(COCC’s program partners with Leading Edge Flight Academy, located at the Bend Municipal Airport | Photo courtesy of COCC)
Tyler Jenness traces his love of flying back to an early childhood fascination — which only intensified when he took a ride in a Cessna 152 as a young teen and later racked up countless hours at the controls of his Microsoft flight simulator. He turned that complete fascination into a full-blown career when he enrolled at Central Oregon Community College (COCC), finding the expertise and guidance he was looking for.
“Former Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and commercial pilots, helicopter tour operators, aviation safety consultants and mechanics, just to name a few,” Jenness says of the myriad aviation backgrounds his instructors brought to his well-rounded education. “Everyone always had an open-door policy if there were any questions or concerns, and everyone really wanted us to all be successful.”
Beyond expert, supportive instruction, Central Oregon’s consistently clear weather and flight visibility, plus the added dynamic of high-elevation flying, make for an ideal learning environment as aviation students progress from class concepts to simulators to takeoff. The program partners with Leading Edge Flight Academy, located at the Bend Municipal Airport, also home to COCC’s CAT IV advanced aviation training devices, or flight simulators, and hangars of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Airplane students train on Cessna 172 and Beechcraft Bonanza or Baron aircraft; helicopter students train on Robinson R22, Robinson R44 and Bell 206 series aircraft.
Careers can take flight as part of the training. In Horizon Air’s Pilot Development Program, accepted trainees complete their education and build experience as COCC flight instructors, leading to a position as a first officer with Horizon Air. The program offers a guaranteed two-year contract and a $12,500 training stipend.
“It was definitely a catalyst for my career,” says Jenness, who entered the program and went on to captain a Horizon Airlines Q400. “In addition to providing much-needed financial support to help with flight training costs, the program provided a seamless transition to Horizon Air once I reached the airline transport pilot minimum requirements. Just knowing that the next step in my career was there waiting for me was a huge relief and removed a huge amount of stress. I would absolutely recommend this program to others.”
Students of COCC’s aviation program can earn one of four degrees: an aviation technology and management associate of science, which prepares students to continue to Oregon Institute of Technology or Embry Riddle Aeronautical University for further studies; a professional pilot airplane associate of applied science; a professional pilot helicopter associate of applied science; and, an unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations associate of applied science, which trains individuals to work as UAS operators in both the U.S. and abroad.
Karl Baldessari, director of COCC’s aviation program and a former chief of operations for the U.S. Coast Guard’s northwest region, is proud of how the college’s robust training creates a recipe for success: “We get students into the industry quicker, at about one-third the cost of most aeronautical universities.”
