March 25, 2026 • 23 mins
In this episode, Assistant Professor Harley Waters and senior Cameron Spellman discuss Morningside's hands-on aviation program from flight training to accident investigation and airline careers.
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(00:00):
This is Inside M-Side, your favorite podcast for all things Morningside.
(00:04):
Here's stories from students, alumni, faculty, and more about what makes the
Morningside experience so special.
Hello, hello.
Welcome to Inside M-Side.
I'm Alysanne, and today we're going to hear from some folks
from our aviation department.
I'll pass it off to you guys to introduce yourselves, if you want to go first.
(00:25):
Yeah.
Um, I'm Harley Waters.
I am an assistant professor in the aviation department.
Um, I've been here, this is my second semester, so I'm pretty new.
Wonderful.
My name's Cameron Spellman.
I'm a senior in the flight program.
And where are you originally from?
From Orlando, Florida.
Wonderful.
(00:45):
Great.
Well, there's always something new happening in aviation.
I feel like Tommy usually comes over and is like, we're doing this new thing.
And so tell me about, Harley, like, you know, what your experiences in aviation
and like kind of your background first.
Yeah.
Um, so I did my undergraduate degree at Liberty University in aviation.
(01:07):
I don't know why I ended up in aviation.
I just did.
No one in my family is a pilot.
So it was completely out of the blue.
Literally just, I just got into it.
Um, and so I did my degree there.
Um, my degree was in aviation business administration with a
concentration in professional flight.
So I did the flight training, but also did management.
(01:31):
Um, and then graduated 2019, COVID hit and I didn't know what to do.
So I said, let's go to grad school.
So I did that.
Um, I have a master's degree from Middle Tennessee State in aviation education.
I ended up graduating in 20, 21, no, 2022, 2022.
(01:52):
Um, and then they kept me and they kept me up until last year.
So I was a professor down there, um, teaching lots of different things.
And I just, I've always loved the teaching aspect of it.
So now I get to combine this passion with aviation, with my passion for
teaching and they work together now and it's, it's great.
(02:13):
Yeah.
And then how did you end up at Morningside?
Well, I, so really it is because my husband graduated with his PhD.
Um, and so when he was done with that, we were kind of like, okay,
what are we going to do now?
What's the next chapter?
And it just happened to be in Iowa.
Um, I saw an ad for the professor position, um, in the university
(02:38):
aviation association magazine.
And I was already, I think two weeks beyond the application deadline.
And I said, why not?
I'll try anyways.
This looks like a really cool place.
And, um, sure enough, like three days later, I got a call from Tom.
So it just worked out.
It's again, one of those things that just happened out of the blue.
(02:59):
Yeah.
Love it.
And Cameron, how did you end up at Morningside with aviation?
All of it.
Yeah.
So when I originally came, I toured the program when I was a junior in high school
and there was no aviation program since for only three years in.
So I ended up choosing another university to take it on.
And when Morningside reached, not reached out, but they posted other
aviation program, finally going.
(03:21):
And I was ready to just kind of start new and really like the
atmosphere at Morningside.
Love it.
Love it.
And then like through your education, what have been some of your favorite
parts, favorite classes that you've had at Morningside?
My favorite class is definitely human factors.
I love learning about all the things that come into play.
(03:42):
You really see the cause and effect of aviation and how things happen when they
go wrong and how we can stop them from even occurring before they occur.
So I, yeah.
Yeah.
I love it.
And that kind of also reminds me, I mean, Harley, we've talked about the grant,
the ice tracking grant, tell me a little bit more about that from someone
who's not in the aviation field.
(04:04):
Yeah.
So the grant, it's called EYES.
It's Eye Tracking for Youth Engagement and Safety.
That's the acronym.
EYES is a $10,000 grant that we were awarded from the Iowa Space Grant
Consortium, and what we're doing with it is we're doing eye tracking.
(04:26):
So we have these eye eye tracking glasses.
That's a tongue twister that we had students wearing.
Erin Cam actually has been my student researcher on the project.
So she's done a lot of the data analysis.
And so we have students put on these glasses and it tracks their eye movement.
And then we put them in the simulator out at the flight school, out at the airport.
(04:52):
We have a full motion simulator.
We put students in and we gave them three different scenarios ranging in difficulty.
The first scenario, very basic, nothing went wrong, we can say, because in the
flight simulator, we can fail anything we want.
We can put them, we could put them in the eye of a hurricane in the middle
(05:14):
of Antarctica if we wanted to.
So we have a lot of control with the simulator, with what we can do.
So the first situation the students were in, very basic, normal
stuff that they do all the time.
And then the second scenario was we kind of turned up the pressure a little bit.
We failed in some instruments.
(05:35):
And then we tracked and recorded how they responded to the situation.
The third situation was the most intense.
