Area students taking flight
Joska Troutman, a Peters Township High School senior, uses the flight simulator provided by California University of Pennsylvania. Troutman and classmates Nathan Levin and Samuel Hazo were able to practice for six weeks before the Pilots of the Future competition.
Peters Township High School seniors Joska Troutman, Nathan Levin and Samuel Hazo won California University of Pennsylvania’s Pilots of the Future Competition.
Peters Township High School students Joska Troutman, Samuel Hazo and Nathan Levin have a few things in common.
The three are friends, all take flying lessons and all want to be commercial airline pilots one day. It’s pretty safe to say they are on the right track – they won the Pilots of the Future Competition held by California University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Innovation at Southpointe.
The program, which the center developed with the assistance of Scott Keddal, a retired U.S. Air Force and commercial pilot, is a games-based learning activity that uses technology to challenge students with real-world experience.
“The Innovation Center’s primary mission is to act as a resource in the community,” said Christopher Allen, community education manager at the center. “In meetings with local educators, gifted education teachers expressed a need for hands-on, real-world scenario activities that could be offered in their schools. I am very interested in using technology and video games as education tools, and thought it would be really fun to use flight simulator software to teach a variety of skills. I pitched the concept to Keddal, who agreed to share his expertise as a consultant.”
Students from 12 area schools were placed in three- to nine-person teams and asked to use flight-simulation technology on loan from Cal U. to master the challenges of air travel logistics and piloting an aircraft. Each player on the team takes on the role of air traffic controller, first officer and pilot. The goal of the competition is to build interpersonal skills, spatial, logical, verbal and kinesthetic skills.
“Cal U. gave us a laptop with a joystick and six weeks to practice,” said Judy Alexander, a gifted teacher at Peters Township High School and the project coordinator at the school.
“Each team member had a chance to be the pilot, co-pilot and air traffic controller.”
The league itself is played in a points-based format. The teams are ranked from first to last by their overall point total scored during the different sections of the competition, which includes ground school, flight team and emblem design stage, mission execution and a teamwork and communication stage.
“The Peters Township team was extremely good at communicating with one another at every level, mimicking the realities of aviation,” Allen said. “At the same time, they were well-organized and knowledgeable about the science behind flight.”
Each team must complete three different missions, all in various weather conditions. Hazo, the most experienced of the three, flew in snow. Levin flew in fog, and Troutman, who just started lessons, flew in sunny conditions. The Peters team competed April 29 and scored 748 points, more than the maximum 733. Brentwood High School was second in the high school division with 648 points.
“We got the extra points by doing extra maneuvers,” said Hazo, 17, who has been taking flight lessons since he was 13 and hopes to do his first solo flight this summer.
“I have been interested in flying since I was a little kid,” said Hazo, adding the Future Pilots project gave him extra knowledge he will be able to use when he gets his pilot’s license. “I used to get excited when I was taken to the airport.”
Levin, 16, also said he has been interested in flying for years.
“I was fascinated by it as a kid,” he said.
Troutman, 18, credits his father, a pilot for American Airlines, for his interest in aviation.
Between flying lessons this summer, he plans to take some courses on flight theory and aeronautics at Community College of Allegheny County.
For winning the Future Pilots competition, the three will be taken for a plane ride in July by state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township.. Bartolotta is a pilot who keeps her aircraft at the Washington County Airport. Each of the students will also get an opportunity to fly her plane.
“I met Camera Bartolotta at various Southpointe Chamber of Commerce events before she was elected and she expressed an interest in the programs we were developing for local school districts,” Allen said. “When I mentioned the Future Pilots League, she told me about her love for flying. I ran into her again in April and she asked how the Future Pilots League was progressing. I explained the students were having a lot of fun, but I was struggling to finalize a prize for the winners. At that point, she offered to take the winning teams on a flight in her plane and we gratefully accepted.”
Allen said he will continue the Future Pilots program next year, but plans to tweak it a bit.
“We would like to work with a helicopter pilot next year to add a mission that requires piloting a helicopter in a rescue situation,” he said.