Mountain State University has teamed up with Airline Transport Professionals Flight School in a unique endeavor for aviation students to take flight courses at one of 22 ATP locations while also attending college classes through MSU.

MSU President Charles Polk and ATP President Derrick Dennis will sign an academic services agreement today.

About 16 months into the degree program, students will be qualified to work as a flight instructor and begin working toward their total flight experience time while also pursuing an airline-respected bachelor’s degree. This will be in addition to gaining the necessary FAA pilot certifications and flight instructor certificates. Students will develop skills in leadership business and management communications and aeronautics, Polk said.

Although students will have to transfer to one of the ATP schools, Polk says they will still be able to take general studies courses at MSU’s campus or take a few online.

“What we saw is the ability to wrap around a degree in flight training,” Polk said. “They will continue their studies and also have training through ATP. For us to do this and for students to also get a degree meets the objectives of both. This is why it’s so unique.”

Polk says having a “well rounded” education will only be to the benefit of future pilots.

“Pilots will get their general studies and become more well rounded in the things they know,” he said. “This is how we look at it. ATP will produce the clinical training and MSU does that which is necessary for the bachelor’s degree. They will also be able to take pilot type courses that wouldn’t be in the seat of a plane, like meteorology and basic ground school things.”

ATP is a flight school with over 6,000 hours of flight training and nationwide cross-country flight experience per month. More than 3,300 FAA certificates are issued annually.

In 1984, ATP pioneered cost-efficient, accelerated multi-engine flight training with an emphasis on pilot career development. Today, ATP’s airline training programs prepare grads for airline pilot and corporate pilot careers with nationwide flight experience in the largest, multi-engine training fleet.

Polk said the reason MSU decided to partner with ATP was because of ATP’s 26-year track record training professional pilots in multi-engine aircraft across the U.S.

“When we were first asked if we would be interested, we didn’t know,” Polk said. “We realized, however, there would be many opportunities and benefits to come out of this joint effort.”

The benefits, Polk said, stem from an increased need for financial aid and an increased enrollment.

“This puts us in a more competitive position,” he said. “We’re doing something new. I think we could see up to 500 new students just in this field. We will definitely see a bump in business.”

Polk says back in 1992 MSU did pilot training at Raleigh County Memorial Airport, but the West Virginia climate was not ideal. In this program, students will have the best of both worlds.

“This is very exciting for us,” he said. “They will still be able to take classes here but go where it’s more sunny to have in-seat training.”

For more information, call MSU at 866-367-6781 or ATP  at 800-255-2877.

— E-mail: alannom@register-herald.com