Professional Pilot Specialization

Ohio State branded aircraft taking off from KOSU

Enrollment for the Professional Pilot Specialization is currently in very high demand. We have implemented measures to increase the amount of students the program can accept, as well as prioritize the students who have expressed interest in beginning flight training. Currently, flight education and the professional pilot specialization is only available as an optional part of the aviation or air transportation majors.

Application for Professional Pilot Specialization

Each semester, students who are interested in enrolling in the Professional Pilot Specialization will be asked to fill out a short survey so that we can generate a list. The application survey will just collect basic contact information so that we can identify the student. 

Rubric to Assign Priority

After the interest list from the application has been generated, the Center for Aviation Studies will then utilize a rubric to help prioritize those students. The first item that will be assessed is if the student has received credit for AVN 2100. Only those students who have credit will be scored according to the rubric. The rubric will consist of the following parameters, and will have total point value of 8 points.

  • Aviation Coursework GPA - 4 points maximum
  • Class Rank - 4 points maximum (1 per level)
Aviation GPA will be derived from the final course grade of ALL courses with an AVN prefix, divided by the total number of credit hours earned in those courses
 
Class Rank will be derived from the total credit hours earned
  • 0-29 hours – Rank 1 
  • 30-59 hours – Rank 2
  • 60-89 hours – Rank 3
  • 90+ hours – Rank 4

Rankings of individual students will change each semester as credits are earned and final grades are recorded. Good performance in AVN coursework will have a positive impact on the student's placement on the priority list. The numerical placement of an individual student will not be made public, and is not available upon request.

Once the information is collected for all students, the priority will be assigned based upon their total score out of a maximum of 8 points.

Enrollment in a Flight Laboratory Course

As enrollment opportunities occur students will be contacted by Flight Education to schedule a specific time for their flight training. The students will be contacted in the order in which they appear on the priority list. 

Other Measures Being Done to Increase Enrollment

3 Day schedule

Flight Education has implemented a 3 day per week schedule, consisting of longer flights each day. The longer time slots allow students to make more progress on each individual lesson, which leads to faster course completion. In turn the 3 day per week schedule allows for additional student capacity.

Better Maintenance Coordination

Safety is of top concern within Flight Education, and a team atmosphere has been established to allow for efficient scheduling of aircraft into maintenance. This will lead to less down time per aircraft, and more efficiency from the maintenance personnel.

Increased Fleet Size

Flight Education is continually looking for opportunities to increase the size of its training fleet. This includes options to buy and/or lease aircraft in order to meet current demand levels.

Questions?

Please direct all questions to aviation@osu.edu and we will respond to your message there. Thank you.