Redbird Newsroom
Aviation-themed, youth outreach initiative enhances program with Redbird FMX simulator.
Austin, TX (January 8, 2018) – Supporting the growth of its innovative, aviation-based, youth outreach program, the Bob Hoover Academy (BHA) and Redbird Flight Simulations have partnered to integrate flight simulation into its curriculum.
Based in Salinas, California, which retains one of the state’s highest, youth homicide rates, BHA utilizes flight training to engage local, at-risk teens in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. Since 2017, and for several years prior under the moniker, Every Kid Can Fly, the academy has executed a full ground training curriculum and flight training program with a single instructor and airplane. With a full-motion, Redbird FMX simulator in its facility, BHA now enables students to hone their skills even when they are apart from their aircraft and instructor.
Three student pilots go from zero time to ready to solo in one week.
Three aviation rookies, one week, three solo flights—that’s the idea behind “One Week Ready to Solo”, a joint project designed to demonstrate that learning to fly is more achievable than most people think.
The project, which is a collaborative effort of Redbird Flight Simulations, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Jeppesen, Sporty’s, Garmin, LightSpeed, and Sun ‘n Fun, will take three individuals with no aviation experience, put them through six days of intensive training, and have them ready to conduct a supervised solo flight at the end of one week.
Expect to see the future flight training, including TRACE instructional technology, a "connected airplane," the VTO Helicopter Simulator, and RedHawk training aircraft.
The summer airshow season has finished, but the Redbird team is hard at work preparing for the company's flagship event: The Migration Flight Training Conference.
The Marine Military Academy, U.S. Marine Corps based secondary school will use Redbird’s Redhawk training aircraft and Redbird Skyport’s Migration training curriculum.
Skyport laboratory creating pilots in two-thirds the time for lower cost
After one year of turning students into Private Pilots for a flat fee of $9500, Redbird Flight Simulation’s Skyport reports their experiment in simulator-based training is working. At its Migration Flight Training Conference this week, Redbird announced the school has graduated 20 Private Pilots, as well as completed 18 instrument ratings, one multi-engine rating and one instrument instructor certificate. It took an average of 38 flight hours to complete the private pilot rating, which is less than two-thirds the national average.
