- Hello, everyone.
We're in central California at Reedley College, an academic institution that has a very long and very colorful history, in particular in the education of aircraft maintenance and technology.
It's a campus that has been teaching this on an accredited basis since 1948, and prior to that accreditation back as far as 1926, almost 100 years ago.
Join us when we go inside and take a look at the airframe and power plant maintenance department and see how this campus, this little junior college campus in central California, has changed with the ever evolving times of aviation to turn out some of the finest airframe and power plant mechanics in our industry today.
And also how they are changing with the times to continue to change with all of the progress of commercial aviation.
(aircraft propeller whirring) (upbeat rock music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Pilots, Props & Planes" is provided by.
(upbeat music) - [Man] Reedley College is proud to be a part of the aviation industry, providing advanced education in all aspects of flight science, aviation mechanics, and professional pilot training.
Go, Tigers!
(upbeat music) - I now have the great privilege of meeting with the president of Reedley College, Dr. Jerry Buckley.
And he's going to give us a little bit of insight as to what the future has in store for this academic institution, as well in particular for its aviation program.
Dr. Buckley, thank you for joining us.
Welcome to have you here.
- Thank you for this opportunity.
I'm always very happy to talk about aviation at Reedley College.
As you know, aviation here at this institution goes back well before World War II and was very, very critical during the war effort and has sustained really through current times, both with regard to aviation maintenance, and now the training of pilots for commercial industry.
Reedley College has the privilege of having a long history in aviation, but more than that, we're looking forward to the future.
Working with Boeing this past couple of years, we've realized that there is a great need developing in the commercial aviation industry.
There are good many pilots retiring.
Likewise, a great many very experienced aviation maintenance technicians that help support aviation around the world.
And so we look at ourselves as being the right college at the right time with the right history to help meet that need and to expand our service, and we hope that by opening our own flight school here in the near future and partnership with the town of Reedley and using the Reedley airport, we'll have a special opportunity here to have really a one stop shop where we have a campus that's outfitted with the technology for ground school, and we have the airport just literally across the street where we can conduct our flight school operations.
And it'll be very inexpensive and very accessible.
- How do you see the flight training program changing with the times, and the future, as you've spoke about, with regard to aviation accommodating those changes.
- Our partnership with the town of Reedley is incredibly important with regard to that future in aviation, because they purchased under grant three electric aircraft, and we are waiting for FAA approval to include those aircraft in our training program here.
Both on the aviation maintenance side, as well as in the flight side of our operations here, we are the first school to my knowledge to have access to that type of technology.
- Do you not also have a partnership with Boeing with regard to the design and development of electric powered aircraft?
- Boeing has shown a great deal of interest in the three aircraft that were purchased under that grant, and they have been here to look at them, analyze them, and decide how that type of technology might fit into their future engineering plans as well.
(exciting music) - I'm with John Johnson, flight science program coordinator here at Reedley College, and we're in the maintenance facility, where John instructs.
How did you get into aviation?
- I got really lucky.
I was born and raised here in Reedley, and at our community college at Reedley College, we have an aircraft mechanic program.
It got started in the 1920s when it was still, when the college was still located at Reedley High School.
Reedley College has had a fantastic reputation for decades and decades and decades.
We've been a certified aircraft mechanic school for more than 75 years.
I think it's awesome.
- How has the program evolved since 1948 to continue to keep up with the current technology that aviation produces?
- There's two big ways that Reedley College's aircraft maintenance technology program has evolved.
Number one is engines.
The FAA changed the regs in the early '90s that you had to start having jet engine training in aircraft mechanic school.
So Reedley College back then started upping how much turbine engine training, but we still are also very heavy into reciprocating engines.
A lot of our graduates end up becoming general aviation mechanics in engines.
We've just expanded how much we train into now and including jet engines, but it's been that way for a while.
The other way we've gotten a lot better is into composites.
- Composites are really a large part of many aspects of corporate and commercial aviation, as well as private aviation.
- Yeah, that's correct.
It's not just aluminum airplanes anymore.
It's fiberglass and carbon fiber and Kevlar.
- [Bill] There's another aircraft hanging inverted from the beam behind you that has kind of a local connection.
A composite airplane and from a very famous aircraft designer.
- Yeah, that's right.
My understanding is Bert Rutan grew up in near Dinuba, California, which is a sister city of ours, as the crow flies about four miles, and he donated his one off airframe he had built, or he built it, the Solitaire.
It's a one person self launching glider, and he donated it to the city of Dinuba, but they didn't have anywhere to put it.
So they asked Reedley College if we could hang onto it for them.
So yes, we hoisted it up and now it's hanging from our ceiling.
