The school will start with one full-time instructor, two part-time employees and one plane stationed in Springfield with access to four others based in Middletown, Champion City agent R. Jack Wolf said. It plans to add instructors and aircraft as it grows in the next year.
Champion City also is working on crafting a partnership with Clark State Community College and its aviation degree program, Wolf said.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “We look for great things to happen. The Springfield facility is beyond compare.”
Springfield’s airport allows students to learn different aspects of flight that many schools have to go to different airports to experience, such as working with control towers and instrument-only landings.
The city evicted the previous school, Springfield Flight Academy, late last year after what the city manager termed a souring of the business relationship and inability to come to terms on a new lease. The academy has filed a complaint against the city with the U.S. Department of Transportation and is awaiting a ruling.
Flight schools create additional activity at the airport and boost interest in general aviation, said Patricia Richards, the city’s deputy economic development administrator.
The Middletown company approached the city about providing a school again, Richards said, and the city liked its track record.
“It just seemed to be a perfect match,” she said.
The training institute has operated in Middletown for more than two years, Wolf said, and graduated more than 30 students. It will offer a full complement of flight classes, from beginners to advance commercial licenses to instructor programs.
It will pay the city $500 a month for the first year and $600 a month the second year to lease Hangar No. 1.
Wolf, himself a longtime pilot, also hopes to build a relationship with the pilots and tenants at the Springfield airport.
“Our flight school will be open to everybody,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0363 or ssommer@coxohio.com.
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