by Jhihara Marie Krishna Mamon
They say that the first step is always the hard and tricky one. Hence, the school has always been initiating innovative ways for aspiring pilots to lessen yet enrich the tough experiences that they may encounter upon realizing their dreams.
One initiative of the school is establishing the Aviation Club— a student-based organization affiliated under the Office of the Student Affairs for Senior High School (SHS) students. It is a breathing space for those who want to create a momentum of becoming successful pilots.
On the first semester of academic year 2017-2018, the Aviation Club gave the Senior High School (SHS) students a head start on the private pilot ground course. With the help of the Adventure Flight Education and Sports (AFES) private pilot ground course finishers, they were able to conduct series of lectures and activities for the students which became the club’s way of initial understanding on their visions for young aspiring pilots – to train the students with the basics.
Furthermore, the Aviation Club tackles topics similar to the private pilot ground course. The lessons include Theory of Flight which talks about the basic fundamentals of Aerodynamics, Meteorology, Aircraft General Knowledge, and many more. Moreover, the said topics are significant subjects of discussion for private pilot course. With the help of the Aviation Club, the students were given the opportunity to learn new concepts on pilot ground course as early as possible and these provided them a big advantage in the near future when they start their studies in flying schools.
According to AFES student and Private Pilot License (PPL) holder, Captain Dathan Bacus, the Aviation Club became a tool to inspire pilot aspirants to take up the ground schooling course. More to that, the club is indeed an advance program for the students to successfully face the upcoming challenges that they will encounter as they aim high and hit their very target— to ultimately become a pilot!