I don't think anyone successfully landed the plane in that situation.
But it's a simulator, so it's fine, right?
So we put them in the simulator.
We failed their instruments and then we cut their engine.
(05:59):
So then we tracked what they did with that.
And so what we're really looking for was any kind of fixation.
So when you're flying an airplane by only your instruments, you want to avoid fixating
on one thing, because you need to make sure that you're looking at every little gauge
in the plane.
(06:19):
There's so many.
Yeah, exactly.
You want to be looking at all of them so that you're able, as a pilot, to put it all
together and form a big picture idea of what's going on.
When you're flying an instrument, I don't know if I mentioned this, but you can't see
out of the plane, like you can't see the ground or anything.
So you don't even know which way is up or down.
Body's line.
Yeah, your body can lie to you and tell you you're flying upside down when you're not.
(06:44):
It's crazy.
So we're using the eye tracking to monitor students in these situations and looking at
their performance and how their eyes track these instruments.
And we're really looking at how stress was affecting their instrument scan, what we call
a scan, how they're looking at the instruments and interpolating that data.
(07:07):
So that's really what we did with the eye tracking.
We had a whole night where that's all the students did was they came in, we put them
in the eye tracking and that for hours, right?
Like we just had one student after another.
We gave them pizza because students will do anything for free pizza, right?
They're starving.
So they came out, had pizza, and then we had them each do these scenarios and we did
(07:31):
them back to back to back.
And now we're kind of analyzing that data.
Cam's really leading the way with analyzing the data so she can speak more to kind of
where she's at with that.
Yeah, really, we're looking at narrowing down if there was any patterns that we're
seeing, like if one of the instruments were obviously omitted, which means that you are
not scanning it, you're not aware of it.
(07:53):
And then the fixation, I think we all kind of, we definitely saw a little bit of that.
It's just they got a little too focused on something, but we got them in the beginning.
And the more aware you become, a lot of this is awareness.
Then you can correct it.
Yes.
Got you.
And that's the thing, right?
We're trying to make aviation safer for not just our students, but for everyone.
(08:15):
And you don't even have to be in the air to reap those benefits, right?
Like it makes it safer for people on the ground as well.
So that's really the goal.
So that's the eye tracking for safety, right?
But for youth engagement, we are really wanting to, our goal is to take the eye
tracking glasses to high schools and have the high school students put them on and
(08:36):
really interact with it and see kind of what we're doing.
So that's really the youth engagement is to try and get students at the high school
level or really any level to really just get excited about research and aviation and
those two things together.
And then Cameron, yeah, about the data and the research.
I mean, what are the findings?
How can you apply those?
(08:57):
Yeah, the findings are really showing that the scans that we need to use are more left
or right. We were definitely, we caught them so early in our flight training.
I feel like if we definitely redid it again, we'd see growth.
And that was the whole goal of it.
Right. But I believe the BSI was omitted.
(09:18):
That's your vertical speed indicator.
So how fast you are climbing or descending in feet per minute.
Yeah. And a little bit of the turn indicator.
So, yeah, we definitely are going to debrief the students when it's all set and show
them. So there's definitely multiple ways we can even reapply this research that we've
done. But I think it's very cool.
(09:42):
It's fascinating. They were all involved in it and they were excited.
We actually had to keep them away from each other.
Yeah. Once they didn't finish, you're like, you can't talk about it.
Like, we keep it perfectly structured.
So this is what's going to happen.
Yeah. Yeah.
I love that. And now that we have the glasses, we can apply it to so many different
(10:03):
things and we can get students in the future really excited about research and get them
doing hands-on human factors research.
That is just a lot of students don't get that opportunity, especially in aviation.
It's fly, fly, fly, fly, fly.
So getting this hands-on research is really going to help them in the long term with
(10:25):
their careers and maybe even open them up to something they didn't even think that was
even possible before that.
It got me. I was never really fully into research.
I was like, I just want to fly a plane.
But I've really gone into loving to learn about just anything and everything when
something happens. Most pilots are the ones that want to know why.
Why does this happen?
(10:45):
Why? Why cause this?
It's just that's the nature of pilots, I believe.
And then we all stop and ask, it's like, what can we do to never let this happen again?
And that's a question that's asked every time something happens.
So you really get to see from the textbook, there are certain things we never really see
in our study or look at again when we're studying.
(11:07):
But being able to see it applied with the research we're doing, the fixation, because a
lot of the students, especially fixation and omission, you kind of hear them as terms.
You're tested on them through the FAA and in class, but you don't really see how you
can fix it. How can you prevent all this and all that?
I love it. One of the things.
(11:28):
Harley, you mentioned was like the hands on portion of it, and I think both of you can
speak to this, like the aviation department is probably maybe the most hands on out of
any, you know, tell me about flying, getting up in the air.
