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Richard Rice of Greencastle takes apart an airplane engine crankshaft to check the tolerances during class at Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics (By Ric Dugan/Staff Photographer / June 16, 2012) |
A longtime employee of a Hagerstown land surveying firm, Richard Rice was thinking of a career change back in 2001 when he happened on the website for Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics.
The training and job possibilities sounded exciting, but Rice realized he couldn’t work and still drive from his home near Greencastle, Pa., to Pittsburgh for classes every day, nor could he afford to move to Pittsburgh.
“So I put the thought on a back burner,” Rice said.
Then late last year, having been laid off after “20-some” years with the surveying company, Rice heard that PIA had opened a campus at Hagerstown Regional Airport, teaching aviation maintenance technology.
“I saw it as the perfect opportunity,” said Rice, 53, who has been taking classes there since January.
The new Hagerstown school, which opened in April 2011, has become the perfect opportunity for many.
“It gives people in the community another opportunity to be successful,” said Hal Lucas, chairman of the Washington County Economic Development Commission. “And it provides businesses in the community with a ready pool of qualified talent.”
And now, the school has proven itself a magnet in helping the county attract a new employer.
Economic development officials, including Lucas, won’t identify the company yet or say how many jobs it will create, but they say PIA is a key to its decision recently to open a facility here.
“It shows that certainly, it’s a positive influence,” Lucas said. “It’s one of the positive influences that affect businesses which may want to come to the airport.”
“The school is a real asset for the airport and the community on many levels,” said Greg Larsen, airport business development manager for the county.
School has taken off
Since transforming Hangar One at Top Flight Airpark at the airport into two classrooms and a large work area last year, the new Federal Aviation Administration-approved school at Hagerstown has taken off.
In all, it has 38 students in its 16-month program currently. They are in three separate groups, each starting several months apart.
Nineteen of the students are in the inaugural class that began in April 2011 and will graduate this August, eight others are in the group that began last September and 11 more are in the group that began in January.
“Right now, the ages of those students ranges from 18 to 53,” said Roxanne Ober, who is PIA’s admissions representative in Hagerstown.
The students come from as far away as Texas, and include military veterans, as well as recent high school graduates and older workers who have lost their jobs in the recession or are just wanting to change careers, she said.
In addition, 27 students — two more than maximum 25 the FAA permits each instructor — already are enrolled in the group that will begin the program in August, according to Tom O’Keefe, director of PIA’s Hagerstown campus. As with the airlines, the school sometimes “overbooks” its sign-ups, figuring some will cancel — but if none do, O’Keefe said, he can step in as an extra instructor.
In addition to him and Ober, two regular instructors are assigned to the Hagerstown campus, O’Keefe said. He said PIA is in the process of hiring a third regular instructor for Hagerstown.
The training and job possibilities sounded exciting, but Rice realized he couldn’t work and still drive from his home near Greencastle, Pa., to Pittsburgh for classes every day, nor could he afford to move to Pittsburgh.
“So I put the thought on a back burner,” Rice said.
Then late last year, having been laid off after “20-some” years with the surveying company, Rice heard that PIA had opened a campus at Hagerstown Regional Airport, teaching aviation maintenance technology.
“I saw it as the perfect opportunity,” said Rice, 53, who has been taking classes there since January.
The new Hagerstown school, which opened in April 2011, has become the perfect opportunity for many.
“It gives people in the community another opportunity to be successful,” said Hal Lucas, chairman of the Washington County Economic Development Commission. “And it provides businesses in the community with a ready pool of qualified talent.”
And now, the school has proven itself a magnet in helping the county attract a new employer.
Economic development officials, including Lucas, won’t identify the company yet or say how many jobs it will create, but they say PIA is a key to its decision recently to open a facility here.
“It shows that certainly, it’s a positive influence,” Lucas said. “It’s one of the positive influences that affect businesses which may want to come to the airport.”
“The school is a real asset for the airport and the community on many levels,” said Greg Larsen, airport business development manager for the county.
School has taken off
Since transforming Hangar One at Top Flight Airpark at the airport into two classrooms and a large work area last year, the new Federal Aviation Administration-approved school at Hagerstown has taken off.
In all, it has 38 students in its 16-month program currently. They are in three separate groups, each starting several months apart.
Nineteen of the students are in the inaugural class that began in April 2011 and will graduate this August, eight others are in the group that began last September and 11 more are in the group that began in January.
“Right now, the ages of those students ranges from 18 to 53,” said Roxanne Ober, who is PIA’s admissions representative in Hagerstown.
The students come from as far away as Texas, and include military veterans, as well as recent high school graduates and older workers who have lost their jobs in the recession or are just wanting to change careers, she said.
In addition, 27 students — two more than maximum 25 the FAA permits each instructor — already are enrolled in the group that will begin the program in August, according to Tom O’Keefe, director of PIA’s Hagerstown campus. As with the airlines, the school sometimes “overbooks” its sign-ups, figuring some will cancel — but if none do, O’Keefe said, he can step in as an extra instructor.
In addition to him and Ober, two regular instructors are assigned to the Hagerstown campus, O’Keefe said. He said PIA is in the process of hiring a third regular instructor for Hagerstown.
