Aviation program takes flight at Muhlenberg County Airport

Madisonville Community College announced on March 1, the launch of a new aviation program that will give students the opportunity to become professional pilots at a new Aviation Center, located adjacent to the Muhlenberg County Airport.

“This is a historic day for Madisonville Community College and the region we serve,” said President Dr. Cindy Kelley. “This is the first flight training program in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. We have been able to make it to this point with the help of strong community support and leadership from our partners in Muhlenberg County. I just can’t say enough about the work of A.D. Pollock, the Airport Board, and the Muhlenberg Alliance for Progress in this venture.”

Once the program begins flight training in the coming weeks, traffic at the airport will increase significantly. The college has recently leased two Schweizer S300 helicopters from U.S. Aviation Training Solutions (USATS) and a Cessna 172 airplane with a Garmin G1000 glass panel from Don Davis Aviation.

With the support of a Felix E. Martin, Jr. Foundation grant totaling $165,000, students will also have access to state-of-the-art, full-motion Redbird flight simulators. The simulators provide students opportunities to safely learn in a simulated environment in which instructors can create hazardous weather conditions, severe turbulence, equipment malfunctions, and other problems students must solve in the air.

The simulators are housed at the college’s new $1.8 million Aviation Center. Funding for the center was donated to the college in late 2020 by a group of local physicians.

As students advance through the program, they will be able to earn embedded academic certificates and important ratings from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Private Pilot, Instrument Pilot, Commercial Pilot, and as Certified Flight Instructors for both fixed wing and helicopters. Initially, helicopter flight training will be conducted at the Madisonville Regional Airport and the fixed-wing training will be offered at the Muhlenberg County Airport. The college anticipates that both airports will be used to accommodate both programs in some capacity in the future.

According to a recent report released by Boeing, the aviation industry and jobs for pilots are poised for a rebound in the coming months. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, openings for airline and commercial pilots are expected to grow faster than average. The median annual wage for airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers was $147,220 in May 2019.

In order to help students meet the required total hours for employment with a major airline or cargo carrier, graduates of the program may be able to continue with the college as flight instructors to help earn those flight hours.

Applications are currently being accepted for the program. Interested students can contact aviation program coordinator Mike Kehoe at 270-824-1806 or mike.kehoe@kctcs.edu.