I've heard that you do it like right away.
That's terrifying to me, but I'm super interested in like, I mean, you get students up in
(11:49):
the air very quickly.
So you have you been in the air yet?
I haven't. We need to do that.
We'll get you in the air and we should film that.
Oh, boy. But for me, when I was flying it.
It's exhilarating, like it is so hands on and you're here at Morningside, you're flying, I
(12:10):
mean, day one, basically like first day of school, you want to get in the plane.
We're going to make that happen.
A lot of other schools, you're on a wait list for maybe a semester or maybe even a whole
year. And here at Morningside, we have the flexibility.
If you want to fly first day, come on in.
We're going to do it. We're going to get it done.
Right. It's very hands on what you're learning in the classroom.
(12:35):
It's not just something that, OK, I need to cram this into my brain for a test, take the
test, and then it goes into like the mental shredder.
Right. This is stuff that you are going to be using every time you get in a plane.
It's going to make you a safer pilot.
It's going to be just applicable.
Everything is applicable.
We're a very application based field.
(12:56):
So from that point of view, I can't think of anything that's more applicable.
I really can't. It is really interesting.
You see it in the classroom, you learn something and then in three days you're applying
it. It's constant learning and applying and seeing how you're picking it up and just
mastering it. That's the whole goal is getting everything from real memorization, which is
(13:16):
knowing the facts, to being able to apply it and then become automated and just be able
to naturally do it. But it's the one thing that you can really see day in and day out.
You're getting to do a lot of degrees.
You have to stay in the classroom for four years.
You don't get to go in the field.
You don't get to apply the knowledge yet.
We're very lucky with aviation.
(13:37):
You do it along the way. It's part of the journey.
I always do the, I always compare it to like med school.
We start med school our first day of college.
Of course, we're automatically in the classroom and then we're applying it and everything
like that. It just comes a little early at 18.
And that's the thing. I'm like, oh, my gosh, like when I was 18, I was, even now I'm
(14:00):
like, that's crazy to me that they fly a plane so quickly.
But I think it's one of the benefits of the program.
I know Tom has stressed and your department has stressed is that we have the capacity
for students to get in and start right away.
So I just think that's really awesome.
Long term goals, Cameron, what are you wanting to do after?
I mean, you said you're a senior.
(14:20):
Yeah. What do you want to do after graduation?
So after graduation, I'll probably be here for another year or so building my hours to
go to the airlines and go to the airlines.
And hopefully the goal would be newly because of our professor over here.
She's got me into looking at the master programs and looking into doing the accident
(14:42):
investigation. That's something that I've loved learning about, even though for people
out to hear that, like, oh, she's just learning about crashes all the time.
But that's how you learn in aviation.
You learn from other people. So you do not do that mistake because it does not happen
again is my rule. You don't replicate accidents.
Yeah. And then I want to become a work for the FAA, do the crash investigating through
(15:04):
them. And if NTSB can pick me up, that would be great.
I love it. Love it.
Harley, about like when it comes to teaching, like what's some of the rewarding parts?
What are some of the things you look forward to in the aviation industry?
Well, being a morningside now, the highlight for me is getting to know my students
(15:26):
individually. You know, we really I get to know my students, which is just so fulfilling
for me. But for me, like in the classroom, it's the light bulb moments where I'm
explaining something. I might be talking about the lift equation.
People are like, what are you even talking about?
Even Cam's like, what are you talking about?
(15:46):
And then when I'm explaining it and I see a student struggling, they're looking at me
with that look of like, I hear what you're saying, but it's not it doesn't mean
anything yet. And then you see a light bulb like, oh, that's why in the plane when I
lifted the nose up, this is what's happening to lift.
I'm increasing lift.
(16:08):
So these light bulb moments where something clicks and they now understand, I know now
I know why I'm doing what I'm doing in the plane.
It makes sense now.
Those moments to me, that is those are like pieces of gold, like that is priceless to
me, seeing those light bulb moments.
And I'm just really excited for these students who are my freshmen now to get into
(16:33):
the industry and be a part of that change and all the things they're going to see in
their lifetime. It's just constantly moving and changing.
And that's really exciting.
And how do you prepare them for that in your teaching?
Just for me, trying to stay on top of what's happening in the industry.
I teach as closely as I can to what they're going to be doing out in the real world.
(16:56):
So an example of that is instrument charts.
I teach what we call Jepson charts.
It's a special kind of procedure chart that they're going to be using once they're at
the airlines. That's something they need to know right away.
So I'm going to teach them what they're going to be doing at Delta one day or United
(17:16):
or wherever they end up.
Would you say that going the commercial route is where most of your students want to go?
I will say when they come in and they're freshmen and they're sitting in the classroom
and I ask them, day one, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Ninety eight percent of them will say, I want to fly for Delta.
