November 23, 2025 • 22 mins
In this episode of “Mike Dell’s World,” host Mike Dell introduces the topic of aviation schools in Traverse City, specifically focusing on the Cherry Capital Airport and the various training facilities available there. The episode begins with Mike’s greeting and reflection on previous discussions about the airport.
He discusses two primary aviation schools: Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) and Giving Wings Aviation. NMC Aviation School is notable for training airline pilots, offering private, commercial, multi-engine, and instructor ratings. Mike highlights the school’s good track record for graduating pilots and mentions the newly renovated facilities and the experienced leader, a former 747 pilot. He emphasizes how NMC graduates often proceed to airlines or corporate flying jobs.
On the other hand, Giving Wings Aviation is a smaller school that provides a more laid-back environment for training, mainly focusing on private and sport pilot licenses, although they used to offer multi-engine and seaplane training. Mike shares his own experiences flying with Giving Wings, appreciating the convenience of having the school nearby.
Mike also mentions the aviation program at a local high school and the involvement of the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) in mentoring the students. He transitions to discussing Legacy Aviation, a unique aviation maintenance school that offers a 12-month program for aircraft mechanics, providing students with certification and tools upon graduation.
In addition, Mike discusses further options for aspiring pilots, including a new flight school at Cadillac Airport about an hour away and a seaplane training program. He briefly touches on the Coast Guard air station in Traverse City, noting that Coast Guard members go through helicopter training at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
Finally, Mike summarizes the various training options in Traverse City, pointing out the challenges posed by winter weather for flying. He wraps up the episode by teasing a future discussion about other airports in the region.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Speaker 0]Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, whatever the
[Speaker 0]case may be. This is Mike, and this
[Speaker 0]is Mike Dell's World number four twenty nine
[Speaker 0]for the twenty third of November twenty twenty
[Speaker 0]five. I I think it's time for my
[Speaker 0]dove world. There it is. And here we
(00:44):
[Speaker 0]are. So today, I'm gonna talk about aviation
[Speaker 0]and, specifically aviation up north here at Traverse
[Speaker 0]City, Cherry Capital Airport, which we talked about
[Speaker 0]the airport back in, what was it? Long,
[Speaker 0]long, long time ago on the seventh of
(01:06):
[Speaker 0]the month, I think. Yeah. It was the
[Speaker 0]seventh of the month. We talked all about
[Speaker 0]the airport here, but what we're gonna talk
[Speaker 0]about this time is flight schools and other
[Speaker 0]schools, at the airport. And what I mean
[Speaker 0]by that is places to learn to fly,
[Speaker 0]and, also, we have a unique school up
(01:28):
[Speaker 0]here to teach people to be airplane mechanics.
[Speaker 0]And it's it's pretty robust, I have to
[Speaker 0]say, for a a place that a lot
[Speaker 0]of the year, it's really hard to get
[Speaker 0]good flying weather. But we have a really
[Speaker 0]successful school here, Northwestern Michigan College, which also
(01:55):
[Speaker 0]has the excuse me. Oh, excuse me. Wow.
[Speaker 0]Anyway, northern Northwestern Michigan College also has the
[Speaker 0]only freshwater maritime academy of, you know, teach
[Speaker 0]people how to be engineers and officers on,
[Speaker 0]you know, mainly Great Lakes freighters, but they
(02:17):
[Speaker 0]can go worldwide. And the Merchant Marines, you
[Speaker 0]know, working on ships and whatnot. That's one
[Speaker 0]of their big schools here. And then, the
[Speaker 0]other one is the, NMC Aviation School, and
[Speaker 0]they're a pretty big deal. You know, they've
[Speaker 0]got, I don't know how many aircraft, but,
(02:37):
[Speaker 0]a lot, I have to say. I you
[Speaker 0]know, a lot of one seventy twos, some
[Speaker 0]twins, and they, their business is making airline
[Speaker 0]pilots. You know, they teach aviation from, you
[Speaker 0]know, private, commercial, multi engine, and instructor ratings.
