Unbounded Possibilities Proposal. Indiana State University Flight Academy Initiative. Aviation Technology Department. Mr.

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3 Unbounded Possibilities Proposal Indiana State University Flight Academy Initiative Aviation Technology Department Mr. Harry Minniear Dr. Bradford Sims

4 Unbounded Possibilities Proposal Indiana State University Flight Academy Initiative Summary: Indiana State University has been granting a B.S. degree in Professional Flight Technology for over 40 years. Students earn flight certificates as part of the degree which allows them to qualify for pilot positions in commercial and general aviation. In this program students receive all of their ground curricular training through the university Aviation Technology department. They receive their actual flight training through outside private contractors. While this model has been workable, in many respects it has continued to be problematic. During a departmental strategic planning session nearly three years ago, the faculty decided to explore the possibility of owning our own flight academy aircraft and integrating the flight academy into the university structure. The Aviation Technology department has formulated a business plan to further develop this proposal to include information on start up, financing, location, operating expenses and details on day to day operational requirements. Initial cost estimates for starting the flight school is roughly three million dollars. This money must be secured up front as all equipment must be in place from the beginning. Once the flight academy opens for business, it must be self sustaining from day one. We do not have the luxury of trying to become self sufficient over a multi year period. The primary objective of this proposal is to secure a partial measure of funding for initial start up costs. Whatever remains unfunded will have to be borrowed up front from outside sources. This is a singular departmental initiative. There are no other collaborating units or entities involved as this is not practical in this situation. Among those colleges who have aviation programs, Indiana State is one of only a handful of universities remaining in the country which does not own and operate its own flight school. Simply owning a university flight school does not guarantee institutional distinction. It would, however, contribute to areas and opportunities on the periphery which could be distinctive if correctly marketed. With respect to the Pathway to Success Strategic Dashboard, the Flight Academy initiative easily aligns with goals 1 through 6. This will be discussed in greater detail under the Project Goals and Objectives section of the proposal. This initiative was selected by the University President and Provost as an additional initiative to be considered after having been previously identified as a Distinctive Program award winner. As such, there will be elements and information presented which may not specifically align with the full proposal requested format and guidelines. This proposal will highlight the strengths and advantages of an Indiana State Flight Academy and how this ownership can contribute to a host of opportunities for our community, our university and our students and faculty. 1

5 Societal Need: As mentioned earlier, this particular proposal may not necessarily align with those requirements and expectations for validation as set forth by the full proposal guidelines. Identifying a societal need which can be addressed or solved by starting a university flight academy is a difficult task. Admittedly, in the traditional sense a flight school solves no readily apparent problems associated with our society or community. As a by product of the flight school, our highly qualified and competitive students go out into the world and are able to solve societal needs. Graduates from our professional flight program serve in the fields of military, commercial, governmental, industrial and scientific areas of aviation. These areas serve the needs of the public and private sectors of our economy, our nation s defense and also contribute to research opportunities found specifically in agricultural studies. The problem(s) associated with not owning our own flight school are needs which should also be addressed. One of the major problems facing the Aviation Technology department today is the lack of control and oversight when utilizing contractors to conduct university flight training. There is a formal contract which is signed by the university and the contractor. This contract outlines areas such as compliance, instruction, staffing, equipment and other related details. The department also utilizes an aviation faculty member who is assigned the duties of airport liaison. In this capacity, the faculty member is given release time from teaching to be present at the contracting flight facility. The liaison serves as an advisor to the contractor and makes suggestions on matters concerning efficiencies and safety. This could easily be a full-time job. Given the limitations of teaching and availability, the liaison is only able to provide oversight for a few hours each day. The flight contractor operates in excess of 12 hours per day, 7 days a week. In the end, the contractor is a private business which is driven by profit. Suggestions and advisement given by the liaison are given consideration by the contractor, but may not necessarily be adopted as an operational procedure. There is also a need for fleet standardization. In the past our students have found themselves flying as many as five different types of aircraft manufactured by several different companies. On the surface this may appear to be a good thing in that students are able to gain experience in many different aircraft models. On the contrary, this can also contribute to negative training for the student as there are many different cockpit configurations and systems that must be learned. This slows the training process and raises the overall costs of the program. The ISU Flight Academy would utilize one type of aircraft for all phases of training and would experience minimal cockpit configuration changes. Another advantage of fleet standardization is decreased maintenance costs. This is achieved through commonality of spare parts. By utilizing only one aircraft manufacturer, fewer spare parts are required as many are interchangeable. The need for technically advanced flight training is also critical to the success of our students. Presently, our students are flying aircraft which were produced in the late 1970 s and 1980 s. While these vintage aircraft are safe and reliable, they do not have 2