(17:38):
I want to fly for FedEx.
They want to be airline pilots.
And that's what they know.
That's what they see.
And the first class that they take with me is Intro to Aviation.
And in that class, I try and expose them as much as possible to as many different parts
of the industry as I can.
(17:59):
So at the start of the semester, 98 percent say Delta, United, FedEx, airline, cargo.
And then by the end, I would say that number lowers to maybe 70 percent because they
didn't know you could be an accident investigator.
They didn't know that you could fly CEOs around.
They didn't know that you could tow banners.
(18:22):
They didn't know you could manage an airport.
They didn't know you could be a wildlife biologist certified with the FAA and get to
look at bird strike remains and like incorporate biology, which sounds really gross.
And it is.
But also.
Some people really like that.
Yeah, it's a way to go.
It's a path you can take.
(18:43):
So coming in, it's airline.
And then they kind of expand their horizons, I would say.
You can't fail when you're in the air.
What are you doing when you're getting up there?
That's definitely a misconception.
You can't fail. Your instructor is right there beside you through the whole time.
It's meant a lot of flying is a lot of failure and just getting back up and getting in the
(19:04):
next day, you know.
And like your instructor is never going to put you in a position where you're going to
kill them. They don't want to die either.
You know, right. So you do things at high altitude.
You're meant that way.
You have a window. You can lose altitude.
We're not doing deep dives.
We're not doing spins all the time.
All the time. All the time.
Only sometimes when you're in it, when you're told to do one.
(19:27):
But. Yeah, it's, you know, you it is designed, we want you to fail.
We want you to fail at this stage, because when you get into a 777, a 737, an A320 and
you fail there, disastrous consequences.
We want you to fail here.
It is safe to fail here.
(19:48):
And I think a lot of students really get into their own head about it.
If they fail a check ride, they kind of I've seen students kind of crumble in on
themselves. Right.
And but this is it's safe to fail here.
This is where we want it to be.
We don't want it to be 20 years down the road.
Right. So people say, oh, you can't fail on a plane.
Sure you can. I failed all the time when I was flight training.
(20:12):
I did all kinds of stuff.
But this is that's it's a safe environment.
And it's not so much a failure as much as it is a learning experience.
Yeah. And I guess my I think it also is like, like, what do you say is a failure?
I think if you make it to the ground, then you're good.
Any landing, any landing you can walk away from, then you didn't fail.
(20:37):
I'm like, fail for me in a plane is much harsher.
Our feeling is like you miss the minimum by like 10 feet, 20 feet.
You know, like there is there's no point where like you're going to be too much like
you're never in full danger.
Your instructor is fully trained next to you.
(20:57):
If you're a student, they want you to fail.
Like it's all been told.
You've learned much more from failures than from good, you know, and it makes it that
much better when you get it right.
It makes that feeling more.
It makes it so addictive.
That's why, like once you see people pass their instrument, they are addicted to the
process. And you you generate this such big love where you don't want to live without
(21:19):
it. And like that's the difference when you're looking at the aviation department is
almost everyone's doing what their love and what they dream of doing.
We're living the dream in a way it sounds so cringy, but there's nothing I'd rather do
than fly a plane.
And I get to do that.
Do you guys have anything else you want to add about the aviation department, about your
experiences here?
(21:40):
This is the most fulfilled I have ever been teaching.
It's been during my time at Morningside.
The students blow me away all the time, like all the time.
I'm learning something new from them or they just surprise me in all these unique ways.
And it's been great. I'm very impressed.
(22:00):
We have a great program.
I only see it growing from here because we're only year, this is year three technically,
and there's lots of really big things planned that will be making waves in the next couple
of years. And I'm really excited about all the growth.
Love it. I love the fact that I'll be an alumni from this program.
(22:21):
I know it's going to be in her hands and in Larry Brock's hands, our other professor.
They do great. There's no wrong that they can do.
It's like they just want better for the program.
And that's only better for me.
Like, I want to be able to look back and be like, this is massive.
Like, I was just like, even when it's so tiny, I love it.
(22:43):
I love it being small.
We get to talk like she knows my weekend plans, like every week, you know, she knows who my
friends are. She knows who I talk to.
And I think that's the nice part.
It's not just a face that's lecturing.
We know each other and everyone's so invested in everyone's journey here.
It's like we don't you don't really isolate yourself in the program because everyone in
(23:03):
the program is going through the same trials and errors that you're going through.
And there's a seeding at the end of the day.
And it's been really cool to watch it all go.
Yeah, we're all trauma bonded.
Don't include that.
I love it. Well, thank you both for sitting down with me and chatting all about aviation
and Morningside. It's so interesting for me being outside of that realm to hear about.
(23:28):
And yeah, thank you guys just so much for stopping by and talking about it.
We love your program.