(03:00):
[Speaker 0]And then a lot of times, the instructors,
[Speaker 0]you know, once they graduate as an instructor,
[Speaker 0]they work for the school as instructors until
[Speaker 0]they get their fifteen hundred hours they need
[Speaker 0]to apply to the airlines. And they have
[Speaker 0]a pretty good track record of, you know,
[Speaker 0]getting people through that school and, and, you
(03:21):
[Speaker 0]know, eventually onto the airlines. There is a
[Speaker 0]rule to get your ATP, which is airline
[Speaker 0]transport pilot license or certificate. They don't call
[Speaker 0]them licenses, by the way. You know? But
[Speaker 0]people use it. Anyway, English optional today. But,
(03:42):
[Speaker 0]you know, NMC graduate graduates a lot of
[Speaker 0]pilots, for, you know, airlines and, you know,
[Speaker 0]corporate, jet jobs and other things. You know,
[Speaker 0]they don't teach helicopters, but there's another I
[Speaker 0]I don't know if you wanna call it
[Speaker 0]a school, but there's another helicopter thing here
(04:03):
[Speaker 0]in town, but we'll we'll get to that.
[Speaker 0]But, NMC Aviation is, you know, they're top
[Speaker 0]notch, and they just built this beautiful facility,
[Speaker 0]over there. They redid, their hangars, and and,
[Speaker 0]they got a maintenance facility, and, it's just
[Speaker 0]awesome. I, you know, I got a little
[Speaker 0]tour of it not too long ago, and
(04:24):
[Speaker 0]and they just opened it up. I wanna
[Speaker 0]say less than a month ago. And, you
[Speaker 0]know, they keep getting in new aircraft and,
[Speaker 0]you know, they're just, they're building. The the
[Speaker 0]guy that runs it over there is a
[Speaker 0]former seven forty seven pilot, young guy too.
[Speaker 0]You know? He worked for, Atlas Airlines. You
[Speaker 0]probably never heard of Atlas, but you have
(04:45):
[Speaker 0]heard Prime Air. They're a cargo outfit, and
[Speaker 0]one of their claims to fame is they
[Speaker 0]operate all of the prime aircraft or not
[Speaker 0]all of them, I should say, some of
[Speaker 0]them. They, you know, they they operate those.
[Speaker 0]They also operate the Dreamlifter, which is that
(05:07):
[Speaker 0]really weird looking seven forty seven that hauls
[Speaker 0]the parts around for the seven eighty seven,
[Speaker 0]for Boeing. But, but, anyway and I and
[Speaker 0]I actually know three people that either have
[Speaker 0]worked there or do work there. Rick and,
[Speaker 0]Kelsey, the two that I know that are
[Speaker 0]both captains on seven forty sevens. This guy,
(05:28):
[Speaker 0]I don't think he was a captain, but
[Speaker 0]he was, on seven forty seven. He got
[Speaker 0]tired of, being gone all the time. So
[Speaker 0]he, took the job here at NMC Aviation
[Speaker 0]and is doing a bang up job. It's
[Speaker 0]a it's a really cool facility and, you
[Speaker 0]know, they like I said, they train a
[Speaker 0]lot of people, to be airline pilots, and
(05:50):
[Speaker 0]other, you know, paid pilots. You know, people
[Speaker 0]do it for a career. But, that leaves
[Speaker 0]a little gap there because, you know, recreational
[Speaker 0]pilots and some people that also wanna do
[Speaker 0]airlines. There's another outfit. One that I've taken
[Speaker 0]advantage of is Giving Wings Aviation. That's, done
(06:13):
[Speaker 0]by a guy, Eric. And, he he, is
[Speaker 0]running this flight school and maintenance facility. You
[Speaker 0]know? So he does maintenance on other people's
[Speaker 0]airplanes, but mostly, the airplanes for the school.