A one of a kind aircraft by arguably the most prolific aircraft designer ever.
- Absolutely.
- Burt Rutan.
- Absolutely.
Speaking of prolific people in aviation and the history of aviation here at Reedley College, Bob Lock.
One of the finest instructors and just a true gentleman.
You had the opportunity to do some of your schooling underneath Bob.
- Oh, yeah, Bob Lock was a full-time aircraft maintenance technician instructor here in 1978 to 1980 when I came here to aircraft mechanic school.
Yes, he was a great instructor.
I remember in later years after I left, he finished working on his Command-Aire and did a lot of, a lot of flying around in that aircraft.
And it was a passion of his to say the least.
So of course, as students, we heard about the progress that he was making at the hangar at the Reedley airport as he was restoring that aircraft.
(gentle music) - Well, this is a 1929 Command-Aire.
Was manufactured in October of 1929.
The factory was very small.
They produced 184 airplanes total from 1927 until about 1931, They were a victim of the depression, as were many small companies.
This airplane was one of 35 built.
This is the next to last airplane that was produced by the factory.
So they stopped the run of the model 5C3s probably late 1929.
When I found this, the fuselage was in a building, but the wings were laying out in a field.
So I came close to finding what I've always wanted, and that's an airplane in a barn, but this is about as close as I could say I came to that.
So I left it stored for, oh, I don't know, 10, 12 years.
And in 1978, I pulled the pieces out, kicked the birds out, the spiders, put the airplane together and put it in a car show.
And then after seeing it together, I said, "Oh, I really gotta get going on this."
So I started to restore it.
In 1978, I ran a story in an EAA magazine and I got one response.
And the response was, I think, the president of that company is alive.
And through him, I met Mr. Albert Vollmecke.
And Albert was 77 years old.
And when we talk, he said, "My golly, I didn't know there were any of these airplanes left."
So he was an integral part of the restoration of the airplane.
And he provided me with all of his files that he had kept from his days at Command-Aire.
So I started to restore it in 1978.
I finished in 1989.
And I hauled the airplane to Lakeland, Florida, and I put the airplane together and put it in the museum down there.
And I met Albert there in 1989, and we spent three days and we spent almost all of our time together and I've got great historical documents of this fine man.
And unfortunately Al died in 1995 and he never got to fly in this, which is a real shame because I would've loved to have had him up, but he lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, and it just was not possible to do.
But it was like he was there all the time, especially when I test flew.
And when I flew the airplane from Lakeland, Florida to Reedley in 1989.
It's a fun airplane to fly.
I had to build wings.
I built most everything from scratch.
The fuselage and the sheet metal.
The fuselage was original.
The sheet metal I did.
I overhauled the engine.
(plane engine starting up) It's powered by a Wright Whirlwind engine, seven cylinder Wright 760 cubic inches.
It makes it go maybe 88 miles an hour at cruise.
Likes to burn 12 gallons an hour of gasoline, so I don't go very far very fast in it.
It's a joy to fly.
It has somewhere in a neighborhood of 400 hours on it now, and flies like a big old, heavy Piper Cup.
It's just a blast to fly.
This is the only one of this type that's flying now.
There's some OX-5 powered 3C3 Command-Aires flying, but this is the only 5C3 flying.
And I think there's only maybe five of these left out of 35.
Most were wrecked, spreading dust in various parts of the country, especially the Southeast.
The restoration of old airplanes has been in my blood.
I can remember as a very young, maybe even a pre-teenager, that I knew I was going to be in aviation.
I didn't know exactly what.
I knew I was going to find an airplane in a barn somewhere, and it was going to be a biplane and that I was gonna restore it myself and I was gonna have something that was quite rare.
Something that if I took it to an air show, people would say, "Ooh, look at that!
I wonder who owns that."
Well, that'd be me.
(upbeat instrumental music) - [Bill] With regard to aviation here at Reedley at the college, this is the maintenance program, but there's also a flight training program that is part of Reedley College.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
- Obviously anybody that reads much about aviation understands that there's not just an aircraft technician shortage, there's also a pilot shortage.
It's not just gonna happen.
We're already smack in the middle of it, and we've been in the middle of it for a while.
- [Bill] The flight training program takes a flying student from their private pilot all the way up to their commercial rating.
- Our intent is to have the lowest cost to be able to get that entry level job as a flight instructor so that more people can qualify to get into the program.
- We've had a great opportunity to hear about the variety of programs that are available here at Reedley College, one of which is the flight training program.
Now I have the privilege of speaking with a student who's in the flight training program, and who's gonna have an opportunity to share with us his perspective on what that program is and how it benefits him.