Thank you for having us.
Wonderful. Well, thank you all inside and outside listeners.
And we'll see you next time.
This is Inside M-Side, your favorite podcast for all things Morningside.
(00:04):
Here's stories from students, alumni, faculty, and more about what makes the
Morningside experience so special.
Hello, hello.
Welcome to Inside M-Side.
I'm Alysanne, and today we're going to hear from some folks
from our aviation department.
I'll pass it off to you guys to introduce yourselves, if you want to go first.
(00:25):
Yeah.
Um, I'm Harley Waters.
I am an assistant professor in the aviation department.
Um, I've been here, this is my second semester, so I'm pretty new.
Wonderful.
My name's Cameron Spellman.
I'm a senior in the flight program.
And where are you originally from?
From Orlando, Florida.
Wonderful.
(00:45):
Great.
Well, there's always something new happening in aviation.
I feel like Tommy usually comes over and is like, we're doing this new thing.
And so tell me about, Harley, like, you know, what your experiences in aviation
and like kind of your background first.
Yeah.
Um, so I did my undergraduate degree at Liberty University in aviation.
(01:07):
I don't know why I ended up in aviation.
I just did.
No one in my family is a pilot.
So it was completely out of the blue.
Literally just, I just got into it.
Um, and so I did my degree there.
Um, my degree was in aviation business administration with a
concentration in professional flight.
So I did the flight training, but also did management.
(01:31):
Um, and then graduated 2019, COVID hit and I didn't know what to do.
So I said, let's go to grad school.
So I did that.
Um, I have a master's degree from Middle Tennessee State in aviation education.
I ended up graduating in 20, 21, no, 2022, 2022.
(01:52):
Um, and then they kept me and they kept me up until last year.
So I was a professor down there, um, teaching lots of different things.
And I just, I've always loved the teaching aspect of it.
So now I get to combine this passion with aviation, with my passion for
teaching and they work together now and it's, it's great.
(02:13):
Yeah.
And then how did you end up at Morningside?
Well, I, so really it is because my husband graduated with his PhD.
Um, and so when he was done with that, we were kind of like, okay,
what are we going to do now?
What's the next chapter?
And it just happened to be in Iowa.
Um, I saw an ad for the professor position, um, in the university
(02:38):
aviation association magazine.
And I was already, I think two weeks beyond the application deadline.
And I said, why not?
I'll try anyways.
This looks like a really cool place.
And, um, sure enough, like three days later, I got a call from Tom.
So it just worked out.
It's again, one of those things that just happened out of the blue.
(02:59):
Yeah.
Love it.
And Cameron, how did you end up at Morningside with aviation?
All of it.
Yeah.
So when I originally came, I toured the program when I was a junior in high school
and there was no aviation program since for only three years in.
So I ended up choosing another university to take it on.
And when Morningside reached, not reached out, but they posted other
aviation program, finally going.
(03:21):
And I was ready to just kind of start new and really like the
atmosphere at Morningside.
Love it.
Love it.
And then like through your education, what have been some of your favorite
parts, favorite classes that you've had at Morningside?
My favorite class is definitely human factors.
I love learning about all the things that come into play.
(03:42):
You really see the cause and effect of aviation and how things happen when they
go wrong and how we can stop them from even occurring before they occur.
So I, yeah.
Yeah.
I love it.
And that kind of also reminds me, I mean, Harley, we've talked about the grant,
the ice tracking grant, tell me a little bit more about that from someone
who's not in the aviation field.
(04:04):
Yeah.
So the grant, it's called EYES.
It's Eye Tracking for Youth Engagement and Safety.
That's the acronym.
EYES is a $10,000 grant that we were awarded from the Iowa Space Grant
Consortium, and what we're doing with it is we're doing eye tracking.
(04:26):
So we have these eye eye tracking glasses.
That's a tongue twister that we had students wearing.
Erin Cam actually has been my student researcher on the project.
So she's done a lot of the data analysis.
And so we have students put on these glasses and it tracks their eye movement.
And then we put them in the simulator out at the flight school, out at the airport.
(04:52):
We have a full motion simulator.
We put students in and we gave them three different scenarios ranging in difficulty.
The first scenario, very basic, nothing went wrong, we can say, because in the
flight simulator, we can fail anything we want.
We can put them, we could put them in the eye of a hurricane in the middle
(05:14):
of Antarctica if we wanted to.
So we have a lot of control with the simulator, with what we can do.
So the first situation the students were in, very basic, normal
stuff that they do all the time.
And then the second scenario was we kind of turned up the pressure a little bit.
We failed in some instruments.
(05:35):
And then we tracked and recorded how they responded to the situation.
The third situation was the most intense.
I don't think anyone successfully landed the plane in that situation.
But it's a simulator, so it's fine, right?
So we put them in the simulator.
