Ep 144 | Aviation Academy: The sky is the limit

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I think probably the biggest misunderstanding is the first year of the program. The title of it is called Private Pilot Ground School, which it's really not that. I'm not teaching their kids to be a pilot. But what they do get is an understanding of what it will be to be a pilot. So parents come in thinking that they're going to have a pilot at the end of four years. Or they might come and think that they're going to have a ANP, which is Airframes and Power Plant Certified Technician, at the end of four years. And again, I can't give them that because both those requirements require a certain amount of seat time. And what I mean by seat time, they have to be in class for a certain amount of hours every day. So they can't get that with me. They can get it with George Stone because that's a standalone, one-only program. Whereas I have to share my students with six other classes every day.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Wanting your child to think about the future and getting your child to think about the future are two very different things. My next guest is helping parents and students with an academy that includes hands-on learning and a wide range of future possibilities. He's the aviation technology instructor at Booker T Washington High School. And today he's going to share how this four-year program is guiding students towards their diploma and a strong sense of direction. Passing on skills and shaping the future, Pensacola and Navy Strong, Mark Rabb. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

So at the risk of being completely fundamental, what are the goals of the aviation technology program?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

My main goal is to at the end of the program have somebody that is going to go out into society and be productive, whether they're going to school, continue on to college, go into the workforce, wherever it is they go, they go and do good.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

How do you feel like the program helps students do that uniquely in a way that is separate from what they're already getting in school outside of the program?

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Well, there's a few things that I think that I capitalize on that they don't get in other classes. One is work ethic. They got to come in there ready to go to work every day, just like somebody that would have a job. They're expected to be on time, expected to be ready to work, and expected to work.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

That's what I'm sensing right now. When we were chatting off, Mike, you said that the Navy instructor training is the best in the world. How have you taken that and converted it for high school students?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Well, I really haven't converted it. I just brought it with me. And the things that they teach in military instructor training is how to teach, how to connect with students. Not so much the theories and theorists and all of that, but just how to look at a student, see if the student's getting it, see if that light bulb is over the student's head that's turned on or turned off. But that is there. And I bring that with me.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Okay, so are most of your students going into aviation or no?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

At first, when they come in, that's what they want to do. They want to be a pilot, they want to be something. But as they start getting through the program, they start seeing a little bit of other things, other fields out there. And what I have applies to what they got. I got students that are going to be diesel mechanics. I got students that are going to be aerospace engineers. I got students that are going into the military. Some of them are going to go to military expecting to fix airplanes. Some of them want to go and be military infantry, stuff like that. So it's a wide range of what they're going to do at the end. And as they grow, they see what their future is going to be.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

How do you lay that out for the students as far as, hey, if you perform well in this academy, then your options are A, B, C, D, E. Is that something, a picture that you paint for them?

SPEAKER_01 4:41

I kind of let them know that at the end of the four years, they're going to have a strong work ethic. They're going to know how to show up to work. They're going to know how to think on their own. Not necessarily what to think, but they're going to have problem-solving skills. Maybe not the best, but they're going to be introduced to it and they're going to know how to do stuff like that. They're no longer going to say so much, well, Mr. Ebb, I don't know. And that's kind of like almost a forbidden phrase in my classroom. You know, you don't give me, I don't know. You figure out something and come up with a solution. Might give you time to think about it, but that's what they have to do.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

So what's a day in the life of one of your students? What does the aviation technology program look like every day?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Well, their first year of the program, that's probably what I consider the most intense, because that's all the theory, all the reasonings that airplanes do what they do, why they look the way they look, what's the difference between a helicopter and a fixed-wing airplane? All this stuff that they have to learn that they might think they have a knowledge on, but they really don't. So we we get into that and they start learning that. So that's pretty intense that first year. It's mostly 75% academic, where about 25% they're actually doing hands-on. Now, as they start progressing through the continuum, they go to about a 50-50 between academic and hands-on in the second year, where they're actually learning how to use tools and how to conduct themselves in an industrial environment, in a work environment. And eventually, when they're a senior in the fourth year of the program, it's about 90% in lab and about 10% theory.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

And what's the lab look like?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

It's a hangar.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

What? In the school?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yes. I have two airplanes in the hangar that we tear apart, put back together, pound metal into submission, and have fun with them.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

What kind of airplanes?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

They're old derelicts. One's just a two-engine piper that has no wings on it, but it's just it looks like it got flipped over, so the metal's all beat up on it. So we tear the metal off, try to fix it.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Oh, I did not expect you to say, you know, the airplanes that we have in the hangar. That is blowing my mind. Now, also, a little bird told me before you got here today that you're also doing some kind of work with 3D modeling. Is that true? 3D printing?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

I do 3D printing. We're trying to get smarter and smarter with it. I have three printers. One I just got the other day, so I'm trying to learn that one. But we go in there and we try to make things with that. And we use it quite a bit for our robotics portion. So they can go in there and they can make pieces to their robots that they have to come up with.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

And there are aviation robots?