6 the modern avionics and navigation suites found in today s aircraft. This puts our graduates at a distinct disadvantage when they interview and compete for aviation jobs in the marketplace. The flight contractor has made it clear that there will be no investment made in upgrades or modernizations to the current fleet. This is perfectly understandable given the age of the aircraft and the amount of capitol needed to bring the fleet up to current cockpit standards. Project Goals and Objectives: The primary goal of this proposal is to secure an up front measure of funding in order to start the ISU Flight Academy. It is impractical to devise a budget centered on milestones or timelines which reflect an incremental awarding of funding based over a period of time. All Flight Academy assets must be in place and operating when the doors are opened the first day. There can be no phase in of resources over an extended period of time. Secondary goals are as follows: 1) Utilize the Flight Academy assets and human capitol to bring national recognition to Indiana State University. 2) Improve recruiting and retention of ISU flight students 3) Explore potential revenue streams and growth opportunities for ISU aviation. An ISU Flight Academy can enhance institutional distinction through the efforts of the flight instructors and student pilots. Each year our ISU competition flight team competes on a regional or national basis against other university flight programs. By having our own aircraft adorned with ISU logo, we project pride of ownership, ISU branding and loyalty. Two years ago, ISU aviation was selected to host the national flight team competitions to be held at the Terre Haute Airport. There were over 70 university flight teams from around the country who participated in this week long event. The notoriety and national recognition which was bestowed upon our university was tremendous. As a bonus, our department was awarded nearly $10,000 dollars to be used for our own flight team activities for the coming years. We have been approached by event organizers and asked to host again in the near future. The department has also fielded a female team of pilots who compete on a national level in the annual Air Race Classic. The competition is only open to female flight teams who will compete in a week long air race across the United States. Indiana State s flight team recently won this race finishing tops among all college teams. Again, when events like this happen it brings great national recognition and distinction to our university. Owning our own flight school could also help to recruit and retain more ISU flight students. Given the short time frame between notification and due date of this proposal, there was no time to gather scientific data through a marketing survey. The departmental chairperson does follow up and queries students who have visited our campus and have chosen to attend other flight programs. While there are many 3

7 reasons given for not attending Indiana State aviation, the most often reason given is that they are not impressed with the aircraft utilized by the contractors, citing the age and lack of a technically advanced aircraft. Flight and simulator fees hover around $50,000 over a four year period. The loss of a single student can make a big difference with respect to the bottom line. By offering a fleet of modern technically advanced aircraft, the university might soon realize an increased number of students in our program. The acquisition of this fleet is overdue. Our nearest competitors, Purdue and Southern Illinois have both recently purchased brand new fleets of aircraft. We do maintain a slight cost advantage over these universities. If we choose not to modernize our own fleet, we could start to see a significant decline in new students as they will undoubtedly sacrifice a slight cost advantage to fly a modern aircraft. The opportunity for potential revenue streams and growth for the Flight Academy are intriguing. Several other university flight programs were visited by the ISU Chairperson this past summer. The visits were used for observation and benchmarking purposes. Of those visited, nearly all had taken advantage of outside contractual opportunities. Examples would be military training contracts, foreign and domestic commercial flight contracts and local subsidized contracts. As it turns out, Captain Delvin Young, a member of the departmental industrial advisory board is a senior executive with American Airlines. We have been told that American is looking to partner with a university program in order to provide initial flight training for those selected for employment with the airline. This could be a wonderful opportunity for Indiana State, provided that we own our own technically advanced fleet of aircraft. Other opportunities might include flight training for the public. This could be a wonderful source of revenue for the flight academy and the university. Most of this training could be done on weekends and summers when university student training traditionally slacks off. With respect to growth for the program, ISU could potentially start an additional aircraft maintenance degree for our students. Aircraft Maintenance courses could also be given to the public as a means for reducing costs of private aircraft ownership. Community engagement could also be fulfilled by the Flight Academy. As part of the flight requirements, students must take several cross country flights. These flights are generally several hours in length and may cover many states. The local Terre Haute Humane Shelter transports animals to other outside shelters in the event that that animal cannot be adopted or rescued locally. This can be time consuming and costly for an organization that operates on a tight budget such as the Humane Shelter. These animals could be kenneled and transported to other locations by utilizing our cross country flights. We could be given a date and location for delivery and schedule our cross country flights to coincide with the delivery location. This would be a no cost item as the flights are already required as part of the curriculum. We would simply modify our destinations as necessary to accommodate delivery to another shelter. Experiental learning and student success could also be achieved through the Flight Academy. Upon creation of the academy, several personnel will be needed to support the operation. We have planned to have two paid internships available for ISU students. 4