We failed their instruments and then we cut their engine.
(05:59):
So then we tracked what they did with that.
And so what we're really looking for was any kind of fixation.
So when you're flying an airplane by only your instruments, you want to avoid fixating
on one thing, because you need to make sure that you're looking at every little gauge
in the plane.
(06:19):
There's so many.
Yeah, exactly.
You want to be looking at all of them so that you're able, as a pilot, to put it all
together and form a big picture idea of what's going on.
When you're flying an instrument, I don't know if I mentioned this, but you can't see
out of the plane, like you can't see the ground or anything.
So you don't even know which way is up or down.
Body's line.
Yeah, your body can lie to you and tell you you're flying upside down when you're not.
(06:44):
It's crazy.
So we're using the eye tracking to monitor students in these situations and looking at
their performance and how their eyes track these instruments.
And we're really looking at how stress was affecting their instrument scan, what we call
a scan, how they're looking at the instruments and interpolating that data.
(07:07):
So that's really what we did with the eye tracking.
We had a whole night where that's all the students did was they came in, we put them
in the eye tracking and that for hours, right?
Like we just had one student after another.
We gave them pizza because students will do anything for free pizza, right?
They're starving.
So they came out, had pizza, and then we had them each do these scenarios and we did
(07:31):
them back to back to back.
And now we're kind of analyzing that data.
Cam's really leading the way with analyzing the data so she can speak more to kind of
where she's at with that.
Yeah, really, we're looking at narrowing down if there was any patterns that we're
seeing, like if one of the instruments were obviously omitted, which means that you are
not scanning it, you're not aware of it.
(07:53):
And then the fixation, I think we all kind of, we definitely saw a little bit of that.
It's just they got a little too focused on something, but we got them in the beginning.
And the more aware you become, a lot of this is awareness.
Then you can correct it.
Yes.
Got you.
And that's the thing, right?
We're trying to make aviation safer for not just our students, but for everyone.
(08:15):
And you don't even have to be in the air to reap those benefits, right?
Like it makes it safer for people on the ground as well.
So that's really the goal.
So that's the eye tracking for safety, right?
But for youth engagement, we are really wanting to, our goal is to take the eye
tracking glasses to high schools and have the high school students put them on and
(08:36):
really interact with it and see kind of what we're doing.
So that's really the youth engagement is to try and get students at the high school
level or really any level to really just get excited about research and aviation and
those two things together.
And then Cameron, yeah, about the data and the research.
I mean, what are the findings?
How can you apply those?
(08:57):
Yeah, the findings are really showing that the scans that we need to use are more left
or right. We were definitely, we caught them so early in our flight training.
I feel like if we definitely redid it again, we'd see growth.
And that was the whole goal of it.
Right. But I believe the BSI was omitted.
(09:18):
That's your vertical speed indicator.
So how fast you are climbing or descending in feet per minute.
Yeah. And a little bit of the turn indicator.
So, yeah, we definitely are going to debrief the students when it's all set and show
them. So there's definitely multiple ways we can even reapply this research that we've
done. But I think it's very cool.
(09:42):
It's fascinating. They were all involved in it and they were excited.
We actually had to keep them away from each other.
Yeah. Once they didn't finish, you're like, you can't talk about it.
Like, we keep it perfectly structured.
So this is what's going to happen.
Yeah. Yeah.
I love that. And now that we have the glasses, we can apply it to so many different
(10:03):
things and we can get students in the future really excited about research and get them
doing hands-on human factors research.
That is just a lot of students don't get that opportunity, especially in aviation.
It's fly, fly, fly, fly, fly.
So getting this hands-on research is really going to help them in the long term with
(10:25):
their careers and maybe even open them up to something they didn't even think that was
even possible before that.
It got me. I was never really fully into research.
I was like, I just want to fly a plane.
But I've really gone into loving to learn about just anything and everything when
something happens. Most pilots are the ones that want to know why.
Why does this happen?
(10:45):
Why? Why cause this?
It's just that's the nature of pilots, I believe.
And then we all stop and ask, it's like, what can we do to never let this happen again?
And that's a question that's asked every time something happens.
So you really get to see from the textbook, there are certain things we never really see
in our study or look at again when we're studying.
(11:07):
But being able to see it applied with the research we're doing, the fixation, because a
lot of the students, especially fixation and omission, you kind of hear them as terms.
You're tested on them through the FAA and in class, but you don't really see how you
can fix it. How can you prevent all this and all that?
I love it. One of the things.
(11:28):
Harley, you mentioned was like the hands on portion of it, and I think both of you can
speak to this, like the aviation department is probably maybe the most hands on out of
any, you know, tell me about flying, getting up in the air.
I've heard that you do it like right away.
That's terrifying to me, but I'm super interested in like, I mean, you get students up in
(11:49):
the air very quickly.