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Well, no, no, no, no. This is something that is outside the aviation program. It's best robotics. It's a nationwide program where students, high school students, design and build on their own a competition robot.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

They don't know what they're going to have to do at the beginning of the program until they actually do the kickoff. So the past one that we had, the most recent, was they had to do robotic surgery. So they had to design a robot that would be able to maneuver around, make-shift human body, go through arteries and this, that, and the other, and replace heart valves. So they have to come up with an idea on how to make this happen.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Are a lot of your students skilled or like gifted in that sort of STEM department? Because what you're describing to me sounds, you know, maybe a little advanced.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Well, my robotics team that we have got some very good programmers. We got some people that want to be programmers. We got some people that never done programming, but they know how to use tools and build things. So we put them all together and kind of set up little teams. And they try their best to work together.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

And for the aviation technology students, are they also gifted in STEM? Like I just picture all these kids being really good at math and science.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

I wish. No, I get a myriad of students in there. Some of them are just, like you said, very gifted at math. Some of them, and I hate to say this, but can't add one quarter plus one quarter.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

That's not good.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

So we have to do a lot of math work on them. And it gets frustrating for the ones that are actually good at math. But we got to get these people to where they can understand how to do math because when it comes to aviation, regardless of what you're doing, you're going to do math.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

So what impact does this program then have on those academic areas that they're not strong in? Have you seen an improvement?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Oh, yes, absolutely. I've actually had students, particularly in math, come back to me and say they learn more about algebra and how to use algebra from me than they do the algebra teachers. And that's because we put real world situations on it. They're good not just throwing numbers out on them, but they're going to try to solve for the size of a panel that they have to make with the curves and the bins and all that.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

That's exciting. I mean, that sounds like fun. You know, that's like you're accidentally doing math and learning math. And no one wants to be left behind in a fun project. So they would be incentivized to get up to speed.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah, we got some students that are in there that want somebody else to give them the answers. We got to work with them and that kind of put them on the spot list a little bit until they realize the fact that they can't just wait around for somebody to give them the answers. They're going to have to come up with something. So we kind of do that too.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Okay. I'm starting to get a picture painted in my head now of what you said at the beginning about helping kids build, you know, skills for life. Because at first I was having a hard time thinking, how does an aviation technology program build these skills of initiative and problem solving and teamwork and like being a what you call the productive member of society? But I think I'm seeing it now.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah. And in addition to that, we also do writing.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Writing?

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Writing. If you're a pilot, you have to be able to communicate with a technician if there's something wrong with your airplane. You just can't tell them it doesn't work in the OFF position. You got to be able to express what your problem is. If you're a technician, you have to be able to understand what this person is doing. Now, a lot of the times, you're not going to see these people to pass on this scriper or problem. It's going to be written on a piece of paper. But you got to be able to express yourself on paper the way you need to. And there's a FAA requirement that in order to get certain licenses and what have you, whatnot, you have to be able to read, write, speak, and understand the English language. So we try to pursue that.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

So basically, if you're in my program, you're going to get everything you need in high school.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

I love that. That's a big claim, but I feel like you're someone who would really make sure that the kids get what is promised. So we've talked a lot about the students. I want to talk a little bit about parents because obviously parents are usually the ones that are like, yes, you know, go and join this academy, or they kind of are the engine behind those initiatives. What's something that you see parents misunderstanding about this program in particular?

