It’s the third summer that ECSU has hosted the ACE Academy (Camp). On Monday, the participants toured the campus by foot. Their perspective changed Thursday, when they boarded Air Viking One for a flight an an overview of the campus and Elizabeth City.
Dr. J. Anthony Sharp, director of the Aviation Science program at ECSU, flies the university’s single engine, Cessna Skyhawk, over campus and the city for the students’ first aerial view of common ground.
“It’s wonderful to see it all from about 1,500 feet. They can see the residence halls, the cafeteria, Dixon-Patterson Hall where they have taken classes over the last week. They can appreciate seeing all the buildings they walked past while walking on the ground,” Sharp said. “Relatively few of the students in our ACE Camp have been passengers on commercial flights but even fewer have been passengers on a small plane. That great view is such a surprise for them.”
What doesn’t surprise the students is the cockpit, the communication system or instrument panel. During ACE Camp classes, students learned about the operations of planes, the design features of various planes, flight patterns and the rules and regulations that the Federal Aviation Administration stipulates for pilots. The ACE Camp students are introduced to the university’s air traffic control simulator and its flight simulator. The Aviation Career Education (ACE) Academy Program was designed by the FAA to provide students with an introduction into aviation and aerospace.
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