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Global economy, industry fuel students' passion for aviation

BY ANNE STRAUB
Brevard Technical Journal

Ask a student in the College of Aeronautics at Florida Institute of Technology about his or her career

Dean Karim instructs student Keely Bennett in cockpit operations

goal, and you’ll probably hear “commercial airline pilot” somewhere in the answer.

Most students who attend the college have aspirations to fly for the major carriers. But the world of aviation is much bigger, said Dr. Mike Karim, dean of the Melbourne college.

“Part of what we do here is open their eyes to the breadth of the industry,” Karim said. Pilots are needed to fly general aviation aircraft for businesses, for example, or to dust crops or spray for mosquito control.

Beyond that, there are careers in aviation that don’t involve manning the aircraft controls. “There are probably 10 or 12 other positions outside the cockpit that are involved in making that flight happen,” Karim said.

The college offers seven undergraduate degrees, including three that incorporate a flight option into the academic requirements. Most popular is the aviation management degree, offered with or without the flight option.

On the graduate level, the college operates three master’s degree programs, in airport development and management, aviation human factors and applied aviation safety. The college has introduced its first PhD program, which combines science education with an aviation focus. The program looks at equipment design and how people interact with technology.

Flight training takes place at FIT Aviation, the school’s flight operation based at Melbourne International Airport. Like all industries, the flight training arm of the college has suffered from rising fuel costs, up $1.60 a gallon over the past year. “We will have to do something to compensate,” Karim said, though he didn’t offer details.

Fuel prices are worsening the blow for the large carriers, many of whom already were struggling. That has resulted in thousands of pilot layoffs, further limiting employment prospects at major airlines. Some displaced pilots will look for other flying jobs, and others will move on to other occupations, said John Mazor, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association in Washington, D.C.

“Until that surplus is reabsorbed or goes away, it will, to some extent, be more difficult for entry-level pilots to get hired,” Mazor said. “Nevertheless, we do want to encourage aspiring pilots to continue entering the profession. The current economic conditions eventually will improve, and airlines will continue to need to hire pilots.”

FIT students are counting on it. The College of Aeronautics saw a 30 percent increase in the freshman class this year, a cyclic recovery from the drop after Sept. 11, Karim said. “We know that the industry is starting to get better,” he said.

About 400 students are enrolled in the college overall, including on the graduate level. That size is one of the advantages of an FIT education, Karim said. Advisers are able to keep in touch with students and track their progress. Walls in the department office are covered with collages of pictures of students in the program. “Our faculty know our students. We’re more of a family,” Karim said.

That atmosphere continues after graduation, when the new graduates can take advantage of an extensive network of alumni when looking for a job, Karim said. But the main asset of FIT, he said, is the quality of the academic program. “We are not a flight school,” he said. “We are an academic institution that also offers flight certification.”

As part of the program, students are encouraged to participate in an internship. Students can choose from 70 to 90 different opportunities, such as with airlines and consulting companies. “That two- to three-month experience is priceless when it comes to getting into the industry,” Karim said.

Upon graduation, many students pursue jobs that will help them build time, or accumulate the hours of experience needed to be hired by an airline. One way to do it is to become a flight instructor, such as for FIT Aviation. There also are opportunities, particularly in South Florida, to tow advertising banners along the beaches. “It’s an extremely boring job, but they build time,” Karim said.

Despite the current economic troubles airlines are experiencing, Karim is optimistic about the future.

“Aviation is not going away. Our global economy is extremely dependent on air travel. Economically, we would just collapse if we didn’t have air transportation,” Karim said.