The small helicopter set down carefully in a brisk, cold wind, at the Muhlenberg County Airport on a recent February morning. Jesse DeJaynes trotted out to meet it, swung the door open, and climbed in. After buckling himself in and putting on his headphones, he smiled and waved as the helicopter took off for a training session. He is testing for his helicopter pilot training instructor certification in a few days.
DeJaynes is in his second year in the aviation program at Madisonville Community College, a unique program that gives students the opportunity to get multiple certifications up through airline pilot certification. The testing for certification is done through the Federal Aviation Administration, so students will be certified nationwide, not just in individual states.
At age 39, DeJaynes has a familiar story, but he is a somewhat unique student. At 20 he joined the Army and was sent to Iraq as a helicopter maintenance mechanic. He then left the Army and attended Western Kentucky University, which gave him the ability to re-enter the Army as an officer. He trained to fly helicopters and until 2018 served as a Medivac helicopter pilot. After leaving the Army in 2018, DeJaynes hadn’t flown at all until he entered the flight school at MCC last August. His goal is to switch from helicopters to the airplanes. “My ultimate goal is to go to the airlines,” he said.
Todd Smith, director of the aviation program at MCC, added, “We frequently have military maintainers who were unable to fly while they were in the military, and now exit the military and look for that flying career. Now that we have Veterans Administration benefits eligibility we get a lot of that demographic,” explained Smith.
The program is open to men and women of any age, but the majority of students are just out of high school and have no flying experience at all. They start out in the classroom, learning basics. While this gives students the basics of flying, it also serves as a method of weeding out those students who don’t want to do the work of becoming a pilot but are just enamored with the idea of flying. The entire program, six semesters long, is an arduous and expensive one that only serious students should enter.
While program costs are high, according to Sarah Dearth, coordinator of public relations at the college, grants and scholarships can be used for the aviation program as well.
Smith said he came to the area from central Florida to take the position overseeing the flight program at MCC. He is a military vet, and his entire career has been in training, and developing training programs.
The program began two years ago and is a joint venture of MCC, the Madisonville Regional Airport, and the Muhlenberg County Airport. Helicopter training is offered at the Madisonville airport, and airplane training at the Muhlenberg County Airport. Smith said support from the two communities has been astounding.
Preparing for these programs has been expensive and is ongoing, requiring extensive remodeling of existing buildings and even construction of new hangars for the program’s fleet of aircraft.
In Muhlenberg County, a former surgery center adjacent to the airport has been transformed into rooms for classes and training. Smith proudly showed off the facility, which contains classrooms, two flight simulators, and two huge rooms that are currently empty but will be set up as labs for more training and hands-on practice for students. The facility has space to allow the program to grow.
The first class will graduate in the spring of 2024 with just two students who enrolled in the first class. They have also taken the required general education courses and will graduate with an associate degree. The program has already grown, with 30 students currently enrolled.
MCC is the only college in the Kentucky Community and Technical College system that has a flight program.
The aviation program at MCC is flexible, to accommodate students who attend other classes or work. DeJaynes said the class meets one day a week, and the rest of the course work is online. For the flight portion, ground school is about 30 minutes before flying, then flying for about an hour, followed by 15 minutes of debriefing, where they are given an immediate evaluation of their flight.
Students need to fly 50 hours per semester, or about 3.1 hours per week. They can fly seven days a week to accommodate their schedules and make up for days of inclement weather. Smith said that weather has been the biggest factor in trying to get in the necessary flight hours.
Being from Florida, Smith wasn’t familiar with Kentucky weather and how many days they would be grounded. “I underestimated!” he said with a laugh.
Most students will go on to be flight instructors immediately after graduation. Unlike many industries where older, more experienced people go on to become instructors, in aviation the emphasis is on the constantly changing technology, and new graduates are fully versed in current technology.
Becoming an instructor also gives the students an opportunity to be paid while also adding to the number of flight hours they need for further certification in the program. They will continue to earn certification in various areas, leading up to being licensed as a commercial pilot, able to fly for the airlines. There the pay is excellent and there is a real shortage of pilots.
While Smith has the knowledge and experience to set up and run an aviation program, he gives credit to county and school officials who have championed the program from the start, including those in economic development, as well as MCC president Dr. Cindy Kelley, and chief business officer Ray Gillaspie.
There has been a tremendous outpouring of support from the community, the governing boards of both airports, as well as financial support from county government, the state legislature, the Felix E. Martin Jr. Foundation, and the Kentucky Aviation Administration.
DeJaynes said he decided on a career as an airline pilot after talking to a friend for some time. “There’s a huge shortage in the airlines right now and aviation mechanics. The aviation industry in general is short pilots and mechanics, so whether you want to be a helicopter EMS pilot or a helicopter tour pilot, the country is hurting for pilots all around. I think it’s a great career field for anyone to jump into, and there’s jobs waiting for you.”