I'd like to welcome to the show, Sean McReynolds.
Sean, thanks for joining us.
- Thank you for having me.
- So you're in the flight training program here and you're working on your private pilot's license?
- That's correct.
- What was your inspiration to fly in the first place?
- I've always been fascinated by flight itself in any form or fashion.
I wanted to join the military when I was young and become a fighter pilot.
Growing up, watching "Top Gun", of course I got glasses and that just didn't quite work out.
However, I decided that I wanted to fly anything I could get my hands on, even if it was general aviation.
And then I decided, "Why not a career?"
- Part of your flight training includes flying the simulators that are here at Reedley College.
- That's correct.
- Would you give us an example of what flying the simulator is like?
- Certainly.
- Okay.
Let's go fly the simulator.
So Sean, take us through what you're doing right now as you're doing it in the flight simulator.
- Right now, throttling up for takeoff, already lined up on the runway, holding a little right rudder to counteract for the asymmetrical thrust generated by the downward force of the propeller and watching for air speed, then rotate, and achieve a two finger climb.
That's our normal cruise climb attitude.
- So right now the simulator is set up for you to take off out of Fresno, and you could program just about any airport into this simulator?
- Yes, you've got a whole selection wheel of all kinds of different airports all over the country.
- [Bill] Can you program weather conditions into this?
- Yes, you can.
- [Bill] So you could get in clement weather to fly through as well as what appears to be a beautiful day?
- Exactly.
- And the flight simulation works towards your private pilot rating?
- A portion of it, yes.
Up to 50 hours total can be counted towards the commercial license.
- [Bill] And how much total time do you need in order to attain your commercial pilot's license?
- 250 hours at the minimum.
- [Bill] So about 20% of that you can do on the flight simulator.
- Correct.
- That's gotta be an incredible cost savings measure, too.
- It is.
It saves you a lot of money, which makes the program much more affordable to even lower income families.
- So how does this flight simulator compare to flying the real airplane?
- It's very, very similar, especially in the event of someone having zero flight time experience.
This simulator gives them the opportunity to get a lot of the hands on coordination that they'll need once they actually jump into the airplane.
Then it allows them to exponentially increase their learning curve as they've already practiced everything here and they just apply the same functions and you turn the same knobs, levers, you've got the same yoke, and you just apply that right into the aircraft once you're inside the cockpit.
- [Bill] Does the instrument panel configuration provide a level of familiarization that is on par with the actual airplanes?
- Yes, this is almost identical with most of the tomahawks that are currently in the program, and there's only a couple of small variations that are easily identifiable.
- [Bill] So even though all of this is on a screen in front of you, you do have controls that you are manipulating by hand to include the throttle, the mixture control, and the control yoke.
- That's correct.
- As well as rudder pedals?
- Yes, rudder pedals down on the floor, and you have positive feedback from the yoke.
So you really do feel that back pressure and you can accurately trim the airplane, even on the simulator.
- [Narrator] So with a nose up or a nose down trim input, you can feel it in the yoke?
- [Sean] Correct.
- [Bill] And it's barely perceptible, but that's the way it is in the real airplane also.
It's an ever so slight change.
- Exactly.
Small movements make all the difference.
- Is it safe to say that perhaps the simulator, being a little more challenging to fly because of how sensitive it is, makes you a better pilot in the real airplane?
- Oh, most certainly.
It provides you with a safe environment to learn, where if you mess up, there isn't really any panic of doing something wrong.
You'll simply reset and you'll learn from your mistakes and carry forward, and that prevents you from making those common little mistakes that can be costly in the actual aircraft.
- [Bill] So you're flying right now at about, looks like about 2,300 feet above ground.
- Correct.
- And you're doing some gentle left and right banks.
- Out in the blank field area, doing a couple of clearing turns just to ensure there's no traffic around before starting any maneuvers.
- [Bill] So one of the things that a lot of people talk about, and I think initially is a fear until you get accustomed to the airplane is an engine out situation, an in flight emergency where the engine is either developing low power or not developing power at all.
So right now there's no way you're gonna get back to the airport.
- Correct.
- You can practice an engine out procedure safely on the simulator that you wouldn't normally do in an airplane.
- You certainly can.
- So if you did have an engine failure right now, what would be the procedure you would follow?
- Well, if the engine were to fail right now, as soon as you notice the RPMs are dropping, it's not responsive, you'll pitch first flaps as soon as you're in the white arc there, and then you'll pitch down for 70, which is usually about a two finger descent rate that gives you the best glide slope to cover the most distance as you're scanning for a good place to land.
Now, there's plenty of fields out here, so there's lots of good places I can land.
