as, they were able to 3D map the parking lot by flying the droves over it, taking pictures and stitching them together. They also were able to assist in A/C repair when there was a leak and a drone was able to fly into the vent and find it.

“(The engineering side is about) problem-solving, thinking how to make things work and solve that problem. We want smart cars, then we want smart planes, smart rockets, everything to be able to control itself,” Fernandez said.

“Everyone thinks it’s removing the pilot, but it still has to be taught how to fly. Not all drones are piloted with a remote control — they can be programmed to fly where they need to be. That’s where engineering, and programming come in.”

According to Aragon, this program can lead to careers, not just in aviation, aerospace or engineering, but also cyber intelligence and security, business administration and management, wildlife science, aviation maintenance, and meteorology.

Aragon also helps students prepare themselves for careers by having them create resumes.

In fact, with Aragon’s military background, he incorporated Sunlake’s Cadet Squadron into the program, as those students look to obtain their pilot’s licenses, too.

Not all plan on military careers; Aragon pointed out one student wants to become a commercial airline pilot.

“That’s a lot of fly time for a teenager to have,” he added.

That’s the case for seniors Isabella Eby and Matthew Santos, program students who are working toward becoming pilots, but learning as much as they can about aviation engineering, as well.

“I’ve been told by people that I’m better suited for engineering than aviation, but I do like the flying part, too,” Eby said. “A lot of these classes are hands-on, so seeing how the two go together and why they go together, it has allowed me to learn more on both sides of aerospace from the aviation and engineering aspects.”

“When I first got into (the program) as a freshman,” Santos added, “I took it because it looked like an elective that really interested me and could lead to a career. I’m very interested in aviation and started learning about the engineering side a lot more once in the program. I’m very interested in how those two work together and how it will help me as a pilot.”

Published November 02, 2022