Winter 2019 EditionAlumni & Friends Magazine
Friendly Skies
Ohio University’s Gordon Bush Airport is home to Francis Fuller Training Center, where almost 120 Russ College of Engineering and Technology students are working toward their private and commercial pilot licenses. The College also offers an aviation management degree. Future pilots start in the classroom and can eventually become Certified Flight Instructors themselves, along the way banking more than 1,400 hours in flight before receiving their degrees.
The photo essay that follows illustrates the hours of effort OHIO aviation students put into becoming pilots.
Photos and story by Max Catalano, BSVC ’20. Colleen Carow, BSJ ‘93, MA ‘97, MBA ’05, contributed to this story. | March 7, 2019
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[ABOVE LEFT] Joan Mace, AA ’73, BGS ’78, EMERT ’93, pictured in the foreground in 1969 with an unidentified woman, spent hours practicing her piloting skills before landing a job in 1946 as an instructor at OHIO’s airport. She would later become the first woman to chair the Russ College of Engineering and Technology’s Aviation Department.
[ABOVE CENTER] Students also were getting into the in-flight act in 1969. Flying Bobcat Alexis Piaget, the grinning pilot at the wheel, eagerly anticipates takeoff as Robert Crows, BBA ’69, gears up to give the propeller a mighty turn and Terry Timmester, BSJ ’69, removes the wheel blocks.
[ABOVE RIGHT] Other Flying Bobcats wisely parked a prop plane near the old Baker University Center (now home to Scripps College of Communication) and offered rides for a “penny-a-pound.”
Photos courtesy of the Mahn Archives & Special Collections
Checking in with Today's Flying Bobcats
Aviation students also compete with the Flying Bobcats. Here, student aviator Sara Bailey flies at the October 2018 NIFA competition at the Ohio State University airport in Columbus, Ohio. Photo courtesy of the Russ College of Engineering and Technology/Ashley Stottlemyer
Steve Owens, the aviation business administrator of the program, teaches Aviation 100 in Bentley Hall on October 23, 2018. Students learn necessary mathematics and other fundamentals before they start their flight training.
[LEFT to RIGHT] Hayden Kind, Matt Fodo, Alec Ticherich, and Brad Culver at a one on one instructor session at Francis Fuller Training Center on October 19, 2018.
Alec Ticherich sumps the plane’s fuel tank on October 19, 2018. This daily task helps pilots ensure the fuel is clear of contaminants and safe for use.
Student Ryan Hugenberg [LEFT] works with instructor Derek McVicar to perform final checks before heading out for their flight on October 17, 2018.
Aviation instructors and students sign off on final paperwork before leaving for their flight.
Student Instructor Matt Fodo sits on the runway in the cockpit of a Warrior III at the Gordon K. Bush Airport on October 19, 2018. Fodo teaches ground and flight lessons to 11 students.
Aviation student and instructor take flight on October 17, 2018. Students fly with instructors for 400 hours before they begin their 1,000 hours of teaching.