[Speaker 0]So I don't know what's going on with
[Speaker 0]my watch here. But, you know, so I've
(06:34):
[Speaker 0]been flying with them for a few years
[Speaker 0]and renting airplanes and taking instruction and all
[Speaker 0]that good stuff. And it's, you know, it's
[Speaker 0]a nice outfit, and it's a small outfit,
[Speaker 0]which is kinda nice. So, you know, that's
[Speaker 0]another option for, you know, pilots who wanna
[Speaker 0]get their sport pilot license or private pilot
(06:54):
[Speaker 0]license, even their commercial. And, you know, they
[Speaker 0]do all the stuff. It's just, you know,
[Speaker 0]they don't do multi engine anymore, and they
[Speaker 0]don't do seaplanes anymore. At one point, they
[Speaker 0]were doing seaplanes and and, multi engine. But,
[Speaker 0]they've kinda paired it down to, just single
[Speaker 0]engine land aircraft, and you get all your
(07:16):
[Speaker 0]ratings, on those, at least all the single
[Speaker 0]engine ratings. And, yeah, it works out really
[Speaker 0]good. It's a more laid back school, the
[Speaker 0]way the FAA does it. There's things, called
[Speaker 0]a part one forty one school, which goes
[Speaker 0]by a syllabus. And and, you know, Giving
(07:37):
[Speaker 0]Wings also does one forty one training as
[Speaker 0]well. But one forty one training is more,
[Speaker 0]you know, airline focused or career focused aviation,
[Speaker 0]Whereas part sixty one is kind of the
[Speaker 0]more laid back, you know, you get an
[Speaker 0]instructor, you get all the boxes checked, and
[Speaker 0]then you take a check. Right? You get
[Speaker 0]a certificate or a license, you know, for,
(08:00):
[Speaker 0]you know, what most people call a pilot's
[Speaker 0]license, but, you know, it's not really a
[Speaker 0]license. It's a certificate. That's what the FAA
[Speaker 0]calls it anyway. And, you know, it's but
[Speaker 0]it's it's really nice that here in Traverse
[Speaker 0]City, we have these schools available. You know,
[Speaker 0]really nice for me. I live, you know,
(08:22):
[Speaker 0]five minutes away from, the airport here from
[Speaker 0]giving wings hanger. So, you know, when I
[Speaker 0]go flying, it's oh, I'm gonna go flying
[Speaker 0]at, at four. I leave here at, you
[Speaker 0]know, ten minutes to four over there plenty
[Speaker 0]of time, and, you know, it's great. Like
[Speaker 0]I said, it couldn't be more convenient. The
(08:42):
[Speaker 0]airspace is a bit of a challenge, especially
[Speaker 0]with all the college planes and and all
[Speaker 0]that, but, you know, it's it's a busy
[Speaker 0]airport, but, there's a lot of airports around
[Speaker 0]here. In part two of this, aviation up
[Speaker 0]north series, I'll I'm gonna talk about some
[Speaker 0]of the other airports around here, but we'll
[Speaker 0]focus on the the schools that are in
(09:04):
[Speaker 0]the area right now and, you know, and
[Speaker 0]other interesting things. Our high school also has
[Speaker 0]an aviation program. And now somebody else is
[Speaker 0]talking. I don't know what's going on. I
[Speaker 0]think my my phone and my Alexa and
[Speaker 0]all that stuff, it's sorry. I don't I
(09:26):
[Speaker 0]got my headphones on. I won't pay any
[Speaker 0]attention to it. But, anyway, our high school
[Speaker 0]or not our high school, I should say,
[Speaker 0]our regional, career tech center, which is affiliated
[Speaker 0]with a bunch of high schools around here,
[Speaker 0]also has an aviation program. Now they're not
[Speaker 0]flying. These are, you know, eleventh and twelfth
(09:47):
[Speaker 0]grade students, in high school. And, you know,
[Speaker 0]it's kind of a aviation introduction to aviation
[Speaker 0]and some maintenance and, you know, our local
[Speaker 0]EAA group is is is gonna get involved
[Speaker 0]with them a little bit as for mentorship
[Speaker 0]and maybe building, airplane or something, you know,
(10:08):
[Speaker 0]something like that. Again, it's it's a fairly
[Speaker 0]new program, and a lot of the, a
[Speaker 0]lot of the guys from, EAA are are
[Speaker 0]helping out the instructor and and all that,
[Speaker 0]getting that program off and running. But, you
[Speaker 0]know, it's it's pretty pretty slick how that
[Speaker 0]works. It used to be called the TBA
(10:29):
[Speaker 0]Career Tech Center, and I don't remember. They
[Speaker 0]they've changed their names, like, name, like, twice,
[Speaker 0]but it's part of the intermediate school district,
[Speaker 0]which covers the five county area around here.
