But that's exactly what students at Mitchell High School are doing now through the newest additions to the school's aviation program this year.
From the wings to the fuselage to the rudder, the students are currently hard at work constructing a fully functional RANS S-21 Outbound plane. The project is the result of newly secured grant-funding looking to expand School District 11's career and technical education (CTE) offerings.
For students like Mitchell High junior Preston Jones, who wants to eventually become a licensed pilot, the program is exactly what he was looking for kickstart his career.
He admitted, however, that there was a lot to flying than he may have originally thought.
"Really, all the studying," he said. "There's a lot of requirements and regulations that you have to know."
Since it began in 2019, the program has been providing course training for three defined career pathways: aviation, aviation mechanics and drones. It does so by teaching aeronautical science, various Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licenses and restriction along with industry procedures.
Over the years, a dedicated space for flying drones and a flight simulator have been added to expand the program.
Through these pathways, students have the chance to earn unmanned aerial vehicle pilot, manned aircraft pilot and aircraft maintenance technician certifications.
"It's ballooned," Mitchel High aviation teacher John Lewis said of the program's development. "It really has. We've added more than I could have hoped for."
Instruction begins with a broad view of career opportunities and math and science concepts before learning how and why they correlate with industry standards and regulations and careers like aerospace engineer, airfield manager, and air traffic controllers in addition to the various types of pilots.
From there, the work gets more hands-on with drone flight and licensing and, now, plane construction. This year, students learned how to assemble aircraft parts using tools as simple as hammers to more sophisticated ones like pop rivet guns.
Senior Anja Moultrie-Barrow said she signed up these classes because she enjoyed working with her hands and learning how to build things. She added that this classwork provided her to do this, but in ways completely new to her.
"I had never used a hammer before, but we also get to work with tools that you can't find in a hardware store," she said.
With its construction starting this year and requiring up to 1,000 hours of construction time, the plane has a ways to go before it will take flight. The original idea was just to purchase the frame for classes students to construct, but additional grant funding by the Colorado Department of Transportation secured an engine and electrical components to add to the aircraft.
D-11's CTE program director Duane Roberson explained that students will now need to earn an Airframe and Powerplant (A&E) certificate in order to install these components and make the plane ready for FAA inspections. Doing so will require another business partnership with a certified aircraft mechanic school.
He added that CTE programs like this are able to develop in large part due to the public-private partnerships like with Mitchell High and Falcon AeroLab, a supplemental STEM and aerospace program who will provide students in the advanced course actual flight instruction starting next year.
Roberson said that the local businesses in Colorado Springs and current workforce shortages present promise for future partnerships going forward.
"There's a real need for workers throughout the industry," he said. "Which is a great place to be in for CTE and school districts."
In addition to filling current jobs shortages in the industry, Lewis said the program can also teach students skills for careers outside of aerospace, pointing to drone work for industries as diverse as entertainment, agriculture, public safety and advertising.
"As teachers, the best thing we can do is create opportunities and give the kids the skillsets they need for them," he said.
Going forward, the program looks to expand by offering the FAA 107 Pilot License online to interested students across D-11 and take students to tour post-secondary options for aerospace throughout Colorado. Stops tentatively include MSU Denver, Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technoloy, CSU Fort Collins and Colorado Northwestern Community College.
As for the plane's future upon its completion, there's a chance that it will be sold off to fund future planes' construction, but nothing has been decided yet.
"Who knows? Maybe we'll keep it around and let students get their flight time in with it," Roberson said.
©2024 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