8 The internship positions will be used to supplement office activities, aircraft refueling, scheduling and dispatching duties. What better way to learn about the flight operation than to be a part of it! Internship students will serve as flight operations managers under the direction of the flight academy chief pilot. Work Plan: This proposal is seeking $500,000 in start up monies for the ISU Flight Academy initiative. Given the special circumstances of having all assets in place prior to the start of the operation, it is requested that the entire amount be dispersed in year one of the project. Any shortfall beyond the unbounded possibilities disbursement must be borrowed from an outside agency before actual flight operations can commence. A prolonged phase in of assets is not possible in this situation. This is an unusual request for an unusual initiative. Some might argue that this project is being partially funded before it has actually demonstrated its viability or sustainability. As mentioned earlier, the entire start up costs are estimated to be three million dollars. This proposal is seeking 1/6 th of its entire budget in year one with no other disbursements to be made. Another requirement is that the Unbounded Possibilities initiatives must be self sustainable after the entire funding period comes to a close, most likely after a five year period. If the Flight Academy initiative is funded as requested, it will have to show immediate sustainability. This will occur during the first month of operation as loans will have to be paid and all operational expenses covered. The projected timeline for the start of flight operations is the fall semester of It anticipated that the ISU Flight Academy will be located at the Terre Haute airport. A tentative operations facility on the airport has been located and preliminary discussions with the airport authority have commenced. This facility, if utilized, will need substantial renovation. The funding for the initiative has been discussed at length. Initial start up monies whether awarded or borrowed must begin to flow by the beginning of Fleet acquisition should begin in early 2012 so that all assets are on station by June This is so that all instructor personnel can be trained and proficient and ready for an official August start to the fall semester. All ground and support equipment will also need to be purchased in early summer of It is anticipated that the Flight Academy will cover all costs associated with aircraft purchase/lease, aircraft insurance, maintenance, fuel, office supplies, instructor pilot and internship salaries. It is hoped that ISU will cover any costs associated with facility lease, utilities and full-time employees. This model is in parallel with other university flight programs. Sustained long term funding for the Flight Academy will be generated from student flight fees. Numbers have been calculated to reflect covering the costs listed above. As a non-profit entity, students will only be charged for whatever is required to cover costs. Unlike many of the other proposals submitted, the Flight Academy initiative offers no collaborations with any other departmental or public entity. If it were practical to do so, great efforts would have been made to secure these partnerships. Many fact finding visits to other university flight programs have been made and detailed. 5

9 Upon final approval of this initiative, the university has committed to support aviation consulting activities in order to insure its success. Key full-time personnel required to operate the flight academy will include a Chief Pilot, Assistant Chief Pilot and an Office Manager/Administrative Assistant. Maintenance activities will be outsourced. An aviation departmental faculty member will be given a 50% release time to serve as the Director of Flight Safety and act as a pilot liaison between the department and the Flight Academy. While not currently done with our contractors, all departmental professors who are pilot qualified will fly with students on a weekly basis. This will be done to insure continuity and compliance with standards. The regular flight instructor cadre will be made up of senior ISU flight students who have earned their flight instructor rating. This is a distinct advantage for our students. It allows them to log instructor time and be paid a salary while doing so. Flight experience is the key to getting a flight position in the industry. This unique idea of hiring current students to supply flight instruction helps them to gain that critical experience and ensure student success. Evaluation: What data will demonstrate achievement of the given goals and objectives? One of the goals was to increase student recruiting and retention. While this is a departmental goal and not just a goal of the Flight Academy initiative, it could be broken out just to measure the recruiting and retention rates of the professional flight students. On average, the department looses 15% of its students from the freshman to sophomore year and then a little over 20% during the next three years. Graduation rate is roughly 60%. A realistic goal would be to increase retention rates by 10% over the next three years. An exit survey could be developed to see if students leave the program for any reasons associated with the Flight Academy. Recruiting will be an easier task. Students already fill out a prospective student survey to determine why they choose to attend the Indiana State University aviation program. With a new flight school in place, the department will be able to take our aircraft to recruiting venues such as Air Venture, Sun and Fun and numerous air shows throughout the Midwest for recruiting purposes. This will be an ongoing effort throughout the life of the Flight Academy. Conclusion: This proposal has tried to capture and annunciate the many benefits of ISU owning its own Flight Academy. While it is recognized that the Flight Academy initiative may not perfectly align with the Unbounded Possibilities protocol, there are still many positive reasons why the university should make the investment in this initiative. One of the realities of the situation is that our current contractor is ready to back away from the flight business and retire. When this happens, the contractor has pledged to turn over many of his flight school assets to the ISU foundation. Earlier estimates of the value of these assets were nearly one million dollars. 6

