{"id":16867,"date":"2020-11-17T12:25:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T12:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=16867"},"modified":"2020-11-17T12:25:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T12:25:04","slug":"ready-for-takeoff-siu-aviation-adds-five-new-planes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/illinois\/ready-for-takeoff-siu-aviation-adds-five-new-planes\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Ready for Takeoff: SIU Aviation Adds Five New Planes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – Michael Burgener, SIU Aviation program\u2019s interim chair in aviation management and flight and aviation technologies chair, is with the five new Cessna 172S flight training airplanes that arrived Nov. 5. The program now has 38 available planes for students to train on as enrollment this fall is at 612 students, including 150 freshmen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As enrollment in Southern Illinois University Carbondale\u2019s\nnationally recognized aviation program continues to climb, the number of\nairplanes to train students is also growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program gained five new Cessna 172S flight training\nairplanes Thursday night, Nov. 5. The planes, each with state-of-the-industry\ntechnology, were already in use by students on Friday. The program now has 38\navailable planes for students to train on, Ken Bro, the program\u2019s chief flight\ninstructor, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Program demand has \u2018skyrocketed\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rachel Piacentini, a flight instructor in SIU Carbondale\u2019s nationally recognized aviation program, shows the glass cockpit in one of five new Cessna 172S flight training airplanes that arrived Nov. 5. The planes have several features on the advanced flight deck, including full autopilot. (Photos by Yenitza Melgoza<\/strong>.) <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As the aviation program celebrates its 60th anniversary this\nyear, Bro noted the continuing growth. The number of aviation flight students\nhas increased from 132 in 2017 to 212 this fall. Enrollment in the aviation\nflight, aviation management and aviation technologies\u2019 programs has grown from\n441 students in 2017 to 612 students this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese planes could not come at a better time,\u201d said Michael\nBurgener, the program\u2019s interim department chair in aviation management and\nflight and aviation technologies chair. \u201cWith the large increase in aviation\nflight students this semester, our current fleet is experiencing high\nutilization. During busier flight blocks, there have been aircraft shortages.\nThese new aircraft will help to alleviate that problem as well as provide\nstudents the latest technological advancements in flight training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aircraft are financed entirely by student aviation\nflight fees, the same funds used to pay for maintenance upgrades and fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe demand for our program has skyrocketed in recent\nyears,\u201d Bro said. \u201cOur freshman class was 150 students this year and looks to\nbe as large next fall. With that in mind, we\u2019re increasing our fleet to\nincrease our capacity, and we are also looking at scheduling options to\nincrease aircraft availability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Improved safety features<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a glass cockpit that resembles a video game, the planes\nhave several improved features even from other advanced flight decks on those\nbought in 2018, Bro said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe full autopilot allows students to learn the automation\ncharacteristics common on commercial aircraft,\u201d he said. \u201cThey also have a\nsafety system that will right the aircraft if it is inadvertently put into an\nunusual flight attitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis system is a new technology that greatly improves the\nsafety through flight envelope protection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new aircraft will allow flight instructors to start\ntraining primary-level students in advanced flight decks, Bro said. This means\nthat students\u2019 first flights may be in these new aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis dramatically shifts the nature of their flight\ntraining and the way we\u2019ve taught for 60 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of pilots will have their solo flights in these\nplanes with students also earning their ratings. Because these aircraft will be\nin the program for many years, each plane will \u201chave a special meaning to many\npilots \u2013 there\u2019s a great connection between pilots and their planes,\u201d Bro said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – Michael Burgener, SIU Aviation program\u2019s interim chair in aviation management and flight and aviation technologies chair, is with the five new Cessna 172S flight training airplanes that arrived Nov. 5. The program now has 38 available planes for students to train on as enrollment this fall is at 612 students, including 150 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,116,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-education","category-front-page-slider","category-illinois"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/SIU-Aviation-New-Planes-2020edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16867","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=16867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16870,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16867\/revisions\/16870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}