The students at Peacock Collegiate will soon have the chance to learn the basics of aviation in a brand new, one-of-a-kind course.

Aviation Studies 20/30 will offer theoretical training in aerodynamics, meteorology, and navigation as well as hands-on education in using simulators to fly drones and small scale planes.

Vern Schafer, the class's teacher, explains that this course has been long in the making.

"We used to have an aviation maintenance class about 13 or 14 years ago and that was just the basics on the structure of the plane. Our principal Dustin Swanson has been interested in something like this for years and he took care of all the applications for the innovation grant that is letting us do this. I've always been interested in aviation as well and I'm taking my ground course with the Regina Flight Club this month. So I can give them a little bit more insight through my experiences."

Perhaps the most exciting part of this project will be the student-led construction of a working Nieuport 17 replica - the same biplane model that Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop flew in World War I. 

Capt. Billy Bishop with a Nieuport 17. (Photo courtesy of the RAF).

"It will actually need a pilot to fly the thing. That will bring in more student involvement throughout the school with students in history learning about Billy Bishop and then obviously in the mechanics class where we will actually be building the airplane. So students will be able to use what they learn about aerodynamics in the class to better understand the plane when they are building it. I don't know of any other school that has actually done something like this."

 

Schafer says the hope is to introduce students to all of the future job possibilities open to them in the aviation industry.

"With 15 Wing being here, the Regina Airport close by, and even maintenance companies here at the municipal airport, there's tons of opportunities all over. It's becoming an industry that is going to need a lot of young input soon because, by the sounds of it, there's going to be a lot of retirements in the near future. This could be just that first tiny stepping stone to get them interested in something they might not have thought about before."

The class at Peacock could soon end up being the only one like it in the province, something which makes it even more vital to the industry, comments Schafer.

Aviation Studies 20/30 will begin in May so there's still plenty of time to sign up.