INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT Aviation
Today, in response to the
nation’s increased need for aviation
professionals, and to broaden opportunities for students in the North
Texas area, Tarrant County College
(TCC) operates a $20 million, stateof-the-art training facility located at
Fort Worth Alliance Airport, now the
largest aviation education facility
in Texas with $3 million in training
equipment for students’ hands-on
learning, which opened in the fall
of 2014. The school offers two
FAA-approved programs, a Part 141
Flight Program and a Part 147 Aircraft Maintenance Program. TCC’s
two-year professional pilot program
offers training in Cessna, Piper and
Scheizer aircraft and is an American
Eagle Pipeline Participant through
its partner, the U.S. Aviation Academy. The building has direct access to
an airport runway and includes two
airplane hangars.
Elva LeBlanc, president of
TCC’s Northwest Campus, called
the three-story, 163,500-squarefoot facility “a beautiful learning
environment,” in an interview with
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
LeBlanc said the TCC Northwest Campus Center of Excellence
for Aviation, Transportation and
Logistics “is strategically positioned
to satisfy workforce requirements,
is dedicated to the education
and advancement of
students in the North
Texas region, and will play
an important role in the
economic development of
the region.”
The center’s opening will
help satisfy the demand for more
aviation professionals. The need
for pilots is expected to increase
by more than 20 percent by 2020,
according to a report from the North
Central Texas Council of Governments, and more than 11 percent
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www.ntc-dfw.org
for aircraft mechanics. The aviation
industry has a $40 billion economic
impact on North Texas and annual
payroll of about $11 billion, according to the report.
H
ome to World’s Largest
Pilot Training Center
Situated at DFW International Airport is the CAE Dallas
Training Centre, the largest
training center in the world
and part of a broad network of
training services from CAE that
includes business and commercial aviation, defense and
helicopter training services.
Each year, approximately 14,500
pilots from around the world train
at the CAE Dallas Training Centre,
coming to North Texas to receive
training to fulfill their initial and annual recurrent training requirements
with the FAA to keep their licenses
current and their skills sharpened.
Customers of CAE include more
than 3,500 airlines, aircraft manufacturers and operators, as well as
the defense forces of more than 50
nations.
FALL/WINTER 2015
Many celebrity pilots train annually at the DFW facility, such as John Travolta
and other big names, though CAE declines to name names for confidentially
reasons. However, it is well known across the aviation industry that the CAE
Dallas Training Centre offers realistic simulation training on more than 80
types of business jet aircraft, from Dassault and Cessna to Bombardier and
Embraer. The 44 full-motion simulators in the training center operate 23 hours
a day (with one hour of time dedica