10 The contractor has said that he will provide flight services until the ISU Flight Academy becomes a reality. That being the case, one could argue that a $500,000 investment in the start up of a new ISU Flight Academy could immediately generate a gift of $1,000,000 in assets to the university. This would be a terrific return on investment! The benefits for community economic development could also be realized. If the Flight Academy can be located at the Terre Haute Airport, it could preserve and even create new jobs. The control tower and approach control facilities have been put on notice from the Federal Aviation Administration that they are in jeopardy of closing due to low traffic counts. Simply put, if more flight activity is not logged at the airport, then the risk of loosing those resources becomes a reality. Flight Academy activities would satisfy the minimum requirements for traffic count. Without a control tower and approach control, economic development for our airport and community would certainly be curtailed. The ISU Flight Academy could definitely help to preserve these associated community assets and jobs. The timing on starting the ISU Flight Academy could not be better. Besides the generous offer to the foundation, other reasons include: * ISU branding and loyalty * Pride of ownership * Increased oversight and control * Recruiting and retention of ISU students * Opportunities for experiental learning and student success * Growth opportunities for ISU Aviation * Potential revenue streams * Fleet modernization and standardization * Keeps ISU abreast of its competitors * Potential for national recognition * Need for technically advanced aircraft training * Market for aircraft sales favors the buyers * Community engagement and outreach * Twin engine aircraft to transport university officials and dignitaries to regional events Thank you for your consideration of this most important initiative. 7

11 Appendices Appendix A: Start Up Budget Appendix B: Advisory Council Appendix C: Work Breakdown List 8

12 Estimated costs: Appendix A: Start Up Budget Line Items: Amount: Funding Source: Aircraft purchases $2,000,000 Loan Ground equipment $300,000 Unbounded Possibilities Office supplies and equipment $150,000 Loan Building renovation $200,000 Loan Salaries $125,000 Loan Maintenance and insurance $200,000 Unbounded Possibilities Total $2,975,000 9

13 Appendix B: Advisory Council 1. Lt. Col Kip Clark 3795 N. Private Rd. 450 E. Centerpoint, Indiana (Air National Guard) 2. Mr. Tony McMichael 6171 Wildcat Dr. Indianapolis, Indiana (Aviation Consultant) 3. Mr. Mark Williamson 2901 Woodcrest Lane Terre Haute, Indiana (Aviation Commercial Insurance) 4. Mr. Randy Hillenburg 3960 E. 58 th St. Indianapolis, Indiana (FAA Air Traffic Controller, Indianapolis Airport) 5. First Officer Chris Wilson 7940 Partridge Rd. Indianapolis, Indiana (First Officer, Chautauqua Airlines) 6. Captain Delvin Young 3808 Lakeway Dr. Southlake, Texas (Captain, American Airlines) 7. Captain Darrin Greubel 5 Walton Place Drive Newnan, Georgia x3398 (Captain, Atlantic Southeast Airlines) 8. Captain Mark D. Lee 2850 East 400 South Lebanon, Indiana (Captain) 10

14 9. Kevin Rector N. Steven St. Moresville, Indiana (Manager, Office of Aviation, Indiana Department of Transportation) 10. Mr. Craig Williams 2411 Stonebriar Rd. Ft. Wayne, Indiana x227 (Director of Administration and Finance, Ft. Wayne Airport) 11. First Officer Ronald Montgomery 5377 W. Twin Beach Lane Brazil, Indiana (Pilot, United Parcel Service) 12. Mr. Jim Keefer FAA Attn: Jim Keefer 2300 E. Devon Ave. Suite 320 DesPlaines, Illinois (Manager, FAA Chicago Airports District Office) 11

15 Appendix C: Work Breakdown List Flight Academy Development Preliminary Tasks Business Plan - Prepare a business plan - Prepare a cost structure - Fleet analysis and recommendation - Deadlines/Suspense dates Facility - Acquire a facility and setup - Facility review and compliance (FAA, TSA, Insurance, Codes, etc.) Aircraft - Acquire fleet of aircraft and support equipment - Deliver aircraft and support equipment - Negotiate terms with lending institution Personnel - Interview and hire personnel - Provide on site job training - Standardization of personnel and CFI s - TSA security training of personnel Aircraft Support Structure - Negotiate maintenance contract - Spare parts order - Line personnel and equipment -Negotiate fuel contract - Negotiate insurance contract Flight Academy Management - Software purchase - Pilot supplies inventory - Implementation - Create transition period timeframe - Acquire TSA approval 12

16 Curriculum Development and Implementation - Fee structure - University Catalog - FAA approval Ongoing Support - Management support - Liaison with FAA - Liaison with Airport Authority - Liaison with insurance company - Liaison with lending institution 13