A Semester in the Life of a MTSU Aerospace Pro Pilot Student

  This week I had the privilege of being able to hear from a guest speaker in my Intro to Aerospace class: an Endeavor Air pilot. Brendon graduated from MTSU in 2016 and now serves as a First Officer for Endeavor Air, a fully owned subsidiary of Delta Airlines. What I appreciated most from Brendon's presentation was the fact that he explained his journey from being at MTSU to being a new hire at a regional airline. Brendon talked about what classes were like for him here at MTSU and his path to graduation, which I thought was helpful. He also explained briefly what the new hire process is like at a regional. New hires will undergo 4 weeks of ground school and spend time in simulators. New hires will also be placed on reserve, either on short call in which the pilot must be within 2.5 hours of commuting to the airport or long call in which the pilot must be able to commute in 12 hours. He also said that he will be upgrading to Captain th...

This week I had the opportunity to attend the Aerospace Department's Fall 2018 Safety Symposium! Kathy Gagne was the guest seeker and she has had much experience in the NTSB aviation department. Kathy explained that she started in the NTSB as a part of the "Go Team", investigating on a regional scale. Now, she works at the NTSB's headquarters and writes accident reports for major accidents across the U.S. I think one of the most interesting aspects of Kathy's job is the fact that she is a part of a very small group of NTSB aviation workers who is qualified to use drones at accident scenes. Kathy also discussed some of her background in aviation. She received pilot training at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. One big takeaway I had from her speech was her message to all the pro pilot students to work as hard as possible on becoming a pilot, no matter the obstacles. The presentation itself was also quite interesting. Kathy highlighted several accidents as c...

This week I had the opportunity to meet a new faculty member in the Aerospace department! I was able to meet the awesome Dr. Peter S. Neff thanks to the fact that he was substituting this week in my Laws and Regulations class. Dr. Neff gave my class a brief introduction to his background in aviation, which is itself anything but brief. Dr. Neff has only worked at MTSU for a little over a year. However, his experience in the aviation field is truly impressive. Dr. Neff started his career in aviation in the United States Airforce, flying seven different types of military aircraft. Dr. Neff completed 29 years of active, reserve, and Air National Guard service for the U.S. Air Force. To add to this, Dr. Neff has also spent more than 32 years flying for major airliners, flying as captain on five different transport category aircraft. After his career in the airlines, Dr. Neff began working for the FAA as an Aviation Safety Inspector. The most impressive aspect of Dr. Neff's career ...

This week in the aerospace department was not the most eventful. However, whatever lack of excitement I might have had this week was more than made up for by the ever-quickening pace of the schoolwork. Along with my various other classes, I am currently working on several different aerospace assignments. In my Intro to Aerospace class, I am currently working on a research paper on the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO. The organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations which is designed to standardize civil aviation standards and recommended practices (SARPs). I must say, I know precious little about the ICAO but I look forward to finding out more about it. Along with this research, I am also beginning my research on general aviation issues for my Laws and Regulations Class, though this is not my focus yet. However, I have already picked out a topic for this paper: bird strikes. I think this will be an interesting subject to research and discuss. ...

This week in the Aerospace department I’ve had the opportunity to attend several events that were hosted by airlines. The first of these events was a presentation given by Endeavor Air on Tuesday. Conveniently, the presentation was in a classroom at the bottom of my dorm. What’s more, Endeavor Air also provided Chick-Fil-A, which was a bonus. The presentation itself focused on networking in aviation and resume basics, which I found to be quite useful. Two current Endeavor Air pilots gave the presentation and helped explain their program, STEP or Student to Endeavor Air Pilot. Endeavor Air is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Airlines and operates the world’s largest fleet of CRJ-900 aircraft. Endeavor Air also flies CRJ-700 and CRJ-200 aircraft.             The next day I was able to attend another presentation by a regional carrier: Republic Airlines. Republic Airlines is a regional airline subsidiary of Republic Airways Ho...

MTSU's Air Traffic Control Simulator This week I had the pleasure of being able to tour MTSU’s ATC lab! The lab consists of a 360-degree tower simulator and radar simulators. The tour was led by two current MTSU aerospace majors, which was nice. The students explained that there are three different areas of air traffic control: tower, TRACON (Terminal Control Approach Facilities) and Air Route Traffic Control Centers- which is knowns as simply “center”. My classmates and I were first able to tour the radar side of the lab, which houses TRACON and en route simulators. In all honesty, the bombardment of new terms was somewhat hard to follow, but it definitely gave me a better appreciation of the complexity of air traffic control. It was interesting to hear how the three different components of ATC interact and learn more about the purpose of each one. Unlike the tower and TRACON, centers are not located at the airport but outside of major cities across the US. This was somet...