[Speaker 0]And they teach a lot of other things
[Speaker 0]over there, the building trades and small engine
[Speaker 0]repair, auto mechanics, auto body shop, medical. That's
(10:52):
[Speaker 0]what I went to it for, you know,
[Speaker 0]thirty, forty, forty years ago. Jeez. But, yeah,
[Speaker 0]I did a year. My senior year of
[Speaker 0]high school did the, medical thing. It's called,
[Speaker 0]I don't even remember what the class was
[Speaker 0]called, but, basically, teach how to be a
[Speaker 0]nurse's aide, which I never did. I I
(11:15):
[Speaker 0]mean, I got through the the course, but
[Speaker 0]I went in the air force and and
[Speaker 0]did a lot of airplaney things. So, didn't
[Speaker 0]didn't really, use the medical thing. But, yeah,
[Speaker 0]it was a way to get off campus
[Speaker 0]for half a day my senior year because
[Speaker 0]I I had enough credits to graduate high
(11:35):
[Speaker 0]school, early anyway. So, you know, I just
[Speaker 0]like, it wasn't really a goof off class.
[Speaker 0]It was a very informative class and not
[Speaker 0]particularly easy. But, anyway, wish they had aviation
[Speaker 0]back then, but, they didn't. But now they
[Speaker 0]do. And, like I said, a lot of
[Speaker 0]our EA guys are, involved with, helping the
(11:56):
[Speaker 0]instructor set that up. But, you know, I
[Speaker 0]don't know how much they're involved, but pretty
[Speaker 0]cool. And then there's Legacy Aviation. Now this
[Speaker 0]is unique in the aviation maintenance world. It's
[Speaker 0]the only school in the country that you
(12:19):
[Speaker 0]can do a twelve month program, and that
[Speaker 0]takes you all the way up to, where
[Speaker 0]you can get your airframe and power plant
[Speaker 0]license, which is the license you need. And
[Speaker 0]that well, they call that a certificate too
[Speaker 0]probably, but FAA is weird. But, you know,
[Speaker 0]get get your certification to be a, aircraft
(12:39):
[Speaker 0]mechanic. And this one does it in twelve
[Speaker 0]months. The the the one that's even, you
[Speaker 0]know, close to that is eighteen months to
[Speaker 0]two years, usually. And for, you know, fairly
[Speaker 0]substantial amount of money, but not, not ridiculous,
[Speaker 0]not college level amount of money. You can
(13:01):
[Speaker 0]go to Legacy Aviation, and, I think they
[Speaker 0]do fifty weeks. So they get two weeks
[Speaker 0]off, during the the year, but it goes
[Speaker 0]year round. And when you come out of
[Speaker 0]there, you are eligible for the AMP certificate.
[Speaker 0]And, you know, actually, I've got a, interview
(13:25):
[Speaker 0]lined up with the founder of that and,
[Speaker 0]some of the the people involved with that.
[Speaker 0]So that look for that coming sometime in
[Speaker 0]the not too distant future. We we've been
[Speaker 0]planning it for three or four months. But,
[Speaker 0]yeah, I wanna sit down and interview those
[Speaker 0]guys because that is, quite the the program
(13:45):
[Speaker 0]they have over there. And what's really cool
[Speaker 0]about Legacy Aviation is on top of that,
[Speaker 0]they're also, donating the office space and meeting
[Speaker 0]area for the, local experimental aircraft association and
[Speaker 0]the local civil air patrol. And they're right
(14:07):
[Speaker 0]on the airport. They have a hangar. They
[Speaker 0]have, well, actually, I think they have I
[Speaker 0]wanna say it's a seven twenty seven aircraft
[Speaker 0]that's up in, Oscoda at the, the old
[Speaker 0]Air Force Base up there, the old Wurtsmith
[Speaker 0]Air Force Base. And there's a huge maintenance
[Speaker 0]facility up there, and Evergreen Airlines is up
(14:31):
[Speaker 0]there or or at least part of them
[Speaker 0]is up there. There's a big seven forty
[Speaker 0]seven engine, facility up there. Just just a
[Speaker 0]lot, you know, a lot of aviation stuff
[Speaker 0]over there in Oscoda on that old airbase.