And I've got quite a distance I can cover even at only 2,000 feet elevation.
- [Bill] But as you're descending down, are you going to pick a landing site and then stick with that landing site?
- Yes, and if I find one that's good enough, I will circle it with an emergency descent and make sure I land on that spot as opposed to trying to look for the next nearest one.
- [Bill] Okay, have you got one picked out yet?
- I see right here between these houses, there's quite a bit of open road that looks plenty wide enough.
I'm gonna use that spot right there.
- [Bill] Okay.
- Better than an unknown field that you can't see until you're too close to choose another spot.
- [Bill] So you're setting yourself up for the landing right now, focusing on landing in between that row of homes there.
- That's correct.
- So talk us through this next phase.
- Right now, it appears I'm still a little bit too high coming down with too much speed, so I'm gonna do a couple of S turns here to lengthen my distance, to make sure I've got enough space available to perform a safe landing.
- So even in an engine out situation, the airplane doesn't just fall out of the sky.
There's such a thing as too much altitude.
- Correct.
Too much altitude if you're trying to descend for landing will equate to too much speed, which will give you a rougher landing, or in some cases, depending on what surface you're on, unsafe landing.
Now, I'll bleed off a little air speed by going level, and then I'll hit my second notch of flaps to generate a little more lift, a little more drag.
That'll keep me nice and smooth as I come in for this landing.
- So you've got yourself set up on what is seemingly a normal looking approach, even though it's in an engine out configuration.
- Yes, an airplane without an engine is simply a glider.
So it's still plenty safe, even if the engine were to fail, which is a common misconception that a lot of people think that it's gonna be worse.
It was not easy to tell on the computer screen, but apparently this is a rail yard.
So now we're starting our flare and we chose the best possible place to land given the situation.
- [Bill] And you got the airplane down safely.
- That we did.
- [Bill] Maybe a little bit of a bumpy ride along the way.
- It was on that railroad, but from the computer screen, it was a little bit tough to tell with the graphics.
Definitely that would've been much easier to spot out of the air in a real airplane.
- So wonderful simulation, and proof that airplanes don't just fall out of the sky.
With proper training and adequate time in the aircraft, you can easily manage an emergency if you stay cool, keep your wits about you, and follow an established procedure.
- You certainly can.
- [Bill] Best of all learned on the simulator.
- Now, let's see if I can find an adequate place to take back off.
(upbeat music) - [Bill] Joining me now is David Clark, who is the dean of instruction here at Reedley College.
David, welcome to the show and thank you for joining us.
Dean of instruction.
That encompasses a lot of responsibilities.
Can you elaborate a little bit on that?
- Yeah, no, I'd love to.
So yeah, at Reedley College, we have nine instructional departments and we have three deans.
And so each of us have three different programs.
I'm in charge of industrial technology, which encompasses aviation maintenance, flight, and then in addition to that, I also do business in agriculture.
Our AMT program has a storied history for many, many decades, long before- I've been here 33 years, but long before I was a faculty member here.
But it's always hiring, finding that perfect unicorn of someone that has the college education, that has the degrees, but also has the practical experience.
We've got a number of folks in aviation and other programs that went through our program and had a career elsewhere, and then we've hired them back.
So we have a number of faculty that that has been true.
- With regard to the changes that take place in particular at aviation, with changes in technology and materials and so forth, is it challenging to find instructors that are growing with those changes also?
Because sometimes an instructor may get very well set and become very astute in one particular influence, but here you're changing with the times and you need instructors to do the same thing.
- Right.
And so in the aviation program and all of our programs, they have required, we call it professional development, where each year they have to attend certain seminars or workshops to keep current in their field.
And so that's an expectation of employment.
And so as the industries change in aviation and others, we require them to attend those professional developments and remain current.
- With the changes that are taking place in the future for Reedley College and the possibility that at some point it may become a four year program, how will that impact your choice of instructors?
- Yeah, no, that's a good question.
We haven't crossed that bridge yet, but we're very interested in pursuing that.
And like I said, we've had a storied history for many years that we have an AS degree in aviation, in flight, and in aviation maintenance as being a mechanic.
Currently we offer classes in the freshman and sophomore level, the undergraduate classes.
- Thank you very much for joining us on the show.
We really appreciate it, and we look forward to the future in store for Reedley College, and in particular for their aero program.
- Good.
Thank you.
(upbeat rock music) - [Narrator] Funding for "Pilots, Props & Planes" is provided by.
- [Man] Reedley College, nestled against the Sierra in central California offers a full spectrum of flight science, aviation mechanics, and professional pilot education in an affordable community college setting.
Go, Tigers!
(plane engine roaring) (exciting music) (upbeat music)