The Aspen Flight Academy in Aspen, Colorado, is launching a\nyouth aviation education program this fall that is the first of its kind in the\nnation. The \u201cEvery Student Flies\u201d program will provide a free flight lesson to\nevery student at the Aspen Public High School, with enrollment this fall being\n556 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four Roaring Fork Valley organizations joined together to\nbuild this unique program to introduce Aspen High School students to the many\ncareers available in the aviation industry. The Aspen Flight Academy, Aspen\nEducation Foundation, Aspen School District and The BettyFlies Foundation all\njoined forces to develop and fund this initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each student will be offered a free flight lesson with an\nFAA Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) in a Diamond DA40 aircraft. After the\nflight, students will be given a private tour of the Aspen\/Pitkin County\nAirport\u2019s Air Traffic Control tower, along with tours of local aviation\ncompanies on the airfield. An educational package will be offered to each\nstudent containing a wealth of information on higher education and career\nopportunities in all fields of aviation including piloting, air traffic\ncontrol, aircraft maintenance, airport management, and more. In addition, free\nflights are being offered to the high school\u2019s teachers and administrative\nstaff, to enable them to share with their students the experience of flying in\na small aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Every Student Flies program was created by Captain Michael\nPearce, a Boeing 777 international pilot for American Airlines and President of\nthe Aspen Flight Academy\u2019s Board of Directors. \u201cWe are excited to launch this\none-of-a-kind program to offer every Aspen High School student the chance to\nexperience flight and learn about careers in aviation,\u201d said Pearce. \u201cOur hope\nis that other public high schools across the country will be excited about our\nprogram and look into doing the same in their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order for the Academy to have the highest quality\nexperience for the students, Pearce worked with Diamond Aircraft CEO Scott\nMcFadzean to craft a long-term purchase agreement. Two DA40-NG model aircraft\nwill be provided to the Aspen Flight Academy every year for 10 years to support\nthis program, ensuring the high school students are flying new aircraft and one\nof the industry\u2019s safest trainers with the newest technology onboard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This ten-year agreement is valued at over $11 million.\n\u201cEncouraging young talent in aviation is a cause we truly believe in at Diamond\nAircraft,\u201d said McFadzean. \u201cEvery Student Flies is a powerful initiative which\nwill positively impact many young lives and our industry for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The program will be managed by Kate Short, the Director of\nAviation for the Aspen School District. Short is a K-12 educator and pilot\nholding ratings from CFI to multi-engine instrument. \u201cThis program is unique in\nthat we are able to offer these experiences to public high school students at\nno cost to their families,\u201d said Short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suzanne Pfister believes the Every Student Flies program\ncould make a real difference in the lives of young people. Pfister is President\nof The BettyFlies Foundation, a partner of this new program. Her non-profit\norganization provides aviation opportunities for youth while sustaining the\nlegacy of her mother, Betty Haas Pfister, a WWII Women Airforce Service Pilot\n(WASP) and Aspen\u2019s own aviation hero. \u201cBetty was a trailblazer in the true\nsense of the word,\u201d said Pfister. \u201cShe was a flight enthusiast who thought\n\u2018outside the box\u2019 in all her endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Aspen Flight Academy in Aspen, Colorado, is launching a youth aviation education program this fall that is the first of its kind in the nation. The \u201cEvery Student Flies\u201d program will provide a free flight lesson to every student at the Aspen Public High School, with enrollment this fall being 556 students. Four Roaring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation-education","category-colorado"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13890,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889\/revisions\/13890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}