Alaska News

Build A Plane programs sprout up across Alaska

Build A Plane is a national nonprofit organization that works in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and others to promote aviation and aerospace education through the physical construction of donated aircraft. The aircraft are obtained by national Build A Plane and then "regifted" to school and community programs across the country. In Alaska, the program can be found in three locations: Talkeetna, Chevak and Begich Middle School in Anchorage.

The donated aircraft range from basic kits to larger, multi-engine planes, depending on the needs of the individual programs:

  • Talkeetna is working on a Piper Cherokee Six;
  • Chevak on a Rans S-6S kit plane, (a two piece, side by side, tube and fabric experimental airplane manufactured by Rans Designs in Hays, KS);
  • Begich Middle School is working on an ultra light that they hope to hang in the school.

National Build A Plane does not provide any funding assistance and staffing at each site is provided by school teachers and/or volunteers, depending on on how each separate program is established. The Talkeetna program relies wholly on community volunteers while Anchorage and Chevak are both school-affiliated with a variety of community members contributing their time as well. There is also an optional education component that allows for high school credit in two separate online courses geared toward high school students.

One provides an overview of aviation and its history, and the second prepares students to pass the FAA private pilot written exam.

By taking education out of the classroom and back into the shop, Build A Plane is part of a national trend toward vocational learning. Vo-tech has been bucking national employment trends and shows consistent hire-ability that has been lagging in many fields. Many Americans, Alaskans included, can no longer fix their own stuff.

While Talkeetna and Anchorage enjoy large and supportive aviation communities, it is perhaps the students in Chevak who have the most to gain from Build A Plane's unique approach. With six scheduled flights a day, the village depends heavily on aviation, yet Chevak teens have not easily found a pathway to aviation careers. Working on the Rans S-6S provides them a unique perspective that can lead to jobs as pilots, mechanics or designers; it gives them a level of confidence that would otherwise be lacking in this Western Alaska village of less than 1,000.

This hands-on experience is important not only for the individual students but the aviation industry as well. While the pending pilot shortage has been written about quite widely, a report issued by Boeing last year stressed a looming dearth of aviation mechanics as well. The company projected a need for over 600,000 maintenance positions worldwide in the next two decades due to retirements and the increase in worldwide air traffic. Alaska has always relied upon skilled workers from Outside to fulfill many of its aviation needs but homegrown talent is going to become more and more valuable and involvement in a program like Build A Plane will certainly give the students in Chevak, Talkeenta and Begich Middle School a leg-up over the competition.

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Communities and schools interested in learning more about participating in Build A Plane can fill out an application on the national website.

Contact Colleen Mondor at colleen(at)alaskadispatch.com

Colleen Mondor

Colleen Mondor is the author of "The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska." Find her at chasingray.com or on Twitter @chasingray.

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