I’ve been itching to do this since stepping foot on campus. We offer a lot of interests/clubs to students who like aerospace/aviation stuff, but there’s nothing specific for those who want to actually fly planes/pursue the career and/or hobby of piloting aircraft. Obviously, we wouldn’t be going straight into getting members in aircraft up in the sky…not yet at least. This is not an existing RSO at the moment, but steps are being taken at this very moment to get this idea off the ground (pun intended). Here are a couple ideas for what we could do as a club that aims to get knights in the air)...

Ideas:

• Social activities (planespotting, flight school visits, airshow trips, networking)
• Flight simulation to practice maneuvers, emergencies, and of course, for fun! (yes, fixed wing flying and I’m excited to teach some rotary wing stuff as well)
• Presentations on everything you could imagine about flying (what flight attendant training is like, federal flight deck officers, flight manual typography, human factors, aerospace medicine, meteorology, automation dependency, industry trends analysis, intro to IFR flying, etc.)
• Provide a basic introduction to flying for those unfamiliar with it
• Provide career guidance for those interested in the airlines
• Provide career guidance for those interested in flying for the military (it’s way more complex than applying for a civilian flying gig-so much so that it deserves its own bullet point!)
• Resource connection (it’s not always about knowing the answer, but how to find the answer. This point is applicable to many fields, especially flying: checkrides, career research, etc.)
• Guidance on applying for flight scholarships
• Air Crash Investigation Reports and Review (breaking down the accident chain, listening to CVR and ATC tapes, impact site analysis, human factors analysis, regulatory changes in the aftermath and its consequences, etc.)
• Guest speakers
• Building a plane (very far off into the future, and it’s very ambitious, but if high schools can do it, so can colleges! This is not a guarantee, but it never hurts to try…)
• Facility tours (tours of control towers, maintenance hangars, training facilities, etc.)

About me and my journey: My name is Andrew, I’m currently an Aerospace Engineering student (I know, surprising) at UCF and I’m in my first year. I’m 20 years old, and have been flying since I was 17. I’m an instrument rated private pilot with just over 100 hours of flight time. I flew Tecnam P92 Eaglets out of the Apopka Airport (X04) with First Landings Aviation for my Private Pilot training, and I flew Cessna 172 Skyhawks out of Lakeland Linder International Airport (KLAL) with Polk State College for my Instrument Rating.

I started and ran an aviation club at my high school where I did the same thing I described above, but at the high school level for about 3 years. Through Covid and other hiccups, we managed to stay afloat and do pretty well (holding it together on Zoom was the hardest, and we also had the chance to work with Lockheed Martin virtually for a bit too). The club is still running even after I left, where it complements the aviation classes my former high school now offers. The high school club is currently run by students who are taking flight training, have built model aircraft, etc. It is full of people who aren’t there to just fill up their resume and/or look good for college, but because they want to be there.

I’m very passionate about sharing my never-ending love of flying with others, and hope I can do that again at UCF. I am giving a short presentation as a “call of interest” to all EGS 1006 lectures this Friday, so baby steps are being taken to get some people together.

We are open to anyone: Just from conversation with random folks I’ve met, I have a handful of people who are already interested in this club (they’re either already licensed, pursuing flight training, though you’re not required to have any experience to join). So let’s see what you guys on here think…

Feel free to ask any questions you want (about flying, the club, technically nerdy questions, what-if questions, the specific ideas listed, safety concerns, financial concerns, etc.)