Alexander Bloye, chief flight instructor for Eastern Michigan University's Aviation Flight Technology Program, expects the change in certification level will boost enrollment 25 percent a year from now.

Photo by Janet Miller | For AnnArbor.com

Students in Eastern Michigan’s Aviation Flight Technology Program are getting more for less.

EMU’s flight training program recently was awarded higher-level certification from the FAA, which will allow it to reduce training time by 60 hours (24 percent), resulting in a tuition cut, said Alexander Bloye, chief flight instructor.

Graduating from a flight school with the more stringent certification will also help students land jobs, he said.

Cost for the flight training school, which generally takes 2 1/2 to 3 years to complete, will drop from $65,000 to $50,000, Bloye said, for a 23 percent savings. Cost of flight school is in addition to EMU tuition. The changes begin with this fall’s class. The program prepares students to become pilots, and Bloye expects the change in certification level will boost enrollment 25 percent a year from now.

Under traditional FAA certification, flight schools must follow FAA rules, but their programs are not FAA approved. Only a handful of Michigan’s roughly 200 flight schools have won the top-tier certification, called Part 141 FAA certification, Bloye said.

To win the Part 141 FAA certification, flight schools are more closely monitored and with higher qualifications for the school and staff, Bloye said. “There are higher level training standards. If you commit to these standards, you can lower the number of hours you spend in training,” he said.

At a time when aircraft are becoming more expensive — a new single-engine Cessna costs between $250,000-$350,000 — it’s important to find ways to cut other costs, Bloye said. The decision to seek the Part 141 certification comes at the same time EMU decided to freeze tuition and fees for the 2010-2011 academic year. “We found the timing to be great because we also wanted to lower the cost of our program,” Bloye said.

The aviation program is divided into two parts: The private, for-profit Suburban Aviation, based in Ottawa Lake, Mich., provides the fleet (including 10 Cessna Skyhawks), flight training and flight instruction certification. Bloye works for Suburban Aviation. They are in partnership with EMU, which offers the academics and a bachelor’s of science degree. EMU tuition, which runs about $8,400 a year, is in addition to the flight school costs and financial aid is available for both. The program is based at Willow Run Airport.

EMU’s flight training program has doubled in three years, going from 60 to about 120 students. This fall will see 35 to 40 new students, Bloye said.

“We’re making it more fun for students. We’re preparing them for a job, but we’re also making it memorable,” he said. One example is the alternative spring break for select students who fly the program’s fleet to Florida, where they have intensive training for a week. “They get to fly long distances, in all kinds of weather, over mountains and at night,” Bloye said.

Graduates of the program find jobs with regional airlines such as Pinnacle or Mesaba, work in corporate aviation or join the military flight program, Bloye said. Most graduates teach in the EMU program for a year or two to gain enough flight time to position themselves for a job in the industry. Students who work teaching in the program usually log 500 to 600 hours a year, and about 1,000 hours of total flight time is needed to work as a pilot, Bloye said.

Even with a soft economy and news that the commercial airlines industry is struggling, graduates of the program are finding jobs, Bloye said.

Suburban Aviation is also a Cessna aircraft single engine sales representative for the Midwest, own Toledo Suburban Airport and are a Cessna Service Center.