(Monaca, PA) Starting this fall, Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) will offer its nationally renowned James M. Johnson School of Aviation Sciences Professional Pilot associate degree online. Future pilots who enroll at CCBC can complete all the program’s academic courses virtually while participating in flight training at one of nine partnering flight schools across the state. CCBC’s premier partner flight providers stretch across the state from Beaver County to the Poconos, and include:
Aces Aviation
AirQuest Aviation
Fly Legacy Aviation
High Flight Academy
Laurel Highlands Aeronautical Academy
Moore Aviation
Moyer Aviation, Inc.
Pittsburgh Flight Training Center
Nulton Aviation Flight Academy
Ravotti Air LLC
“The United States continues to experience a vast piloting shortage with Boeing alone predicting a need for 600,000 pilots in the next two decades,” explained Dr. John Higgs, Senior Dean and Dean of the James M. Johnson School of Aviation Sciences at CCBC. “With high quality flight providers across the state on board, we can offer lucrative career opportunities to more students and meet industry demands broadly and quickly.”
Online courses for the degree include Foundations and Development of Aviation, Private Pilot Flight Theory, Instrument Flight Theory, Commercial Flight Theory, Aircraft Engines & Systems, Aerodynamics of Flight, Human Factors Theory, Foundations in Meteorology, and more.
Graduates will also earn their Private license, Instrument rating, Commercial certificate, and Multi Engine and/or Certified Flight Instructor ratings. They will benefit from earning a Restricted Airline Transport Pilot (R-ATP) Certificate, which allows pilots to join airlines at 21 years old, after 1,250 flight hours versus the standard 1,500 hours (about 2 months), and gain seniority sooner.
“CCBC’s online Professional Pilot program will allow students across the state to receive first-class academic instruction from our faculty, while learning hands-on at a flight school close to home,” said CCBC President Dr. Roger W. Davis. “This virtual portal gives students access to an education that can take them anywhere in the world.”
Pennsylvania residents will receive partial reimbursement for flight costs from CCBC’s PA Flight Discount Fund. On a per flight hour basis, pilots-in-training will receive reimbursement toward flight costs (currently $50 an hour). On average, students can expect to recoup 20% of the costs.
Often called the “Harvard of Aviation due to its now prestigious reputation as one of the nation’s top programs, CCBC launched its aviation school in 1969. More than 50 years later, the college has placed an air-traffic controller in every tower in the country and a professional pilot in the cockpit of every major U.S. airline through industry-approved curricula taught by aviation professionals and best-in-class flight simulators.