BRIGHAM CITY – With National Aviation Week kicking off on August 19, spotlighting the Future Farmers of America program at Box Elder High School with its unique pilot training program is certainly worth a look.
Jason Bingham, FFA Advisor and agricultural instructor at Box Elder High School, has a private pilot’s license and aviation teaching credentials making him a great person to lead the first high school flight program in Utah.
“I started flying in 2008; I’ve always had a fascination for airplanes planes,” Bingham said. “I did all of my flight training for my private pilot license at Airmotive in Brigham City Airport. It was quite amazing.“
In 2016, a school board member started a conversation on what it would take to get an aviation program in the high school. They found Bingham was a pilot and the program was born.
“They wanted to offer Utah State University concurrent enrolment for students to help get them to enter the profession,” he said. “We help our students with aviation ground school and prepare them to pass the written examination with hope they will enroll in USU’s aviation program.”
Students have a unique opportunity to take aviation classes and learn about the many ways aviation technology applies to agriculture like crop dusting drones, mapping fields, etc.
“The school district and I have a program that has the first flight lesson for free,” he said. ”Students can go up with a flight instructor for their first flight and they can log it.”
To date, the program has produced about 10 pilots since they started.
“That’s okay, not all students are interested in being a pilot,” he said. “But we are exposing them to aviation and helping them pursue a career in aviation.”
Some students have graduated and gone to Utah Valley University, Southern Utah University and other schools that specialize in training pilots.
Being a pilot is a good profession to have with 1,000 to 1,500 hours of flight time to fly for commercial carriers like Delta, American, Sky West and others.
“It costs students $12,000-$15,000 to go through a program to get their pilots license,” he said. “My son Mason applied for a scholarship and out of 2,400 applicants he was one of 80 students who got a $10,000 scholarship.”
Mason is close to getting his private pilot’s license. He hopes to have it by the end of October.
The 17-year-old senior spends his time doing FFA and wrestling.
“My goal is to have my private license before I get out of high school,” he said. “I hope no one else has ever got their pilot’s license in high school.”
Another goal he has is to go on a date in an airplane.
“I want to be able to go on a date with another couple in an airplane and fly to somewhere like Jackpot for breakfast or dinner,” he said. “The food is pretty good and it’s about an hour and a half flight. I think that could be cool.”
Mason has been flying a Piper TA 28 Warrior, a four seater low wing aircraft.
“Although I want to fly for a profession, I’m not set on anything yet,” he said. “I’ve looked at jobs with the Division of Wildlife Resources stocking fish in mountain lakes or crop dusting with a goal of flying for the airlines if the doors open.”