MADISON, Wis. – To address the national pilot shortage, Wisconsin Aviation is partnering with Madison College to offer a fast-track program for aspiring airline pilots and professional aviators. The Professional Aeronautics Certificate (PAC) is a two-year accelerated program designed for traditional college students and returning-adult students seeking a direct pathway to a flying career.
“COVID-19 only paused the international pilot-shortage crisis for a couple of years, and this program fulfills an unmet market demand in Wisconsin so that prospective students are not forced to move out of state for comparable flight training that will allow them to go after these exciting careers that now offer some of the highest salaries and largest sign-on bonuses in history,” Dr. Chris Johnson, the program architect who began building it at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), said. “Students will learn in the Cirrus SR20, which is higher performance and more technologically advanced than typical trainer aircraft, and we are leveraging advanced simulation and new virtual-reality trainers to provide a cost-effective, immersive and robust training experience.”
Johnson is now a professor at the prestigious Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and he will continue to leverage Embry-Riddle’s expertise as the world’s largest aviation university to build this program in Madison.
The PAC program includes ground courses and flight training for private-pilot certification, instrument-flight rating, commercial-pilot licensure, and flight instructor certification. Students enrolled in the program will spend approximately 20 hours per week for ground school, flight training, and home study combined during two (2) academic years, completing the program in approximately 21 months, making them eligible to be hired as instructor pilots. After graduation, alumni will typically spend another 18-24 months instructing and building flight hours needed to apply to airlines and other commercial flight operations.
Ground school can be taught online, hybrid, or in-person to offer more flexibility, and the PAC program uses proprietary eLearning and an advanced weather simulator that Johnson’s team built at UW.
The PAC program leverages industry-best training technologies to ensure competitiveness among graduates, and with a total time commitment of only 20 hours per week, students will enjoy flexibility to accommodate a range lifestyles.
The PAC program also allows students to simultaneously pursue a degree of their choice and/or work part time during training, and graduates will begin their professional flight career two years before graduates of four-year programs such as Embry-Riddle.
For more information on the PAC, please see: www.wisconsinaviation.com/professional-aeronautics-certificate
Resulting Media Coverage:
- WKOW (April 25, 2023): Madison College and Wisconsin Aviation Partner for Flight Program
- NBC-15 (April 25, 2023): Madison College Students Learn to Fly With New Wisconsin Aviation Partnership
- Cap Times (April 26, 2023): New Madison College Pilot Training Takes Off
- InBusiness (April 26, 2023): Wisconsin Aviation, Madison College Partner to Fast-Track Aspiring Pilots