So you have you been in the air yet?
I haven't. We need to do that.
We'll get you in the air and we should film that.
Oh, boy. But for me, when I was flying it.
It's exhilarating, like it is so hands on and you're here at Morningside, you're flying, I
(12:10):
mean, day one, basically like first day of school, you want to get in the plane.
We're going to make that happen.
A lot of other schools, you're on a wait list for maybe a semester or maybe even a whole
year. And here at Morningside, we have the flexibility.
If you want to fly first day, come on in.
We're going to do it. We're going to get it done.
Right. It's very hands on what you're learning in the classroom.
(12:35):
It's not just something that, OK, I need to cram this into my brain for a test, take the
test, and then it goes into like the mental shredder.
Right. This is stuff that you are going to be using every time you get in a plane.
It's going to make you a safer pilot.
It's going to be just applicable.
Everything is applicable.
We're a very application based field.
(12:56):
So from that point of view, I can't think of anything that's more applicable.
I really can't. It is really interesting.
You see it in the classroom, you learn something and then in three days you're applying
it. It's constant learning and applying and seeing how you're picking it up and just
mastering it. That's the whole goal is getting everything from real memorization, which is
(13:16):
knowing the facts, to being able to apply it and then become automated and just be able
to naturally do it. But it's the one thing that you can really see day in and day out.
You're getting to do a lot of degrees.
You have to stay in the classroom for four years.
You don't get to go in the field.
You don't get to apply the knowledge yet.
We're very lucky with aviation.
(13:37):
You do it along the way. It's part of the journey.
I always do the, I always compare it to like med school.
We start med school our first day of college.
Of course, we're automatically in the classroom and then we're applying it and everything
like that. It just comes a little early at 18.
And that's the thing. I'm like, oh, my gosh, like when I was 18, I was, even now I'm
(14:00):
like, that's crazy to me that they fly a plane so quickly.
But I think it's one of the benefits of the program.
I know Tom has stressed and your department has stressed is that we have the capacity
for students to get in and start right away.
So I just think that's really awesome.
Long term goals, Cameron, what are you wanting to do after?
I mean, you said you're a senior.
(14:20):
Yeah. What do you want to do after graduation?
So after graduation, I'll probably be here for another year or so building my hours to
go to the airlines and go to the airlines.
And hopefully the goal would be newly because of our professor over here.
She's got me into looking at the master programs and looking into doing the accident
(14:42):
investigation. That's something that I've loved learning about, even though for people
out to hear that, like, oh, she's just learning about crashes all the time.
But that's how you learn in aviation.
You learn from other people. So you do not do that mistake because it does not happen
again is my rule. You don't replicate accidents.
Yeah. And then I want to become a work for the FAA, do the crash investigating through
(15:04):
them. And if NTSB can pick me up, that would be great.
I love it. Love it.
Harley, about like when it comes to teaching, like what's some of the rewarding parts?
What are some of the things you look forward to in the aviation industry?
Well, being a morningside now, the highlight for me is getting to know my students
(15:26):
individually. You know, we really I get to know my students, which is just so fulfilling
for me. But for me, like in the classroom, it's the light bulb moments where I'm
explaining something. I might be talking about the lift equation.
People are like, what are you even talking about?
Even Cam's like, what are you talking about?
(15:46):
And then when I'm explaining it and I see a student struggling, they're looking at me
with that look of like, I hear what you're saying, but it's not it doesn't mean
anything yet. And then you see a light bulb like, oh, that's why in the plane when I
lifted the nose up, this is what's happening to lift.
I'm increasing lift.
(16:08):
So these light bulb moments where something clicks and they now understand, I know now
I know why I'm doing what I'm doing in the plane.
It makes sense now.
Those moments to me, that is those are like pieces of gold, like that is priceless to
me, seeing those light bulb moments.
And I'm just really excited for these students who are my freshmen now to get into
(16:33):
the industry and be a part of that change and all the things they're going to see in
their lifetime. It's just constantly moving and changing.
And that's really exciting.
And how do you prepare them for that in your teaching?
Just for me, trying to stay on top of what's happening in the industry.
I teach as closely as I can to what they're going to be doing out in the real world.
(16:56):
So an example of that is instrument charts.
I teach what we call Jepson charts.
It's a special kind of procedure chart that they're going to be using once they're at
the airlines. That's something they need to know right away.
So I'm going to teach them what they're going to be doing at Delta one day or United
(17:16):
or wherever they end up.
Would you say that going the commercial route is where most of your students want to go?
I will say when they come in and they're freshmen and they're sitting in the classroom
and I ask them, day one, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Ninety eight percent of them will say, I want to fly for Delta.
(17:38):
I want to fly for FedEx.
They want to be airline pilots.
And that's what they know.