[Speaker 0]And they donated a seven twenty I think
[Speaker 0]it's a seven twenty seven. One of their
(14:52):
[Speaker 0]one of its engines is, in the hangar
[Speaker 0]over at Legacy. And, yeah, that's really quite
[Speaker 0]the facility. And, you know, when the kids
[Speaker 0]graduate that, they graduate with a a toolbox,
[Speaker 0]you know, all donated and or paid for
[Speaker 0]by, you know, the tool manufacturers and, you
[Speaker 0]know, all this all the stuff they need
(15:12):
[Speaker 0]to do to to, become an aircraft mechanic.
[Speaker 0]And there's a big shortage in aircraft maintenance,
[Speaker 0]both for, you know, airlines and and military
[Speaker 0]even, you know, higher civilian mechanics. Although I
[Speaker 0]don't believe they have to have their AMP
[Speaker 0]license to to work on military aircraft because
[Speaker 0]I didn't. I never got the AMP. But,
(15:36):
[Speaker 0]but I was military too. So I I
[Speaker 0]don't know what the requirements are for that.
[Speaker 0]But, yeah, legacy is quite the outfit. They
[Speaker 0]would give us an extra room there in,
[Speaker 0]the EAA, and we have a simulator room.
[Speaker 0]We have one, two, three, four, five five
(15:56):
[Speaker 0]simulator setups in there for a flight sim,
[Speaker 0]different versions of it or whatever, but they're
[Speaker 0]really pretty nice simulators. You know, they have
[Speaker 0]the throttle quadrants or rudder rudder pedals, either
[Speaker 0]a stick or or a yoke, all on
[Speaker 0]the desk and everything. And they can all
[Speaker 0]be tied together, and some of the controllers
(16:17):
[Speaker 0]from Traverse City come over and pretend to
[Speaker 0]be controllers, when the kids are are flying
[Speaker 0]and mostly kids, but I I played with
[Speaker 0]them too. I don't like to use the
[Speaker 0]SIM all that much because it gives me
[Speaker 0]bad habits in the real airplane. So, you
[Speaker 0]know, but it's it's still pretty good and
[Speaker 0]pretty realistic. And then they have a, motion
(16:38):
[Speaker 0]SIM in another room over there at Legacy,
[Speaker 0]you know, where I mean, it isn't one
[Speaker 0]of those full motion ones, but it's, close
[Speaker 0]enough, and they wear the VR goggles. It's
[Speaker 0]it's pretty intense flying those things, and, that's
[Speaker 0]pretty cool. But, yeah, Legacy is, is a
(16:58):
[Speaker 0]relatively new startup, and, they're doing good. A
[Speaker 0]lot of benefactors around here, got that going.
[Speaker 0]And like I said, we'll be talking to
[Speaker 0]some of them, in a future episode, not
[Speaker 0]during NAPOD, POMO. But, yeah. If you wanna
[Speaker 0]learn to fly, you can come to Traverse
(17:19):
[Speaker 0]City to do it. If you wanna be
[Speaker 0]an airline pilot, go to nmc. You wanna
[Speaker 0]just do it for fun, do, giving wings.
[Speaker 0]Or even if you wanna be a airline
[Speaker 0]pilot, it's a little cheaper to go to
[Speaker 0]giving wings, to get up to a certain
[Speaker 0]level. But to go get your multi and
[Speaker 0]and a few other things, you gotta go
[Speaker 0]over to NMC or somewhere else. There's also
(17:42):
[Speaker 0]a relatively new flight school, and I don't
[Speaker 0]have great big details on it over at
[Speaker 0]Cadillac Airport, which is about, well, driving about
[Speaker 0]an hour south about fifteen minutes by air.
[Speaker 0]They go down there and shoot touch and
[Speaker 0]goes once in a while when they're not
[Speaker 0]busy. But, there's a relatively new one going
(18:05):
[Speaker 0]on down there. I saw it on Facebook,
[Speaker 0]So I don't really know much about it,
[Speaker 0]but, that's another option for those that wanna
[Speaker 0]learn to fly. And then, there's a guy
[Speaker 0]that does seaplane training. And, like I said,
[Speaker 0]I don't have any great big details, but
[Speaker 0]he does it over on Silver Lake over
[Speaker 0]close to Traverse City. And, I could probably
(18:28):
[Speaker 0]get the guy's name and phone number if
[Speaker 0]you're interested in in pursuing a seaplane rating.
