Pilots, flight instructors have fast turnover at Butler airport
PENN TWP — Over the course of about a year-and-a-half, Joe Dornetta went from earning pilot certificates to teaching new students how to fly at High Flight Academy.
Although Dornetta became an instructor at the flight school run out of Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, he is still a student himself, trying to earn enough flight time required to move on to larger planes and larger opportunities.
Dornetta said about 90% of the flight instructors at High Flight Academy teach for the same reason.
“They want to do the same thing; they want to come here, make pilots, get their hours and then move into a bigger aircraft,” said Dornetta, of Verona. “Right now, flight instruction is the best way to do that.”
High Flight Academy is enrolling about 20 to 30 students a month, according to its assistant general manager Nate Geibel, and flight time has increased substantially since this same time last year. Geibel said the academy has 175 to 200 active students, and that number has been increasing since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when the need for pilots began to grow.
Geibel said the academy has an accelerated program that takes students about a year to get the necessary 200 hours of flight time for certification, and scheduling has been adapted to help more students get their time in efficiently. These steps have helped improve the graduation rate at the academy, because in addition to quicker licensing, the accelerated program helps keep students’ costs down.
Each lesson costs about $250 and runs 90 minutes, and Dornetta said students who fly more often usually get more out of their lessons, which is how the accelerated program benefits them cost-wise.
“If you're flying in the accelerated, you're going to get done quicker so it should be cheaper in the long run,” Geibel said.
High Flight Academy has open enrollment, and Geibel said many students come in with little to no flight experience. Instructors take new students on a “discovery flight,” where they get up in the air and even fly the plane for a while. Throughout the rest of the course, pilots in training learn how to do preflight checks, take off, fly and land a plane, and troubleshoot issues.
Dornetta said students have a lot of responsibility put on them early, which helps them form better flying habits.
“We've got kids who are 14 to 60,” Dornetta said. “It's a really nice responsibility to put on them. Even though I'm going to make sure everything is OK, 'Go out there, do your safety checks.' Then they have that sense of responsibility, because now they're responsible for both of us.”
Geibel said the national average graduation rate for pilots is low, with about 70% of people stopping their training because of the cost or time commitment it requires. High Flight Academy also has loans available, which students pay back after their time at the academy.
Stephanie Saracco, interim manager of the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, said some airlines have also been paying for pilots’ educations, because they need them in the workforce.
“The industry is making it easier for folks to get their pilot’s license,” Saracco said. “It behooves a lot of young folks to get their pilot’s license because in some cases, airlines will pay for your flight training if you sign on with them.”
Joe Dotzel, a student at High Flight Academy from Wapwallopen in Luzerne County, said his options for future jobs and a career in flying are numerous, and he will probably have to make a choice about where he would like to work after graduation. He said job offers have already been coming his way, even as he prepares to finish his schooling at High Flight Academy.
“Originally, I was thinking airlines and that’s probably still my goal, but things change when you start to get offers,” Dotzel said. “Definitely something private, an airline or something.”