That's what they see.
And the first class that they take with me is Intro to Aviation.
And in that class, I try and expose them as much as possible to as many different parts
of the industry as I can.
(17:59):
So at the start of the semester, 98 percent say Delta, United, FedEx, airline, cargo.
And then by the end, I would say that number lowers to maybe 70 percent because they
didn't know you could be an accident investigator.
They didn't know that you could fly CEOs around.
They didn't know that you could tow banners.
(18:22):
They didn't know you could manage an airport.
They didn't know you could be a wildlife biologist certified with the FAA and get to
look at bird strike remains and like incorporate biology, which sounds really gross.
And it is.
But also.
Some people really like that.
Yeah, it's a way to go.
It's a path you can take.
(18:43):
So coming in, it's airline.
And then they kind of expand their horizons, I would say.
You can't fail when you're in the air.
What are you doing when you're getting up there?
That's definitely a misconception.
You can't fail. Your instructor is right there beside you through the whole time.
It's meant a lot of flying is a lot of failure and just getting back up and getting in the
(19:04):
next day, you know.
And like your instructor is never going to put you in a position where you're going to
kill them. They don't want to die either.
You know, right. So you do things at high altitude.
You're meant that way.
You have a window. You can lose altitude.
We're not doing deep dives.
We're not doing spins all the time.
All the time. All the time.
Only sometimes when you're in it, when you're told to do one.
(19:27):
But. Yeah, it's, you know, you it is designed, we want you to fail.
We want you to fail at this stage, because when you get into a 777, a 737, an A320 and
you fail there, disastrous consequences.
We want you to fail here.
It is safe to fail here.
(19:48):
And I think a lot of students really get into their own head about it.
If they fail a check ride, they kind of I've seen students kind of crumble in on
themselves. Right.
And but this is it's safe to fail here.
This is where we want it to be.
We don't want it to be 20 years down the road.
Right. So people say, oh, you can't fail on a plane.
Sure you can. I failed all the time when I was flight training.
(20:12):
I did all kinds of stuff.
But this is that's it's a safe environment.
And it's not so much a failure as much as it is a learning experience.
Yeah. And I guess my I think it also is like, like, what do you say is a failure?
I think if you make it to the ground, then you're good.
Any landing, any landing you can walk away from, then you didn't fail.
(20:37):
I'm like, fail for me in a plane is much harsher.
Our feeling is like you miss the minimum by like 10 feet, 20 feet.
You know, like there is there's no point where like you're going to be too much like
you're never in full danger.
Your instructor is fully trained next to you.
(20:57):
If you're a student, they want you to fail.
Like it's all been told.
You've learned much more from failures than from good, you know, and it makes it that
much better when you get it right.
It makes that feeling more.
It makes it so addictive.
That's why, like once you see people pass their instrument, they are addicted to the
process. And you you generate this such big love where you don't want to live without
(21:19):
it. And like that's the difference when you're looking at the aviation department is
almost everyone's doing what their love and what they dream of doing.
We're living the dream in a way it sounds so cringy, but there's nothing I'd rather do
than fly a plane.
And I get to do that.
Do you guys have anything else you want to add about the aviation department, about your
experiences here?
(21:40):
This is the most fulfilled I have ever been teaching.
It's been during my time at Morningside.
The students blow me away all the time, like all the time.
I'm learning something new from them or they just surprise me in all these unique ways.
And it's been great. I'm very impressed.
(22:00):
We have a great program.
I only see it growing from here because we're only year, this is year three technically,
and there's lots of really big things planned that will be making waves in the next couple
of years. And I'm really excited about all the growth.
Love it. I love the fact that I'll be an alumni from this program.
(22:21):
I know it's going to be in her hands and in Larry Brock's hands, our other professor.
They do great. There's no wrong that they can do.
It's like they just want better for the program.
And that's only better for me.
Like, I want to be able to look back and be like, this is massive.
Like, I was just like, even when it's so tiny, I love it.
(22:43):
I love it being small.
We get to talk like she knows my weekend plans, like every week, you know, she knows who my
friends are. She knows who I talk to.
And I think that's the nice part.
It's not just a face that's lecturing.
We know each other and everyone's so invested in everyone's journey here.
It's like we don't you don't really isolate yourself in the program because everyone in
(23:03):
the program is going through the same trials and errors that you're going through.
And there's a seeding at the end of the day.
And it's been really cool to watch it all go.
Yeah, we're all trauma bonded.
Don't include that.
I love it. Well, thank you both for sitting down with me and chatting all about aviation
and Morningside. It's so interesting for me being outside of that realm to hear about.
(23:28):
And yeah, thank you guys just so much for stopping by and talking about it.
We love your program.
Thank you for having us.
Wonderful. Well, thank you all inside and outside listeners.
And we'll see you next time.
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