SPEAKER_01 12:29

I think probably the biggest misunderstanding is the first year of the program. The title of it is called Private Pilot Ground School, which it's really not that. I'm not teaching her kids to be a pilot. There's no way I could. I only get them for less than 50 minutes every day. So that I can't do. But what they do get is an understanding of what it will be to be a pilot. So parents come in thinking that they're going to have a pilot at the end of four years. Or they might come and think that they're going to have a ANP, which is Airframes and Power Plant Certified Technician, at the end of four years. And again, I can't give them that because both those requirements require a certain amount of seat time. And what I mean by seat time, they have to be in class for a certain amount of hours every day. So they can't get that with me. They can get it with George Stone, because that's a standalone, one-only program. Whereas I have to share my students with six other classes every day. So after we get through the first year, and I do communicate a lot with parents, they're come to a real big understanding of what we do. And most of them are pretty supportive.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

And you mentioned George Stone. You're a feeder to Georgetone. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yes. The original concept of my program way back when was to eventually get students working for Singapore Technologies over here at the Pensacola Airport. And they designed a pathway from me through Georgetone to ST Aerospace. And what they have done was given students that complete my program preferential seating in Georgetone, which means they don't have to wait a year and a half, two years to get into the class. They don't start at the end of the line. They get in the next available class to start. So if they graduate my program in May, they can start George Stone in August.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

That's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

It is a huge deal. Because a lot changes with young people in that year and a half. A whole lot changes. So that is a big, big bonus right there. ST Aerospace again will support that by offering scholarships. So the students can go to George Stone with a scholarship from ST Aerospace. But they don't necessarily have to go to George Stone. The scholarship will allow them to go to any aviation program or engineering program.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Or engineering.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yes. So I have several, many, many students that will go to an engineering program, say at UWF, and use that scholarship.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

So how do they get the scholarship from STI?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

So every spring.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yes. The students will apply for it. I'll give them their application paperwork and they're going to fill out up and do what they can on there and what have you. And a lot of what it comes down to is my recommendation for them. Because with that program, they ask for my input. So I will give that. And what I do is I just rank my students from top to bottom. My number one student, not necessarily on academics, but who shows up to work every day, who goes to work every day, who's ready to work every day. When they get to work, are they doing what they're supposed to do? Are they helping other students? All this stuff that you would want out of a good employee. So I look at all that stuff, and then I'll just break them out and then write my recommendation for them.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

There is another scholarship, too, that you have a really high percentage of students qualifying for, correct? The U.S. Presidential Scholar Program.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Okay, that is not a scholarship. That is more of a scholar award, recognition. Okay. And what that is, is way back in the early 60s, it started out as just an academic U.S. presidential scholar for academics. About 20 years ago, they added CTE, which is career and technical education, to that. And since I've been here, I have had, I think, four of my students were selected by the district to represent the state. And that, and then one was selected by the state to represent the state at a national level. So we've had pretty good success with that.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

I would say so. Yeah, I would say so. There's so many benefits, it seems like, for kids to get involved in this program. How do you let parents and kids know about this in the middle school time frame? Because they have to start as freshmen, right? So how do you connect with families to let them know that this is a thing?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

The biggest thing is probably our school choice expo that we have annually. It's usually the first week of November. And it's actually hosted by Washington High School, where I'm at. So we bring all the academies in the county. George Stone, everybody brings all their stuff there, and they set up little booths, sort of like an expo type thing, it's actually what it is. And the parents can come and see and talk with us about what's going on. And what I like to do is I bring in my juniors and seniors and have them there. So that way the parents can talk to the students there that have been through the program, get their opinion. The students can talk to other students and tell them what to expect. So it's that student-to-student type of communication that helps educators quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Do you find that it's challenging to get these young students, the middle schoolers, to see the benefit as future-oriented when kids that age have a hard time even thinking about the next year, much less the years after high school?

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Aaron Powell Yes, they're coming in there wanting to have a good time and fun. And during the expo, I do have some stuff there. We have our drones that we're flying around if we can do that. And we got our robots that we build that we operate. So they can see that and play with that. And that connects with middle schoolers quite a bit. So that helps bring them in.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

I could see that. I mean, you you you get the kids with the drones. I mean, that's a big selling point.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Mm-hmm. And some of our drones, we can take little videos with it and we can sh send them up there and show the kids looking up at a drone looking down at them.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Yeah. Oh, right. The immediate feedback of what's being captured. So 20 years from now, which is five rounds of academies, what impact, speaking of the future, do you hope to that this program will make on our community?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Aviation is going to be expanding forever and ever and ever. It's going to be at a point where I probably will never see it, but people are going to have their own personal airplanes. So if I can get people, students that are oriented towards that, then we can fill the airports up with technicians, workers, engineers, and all of that can come from here. We have what we need here to make that happen. We got the people that can do the engineering. We got the people that can do the technical work, people can do the repairs. We have people that do the liaisons. In fact, I got one student who I seen her at, I think it was at Sunny's. She was a server there. And she came up to me and was just all happy and giddy and excited. She told me she got a job at the airport at one of the companies over there. And she was just going on and on about how the stuff that she learned with us was so useful to her in her job there. How she's able to just take it and run with it.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

