— By Samantha Johnson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Medicine Hat News

South Alberta Flight Academy was awarded collegiate school status by Alberta Education in April. Superintendent Reagan Weeks gave a brief presentation to the board at the regularly scheduled Prairie Rose Public Schools meeting on May 9.

Even though PRPS knew the competition would be fierce, they put in an application because of the excellent program that has been created. Collegiate requirements included a collaboration between the school division and Super T Aviation, which is an accredited school within the province of Alberta in its own right. Thus, it can grant certifications to students.

The new collegiate will have three streams. In Grade 10, students will now take part in wilderness training, where they will experience a mock plane crash. Additionally, they will receive their radio licence along with numerous other certificates.

In year two, students will have additional opportunities they haven’t had previously and will have to make some choices. A new stream will be aeronautical mechanical engineering where the students will learn how to take care of airplanes and work through the certification process. The second stream is becoming a pilot and the third stream will be air traffic control and drones.

All students in the academy will be exposed to all three streams but to become fully certified, they will pick only one. Also being added is the option of taking a fourth year where students can complete their commercial pilot’s licence or complete the training to be certified as an aeronautical mechanical engineer.

Students in the three streams will help build the next plane. PRPS plans to sell the student-built plane every three years. The newly built one will be kept for students in the program and new graduates to use for getting their flight hours in, which will avoid incurring the high cost of rental fees.

(Photo: Facebook, South Alberta Flight Academy)