Avionics News December 2016 - 41

And that's the
model you've used for
avionics training?
With avionics, it's exactly the
same thing. We use distance
learning for all our avionics
training. The students get their
books, go through the textbook
material online, then come to
Cincinnati for the last 100 hours.
It's roughly a 300-hour course or a
semester of college. Students can
do 200 hours online, then do their
lab work here. We are NCATT and
ASTM accredited, and the lab is
set up to operate through NCATT.
The hands-on work lessons are
downloaded for NCATT to a laptop.
When they finish the coursework
and the lab work, they take the
Aircraft Electronics Technician test
and they are ready for an entrylevel position.
What do you like best
about your job?
There's something different
going on every day, and I'm
constantly meeting new people
from all over the world. We are in
a cutting-edge industry, and now
we have our application to be a
Part 145 repair station. There's
no avionics shop at Lunken, so
we see the need for an avionics
repair station on the field. When
we started the repair station, we
set up a co-op program with our
avionics students to get real-world
experience while earning money. I
think co-op education is the wave
of the future. The key is getting the
word out.

You also started a drone
program, right?
As of Aug. 29, the FAA said
that if you want to fly a drone
commercially, you must have a
drone pilot certification. That
allows the FAA to administer a
written test similar to the private
pilot written test. There is no
checkride, no flying, but you
must pass the written test. We
offer three different courses: one
where we provide the drone and
the training, and we teach them
the ins and out of Part 107 and
how to fly the drone. We have
a second course if the student
already owns a drone. The third
course is for experienced UAS
operators who need test prep for
the written.
Any programs in
the works?
We want to train our avionics
students to do large UAS
maintenance, since that dovetails
so well with avionics. Those big
drones are flying all over the
world, and drone maintenance
could be another endorsement
for avionics students. We try to
stay on the cutting edge, and the
expertise we have is in distance
learning.
Tell me a bit about the
sightseeing tours.
We have different packages.
We take off from Lunken on the
east side, fly across northern
Kentucky, and see downtown
Cincinnati and the stadium. We

call it the Queen City Tour,
and it takes about 15 minutes.
We have a 30-minute tour
that continues north to Kings
Island amusement park, and we
have an hour flight that goes
farther. We do this in our Piper
Cherokee Six, which is named
Amelia.
What do you do when
you're not working?
I still head for the airport.
Since I'm a pilot, my husband,
Dave, and I will go off for
different weekend trips. I'm also
a scuba diver.
There's a connection
with scuba and flying.
A lot of divers also
are pilots.
Yes, my favorite place to dive
is an island called Bonaire off
the coast of Venezuela, next
to Aruba and Curacao. Bonaire
has little development, and the
reef is close to the shore so you
can do beach dives; you don't
even need a boat. By the way,
the three interests many people
share are aviation, scuba and
motorcycles.
How would you sum
everything up?
There's nothing more exciting
than the industry we're in, and
there's nothing I like better than
to talk about what we're doing. q
To learn more about Flamingo Air,
visit flamingoair.net.
avionics news

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december

2016

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