[Speaker 0]Chances are, though, you probably have to have
[Speaker 0]your private pilot's license before starting with him.
[Speaker 0]I don't think he does any initial training.
[Speaker 0]But, again, you know, like I said, that's
[Speaker 0]not really a school. That's just a a
[Speaker 0]dude in an airplane. And I told you
(18:51):
[Speaker 0]I was gonna talk about helicopters. Well, there's
[Speaker 0]no real helicopter school here, but the US
[Speaker 0]Coast Guard air station is here. And a
[Speaker 0]lot of the students not students. A lot
[Speaker 0]of the coast guardsmen, you know, let's say
[Speaker 0]they because they all go to helicopter school,
[Speaker 0]Fort Rucker, Alabama. That's the big army school
(19:14):
[Speaker 0]and even the air force sends pretty much
[Speaker 0]everybody there to get their initial helicopter training
[Speaker 0]and then they go out to their individual
[Speaker 0]services. Now I know the Coast Guard's really
[Speaker 0]big air stations, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, I
[Speaker 0]believe. But, pretty much everybody in the Coast
(19:34):
[Speaker 0]Guard and aviation cycles through Traverse City at
[Speaker 0]some point. And they do a lot of
[Speaker 0]training and not initial training or anything like
[Speaker 0]that. You know, a lot of it is
[Speaker 0]just, you know, training people to fly the
[Speaker 0]h sixties, which is what they have up
[Speaker 0]here. And, you know, I I hear them
(19:54):
[Speaker 0]a lot on the scanner. I I'm lucky.
[Speaker 0]I live right near the airport here, and
[Speaker 0]I've got, you know, my ham radio set
[Speaker 0]up. And and on my ham radio set
[Speaker 0]up and a scanner, I can listen to
[Speaker 0]air traffic control. In fact, I wrote the
[Speaker 0]book on it, flight radio. I think it's
[Speaker 0]mostly out of print now, but it was
(20:16):
[Speaker 0]available on Amazon. I don't know. I keep
[Speaker 0]getting little tiny royalty checks once in a
[Speaker 0]while, but, anyway, it is out there. It's
[Speaker 0]a re a book called Flight Radio. Basically,
[Speaker 0]it's just how to listen to airplanes on
[Speaker 0]a scanner, or on a, you know, whatever.
[Speaker 0]But now, you know, there's, there's live a
[Speaker 0]t c dot com where you can stream
(20:37):
[Speaker 0]it from all over the world. So, you
[Speaker 0]know, most people just do that. But, you
[Speaker 0]know, some of us still listen to it.
[Speaker 0]But I'm real close to the airport, so
[Speaker 0]I can hear, you know, I can hear
[Speaker 0]hear the people on the ground. I can
[Speaker 0]hear people in the air. I can, you
[Speaker 0]know, hear most of what goes on around
[Speaker 0]here as far as air traffic. And a
[Speaker 0]lot of times, the coast guard will be
(20:57):
[Speaker 0]out there, you know, doing auto rotations and
[Speaker 0]pattern work in the helicopters and, you know,
[Speaker 0]full run on landings and just, you know,
[Speaker 0]obvious training. And also the, North Flight, I
[Speaker 0]guess it's called still, but the local air
[Speaker 0]ambulance outfit. They have a King Air and
(21:18):
[Speaker 0]a and a, s seventy six helicopter. Anyway,
[Speaker 0]sometimes you'll hear them out training, but they're
[Speaker 0]just doing that for, currency. It's not really
[Speaker 0]a school. But, anyway, that's, that's really about
[Speaker 0]it. But what I got about the, the
[Speaker 0]training in schools here in Traverse City and
(21:41):
[Speaker 0]and all that, Like I said, if you
[Speaker 0]wanna learn to fly, it's not a bad
[Speaker 0]place to do it. It's just in the
[Speaker 0]winter, you're gonna have a little challenge with
[Speaker 0]the weather. Like, when I'm training, it's, always,
[Speaker 0]you know, summertime, springtime, fall, and, you know,
[Speaker 0]maybe go for a flight in the winter
[Speaker 0]if you get a really nice day or
[Speaker 0]something like that. But, again, I'm a fair
(22:03):
[Speaker 0]weather pilot, so I'm not gonna go when
