SEBASTIAN — For five Sebastian River High School students, the new Aviation Club represents more than just a diversion from class work and a place to hang out with friends – it’s a way to explore potential careers and learn skills.
Aviation is a timely topic for young people expecting to be plunged into the workforce in the next decade.
In January, USA Today reported that the aviation industry will be adding at least 8,000 commercial pilot jobs per year in the United States as pilots retire and age out at 65. The numbers are even greater worldwide.
“Finding qualified pilots is a global challenge. A 2012 report from airplane maker Boeing estimated a need for 460,000 new commercial pilots over the next two decades. The report found ‘a pilot shortage has already arisen in many regions of the world,; particularly in Asia, where the gap was causing delays and other flight interruptions,” USA Today reported on Jan. 6.
Led by retired airline pilot Robert Frangione, the students gather once a week to discuss aircraft, physics, safety and maintenance, to name just a few of the topics they touch on.
“He’s very informative,” club member Jett Shaffer, a sophomore, said of Frangione. “He knows what he’s doing.”
Just a few months into the club’s existence, two of the guys – Todd Montuoro and Zachary Crain – have gone out flying at the Sebastian Municipal Airport under the supervision of Bob Taylor, of Sebastian Aero.
It’s because of Crain that Edmond Charette, a junior, joined the club, Charette said. Crain invited Charette to join and offered him transportation – something that would have kept him from being able to stay after school.
“Not many people know about aviation,” Charette said, later adding that his interest in the club is general in nature.
“I could probably spend hours looking at planes,” he said. As for flying, “it’s just so unnatural, I have to do it.”
Jett Shaffer has an equal passion for planes having grown up with pilots for parents.
Shaffer’s mom and dad met in flight school and named their son “Jett” because of their love of aviation, he said.
Shaffer and his friend Eric Rohwedder were the first to sign up for the fledgling club, seeing Frangione’s table set up outside the cafeteria.
“We figured we’d talk a look,” Shaffer recalled – and, of course, once they got started talking with Frangione about planes, that was it. “I figured it’d be interesting to do.”
Shaffer is still going back and forth on a career path but is leaning to possibly something in the aviation industry.
Shaffer missed out on Montuoro and Crain’s flight training excursion due to band and ROTC commitments, but now that things are winding down, he hopes the club will go back out to the airport.
“That would be really cool to do,” he said.
It’s that kind of enthusiasm Frangione is trying to tap with the Aviation Club.
The club instructor foresees the shortfall in American pilots in the years to come, an issue that could lead domestic airlines to hire foreign pilots to fill the cockpit seats.
The difficulty in getting American pilots is the cost associated with flight schools, which can run would-be pilots $50,000 to $70,000, according to Frangione.
And, foreign airline companies are working to recruit American pilots or sending their own to American flight schools.
Frangione explained that foreign companies are willing to send student pilots to American schools, pay for the schooling themselves and promise to hire the student upon completion of the work.
By comparison, American companies in general do not send students to school with the promise of work upon graduation.
Instead, students take that leap of faith, shelling out tens of thousands of dollars in the hope of landing a job once school is done.
“It’s a great opportunity for those who can afford it,” Frangione said.
But it’s not just potential commercial pilots Frangione wants to attract to the Aviation Club. He wants to open members’ eyes to the other aviation-related careers that await them.
“There are a hundred different things you can do,” Frangione said – air traffic control, pilots for the military and forestry, meteorology, grounds crew – the list goes on and on.
Maintenance, “there’s a big thing,” Frangione said. “I can’t fly if the plane’s not taken care of.”
Charette said he decided he wants to be an air traffic controller after having toured the air traffic control tower at the Vero Beach Municipal Airport.
He said the employees there seemed more like a family than co-workers and they weren’t wearing suits.
One employee, Charette said, was wearing a comic book inspired shirt, which made an impression on him.
To get to the tower, you have to unlock the iron gate, Charette said, and get past the guards.
“I’d feel very important,” he said.
Frangione has been in the aviation industry for nearly 51 years, having been a commercial pilot.
“It beats working for a living,” he said. “It is a fun job. I’m a tourist at heart.”