So she was like setting herself up to be a star employee and kind of have an edge over maybe other people that got hired for the same position.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

That must make you so proud.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

That I it's feel good. Definitely feel good.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Well, there's one other thing. Let's see. Actually, it's probably others. I have one of my students who is now set to start a summer internship with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab. So that is probably going to be a very big prelude to his aerospace engineering. This is a student that's probably you're going to see him at NASA one of these days.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

So we have that. And also another huge, huge thing that we have that just starting is Air Force AMX eight twelve over at NAS Pensacola. They do the contract maintenance work on the Air Force trainer aircraft over there.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

They're taking four. To five of my students right out of my program as they graduate, and they're giving them civil service jobs, and it will be a wage grade five to start with. And it's a program that they're dubbing Grow Your Own, which means they're going to take somebody out of my program and train them to be an AMP, an airframes and power plants technician. And they'll give them one year to do that. At the end of that one year, when they complete the program, they get an immediate bump to wage grade eight.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

So if you're not familiar with federal civil service, they're going to get all the benefits of federal government, all the holidays, the travel, all that stuff that goes with it. Plus, they're going to get, I think he said it's for the area, about $22, $23 an hour to start with, which is fantastic money if you're 18, 19 years old.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

And then after they get their bump to wage grade eight, it goes to about $28, $29 an hour, just a huge, huge plus for these guys.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Wow. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

So between what we have there, we can send students to Georgetown, we can send students to university for engineering programs, we can send students to working for the Air Force. So there's a lot that can happen at the end of this program.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

It's like the perfect launching point.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Yeah, and the only real requirement that I get or that I require for my students, my expectation is effort and attitude. You come in, you give me a good effort, good attitude, you'll succeed. You might not have all the right answers all the time, but you will succeed. If you come in there with a poor effort and poor attitude, well then you'll get that too.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

What impact have you seen this program have on your students?

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Well, I guess the impact, I have one student in mind that when I first came into the program, she was just not a very good student. She tried, she'd had that effort and attitude that I just mentioned, but she just could not get many of the concepts. But she kept trying and trying and trying. One of the things that we do in the program is we have industry certifications. It's a pre-engineering and we also have a robotics. Despite what I was thinking to start with, she earned her pre-engineering certification, tried and tried and tried and got it. She also earned the scholarship for ST to go to George Stone. So that was a student who would probably, without this program, been destined to work fast food or some type of low-end retail. But now she's getting ready. I think she's probably graduating now from George Stone, getting ready to get into a $50,000, $60,000 a year job.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

That's awesome. That must be so rewarding to see the kids go from one trajectory or no particular trajectory at all, to a strong track to run on.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

It is. I had students all the time, either current students or even former students, they're just telling me how all of a sudden things just came together. They were able to do things just because of some of the skills that they learned with us. I say some of the students come in never holding a hammer in their hand. Don't know which end of a screwdriver to use. But by the end of it, they're using power tools and building things and making stuff out of metal. I had this one current student right now, still terrified of power tools. And she's like, Mr. Rabb, come watch me do this because I'm scared. Now I can let her go with anything, and she just fashioning anything out of anything.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Just imagine the confidence that she's getting from that experience to go from intimidated to conquering it.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Some of the students, I'll take little videos of them working on this, send it to their parents and say, hey, send this to your dad.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Oh, that's so sweet. Oh my gosh. All of the proud feels. Well, thank you so much for sharing about this. If the parents do want to learn more about it, do you know how they can what website they can go to, or or just should they come simply to the expo in November?

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Well, they can come to the expo, of course, but the school website does have a section for the academies on there. And you can just click on Aviation Academy and see our little spiel. We train to update that pretty regularly.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

I'll be sure to link that in the show notes. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of this. And I hope we will hear many more future student success stories to come.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

I expect there'll be plenty more.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of the Scambby County Public School.