Las Vegas-area flight school working to address need for more pilots

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Over 18,000 openings for airline and commercial pilots are projected each year. Many of the openings are due to the need to replace workers who switch jobs or retire.

“I took off and I started crying and immediately knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” said pilot student Kendall Fundum.

Fundum is a student who wanted to be ready to take flight and step in to help address the need for more pilots.

“It has been completely different than anything else I have ever done,” said Fundum. “I was an executive assistant for a while and took a complete career switch to do this.”

“We are entering the era of a pilot shortage,” said the director of flight operations at All In Aviation Carl May. “We are coming up on that based on the mandatory retirement age for pilots.”

All in aviation, a local pilot school in Henderson preps students to get into the aviation industry. Using Cirrus and Cessna aircraft for training.

“So, if we decide we are going to go out to Jean or something, we take off, go to Jean and you work on maneuvers until you get them down,” said Fundum.

“Progression is you move up, get your hours and move into the airline industry,” said May.

Students also train in a simulator that creates real-life flight scenarios. It is one of two in the United States.

“Learn the avionics in here and learn the different maneuvers in here first and so when I did actually get out to the airplane, it was so much easier and smoother, and I was a lot more comfortable,” said Fundum.

“And the controls feel 99 percent the same,” said May.

One plane ticket at a time, Fundum is working her way up to be a pilot for Frontier or Southwest Airlines.

“Being a woman in the airlines can hopefully encourage other young women to get into it,” said Fundum.

All In Aviation has about 100 students at any given time and people can sign up to start their pilot journey at any time.

To learn more about the program, click HERE.

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