I have launched M.E.I.T.S. as my own blog reflecting on the happenings at Purdue University from my own perspective now getting started as an Aviation Management undergraduate in West Lafayette. I had a selection of great universities across the country but ultimately Purdue had my perfect degree program of study already well outlined for me and anyone else who desires to learn what it takes to immediately become an air traffic controller while still learning about working behind the scenes in the airline industry.
At Purdue, one of the first and only schools to have an aviation program the aviation technology sector is well established complete with LAF airport on campus and new state of the art facilities and trainer aircraft. The draw for me as an aviation management major is to learn about working in an airline and picking up the essential training for the atc world straight out of college. The other two majors within Purdue aviation tech are Professional Flight and Aeronautical Engineering Technology. Simultaneously this land grant university is preparing tomorrow's pilots, mechanics/designers, and managers/controllers all at once in this corner of campus much like well orchestrated final approaches at ATL on 26R, 27L, and 28 day in and day out.
So far I only have two aviation intensive classes in the mix with Math, Speech, Int'l Relations, Organizational/Leadership Skills taking up the rest of my studies. As with most collegiate programs, the hands-on intensive courses do not happen freshman year and many times not sophomore year either. The most recent figures I have on Aviation Technology (AT) majors is that there are about 650 students invloved breaking down to 23% engineering, 43% flight and 34% management; and overall about 87% are male, while the whole school has 31,000 undergrads being 58% male. I think the females in AT will be making a lot of new friends rapidly.
My classes outside AT are very good for the underlying framework for what I plan to be doing. Keeping aircraft separated will require some good mathematical thinking and speech delivery over the VHF transmissions is a crucial part of getting the job done right. Knowing federal and international policy will be a given; knowing the human behavior within an organization such as an airline or the FAA will help keep people focused and co-operating in a supportive manner. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first month here and will continue to stay enthusiastic about our Boilermaker football team so long as we don't have any real embarrassing losses, their record today stands at 2-2.
