Estill County schools staff trained by EKU to give aviation opportunity to students

RICHMOND, Ky. ( FOX 56 ) — Students in Estill County won’t have to go far to get hands-on education in aviation. They’ll have those resources right at school.

Estill County School district staff came to Eastern Kentucky University Thursday to train on using the aviation flight simulator machines. Nathan Prewitt is the academic interventionist for the Estill County High School GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) program. Prewitt had the chance to jump on the simulator himself, and he said he can’t wait to bring these to the school so the students can use them.

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“This is a very interesting thing. A lot of them have really shown interest in it, and they’re super excited about it before we’ve even gotten any of the simulators or the program even close to getting started. They’ve been asking about it, and I told them today we were coming up here,” Prewitt said.

EKU’s aviation program is well known for its success in contributing to a much-needed industry, which is why the goal of this partnership is to foster an early love for the craft before college. Dennis Sinnett is the chair of the School of Aviation at EKU.

“The goal of the simulators is to whet the appetite, get the students interested in aviation so that they have a realization that aviation is a valid career for them. Whether they end up in the cockpit is great. We’d love to have them, but there are so many other opportunities that are available in the aviation world,” Sinnett said.

Now that staff have been trained, the simulator is being taken to Estill County, and the goal is to have it ready by Labor Day. This is a path that even state representatives like Bill Wesley wanted to see.

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“We started talking about bringing different programs into our area for our kids and for our students, and this opened up. While talking to our commissioner and one thing led to another, I came here and met with Dr. McFadden over at EKU, and he asked me if there’s anything that he can help me with. When that door opened, I asked him if he’d help me get an aviation program for kids, and that’s when it started snowballing fast,” Wesley said.

EKU President Dr. David McFaddin said that fast progress is a good sign, especially since it means more of these crucial aviation roles can be filled in the coming years.

“We’re glad to partner with all of our high schools where we’re doing our flight decks, where we’re bringing the simulator experience, partnering with our policymakers who are encouraging us and supporting Kentucky’s only 141 flight school in Kentucky, not just doing our post-secondary degrees, but introducing our high school students to what it could be to be an aviator,” McFaddin said.

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