[Speaker 0]it's crappy. I'd rather be sitting here wishing
[Speaker 0]I was flying than up there wishing I
[Speaker 0]wasn't. So with that, tomorrow's episode, I'm gonna
[Speaker 0]talk about some of the other airports around
[Speaker 0]here. Why not? Since, it's my show. Anyway,
[Speaker 0]Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, whatever the
[Speaker 0]case may be. This is Mike, and this
[Speaker 0]is Mike Dell's World number four twenty nine
[Speaker 0]for the twenty third of November twenty twenty
[Speaker 0]five. I I think it's time for my
[Speaker 0]dove world. There it is. And here we
(00:44):
[Speaker 0]are. So today, I'm gonna talk about aviation
[Speaker 0]and, specifically aviation up north here at Traverse
[Speaker 0]City, Cherry Capital Airport, which we talked about
[Speaker 0]the airport back in, what was it? Long,
[Speaker 0]long, long time ago on the seventh of
(01:06):
[Speaker 0]the month, I think. Yeah. It was the
[Speaker 0]seventh of the month. We talked all about
[Speaker 0]the airport here, but what we're gonna talk
[Speaker 0]about this time is flight schools and other
[Speaker 0]schools, at the airport. And what I mean
[Speaker 0]by that is places to learn to fly,
[Speaker 0]and, also, we have a unique school up
(01:28):
[Speaker 0]here to teach people to be airplane mechanics.
[Speaker 0]And it's it's pretty robust, I have to
[Speaker 0]say, for a a place that a lot
[Speaker 0]of the year, it's really hard to get
[Speaker 0]good flying weather. But we have a really
[Speaker 0]successful school here, Northwestern Michigan College, which also
(01:55):
[Speaker 0]has the excuse me. Oh, excuse me. Wow.
[Speaker 0]Anyway, northern Northwestern Michigan College also has the
[Speaker 0]only freshwater maritime academy of, you know, teach
[Speaker 0]people how to be engineers and officers on,
[Speaker 0]you know, mainly Great Lakes freighters, but they
(02:17):
[Speaker 0]can go worldwide. And the Merchant Marines, you
[Speaker 0]know, working on ships and whatnot. That's one
[Speaker 0]of their big schools here. And then, the
[Speaker 0]other one is the, NMC Aviation School, and
[Speaker 0]they're a pretty big deal. You know, they've
[Speaker 0]got, I don't know how many aircraft, but,
(02:37):
[Speaker 0]a lot, I have to say. I you
[Speaker 0]know, a lot of one seventy twos, some
[Speaker 0]twins, and they, their business is making airline
[Speaker 0]pilots. You know, they teach aviation from, you
[Speaker 0]know, private, commercial, multi engine, and instructor ratings.
(03:00):
[Speaker 0]And then a lot of times, the instructors,
[Speaker 0]you know, once they graduate as an instructor,
[Speaker 0]they work for the school as instructors until
[Speaker 0]they get their fifteen hundred hours they need
[Speaker 0]to apply to the airlines. And they have
[Speaker 0]a pretty good track record of, you know,
[Speaker 0]getting people through that school and, and, you
(03:21):
[Speaker 0]know, eventually onto the airlines. There is a
[Speaker 0]rule to get your ATP, which is airline
[Speaker 0]transport pilot license or certificate. They don't call
[Speaker 0]them licenses, by the way. You know? But
[Speaker 0]people use it. Anyway, English optional today. But,
(03:42):
[Speaker 0]you know, NMC graduate graduates a lot of
[Speaker 0]pilots, for, you know, airlines and, you know,
[Speaker 0]corporate, jet jobs and other things. You know,
[Speaker 0]they don't teach helicopters, but there's another I
[Speaker 0]I don't know if you wanna call it
[Speaker 0]a school, but there's another helicopter thing here
(04:03):
[Speaker 0]in town, but we'll we'll get to that.
[Speaker 0]But, NMC Aviation is, you know, they're top
[Speaker 0]notch, and they just built this beautiful facility,
[Speaker 0]over there. They redid, their hangars, and and,
[Speaker 0]they got a maintenance facility, and, it's just
[Speaker 0]awesome. I, you know, I got a little
[Speaker 0]tour of it not too long ago, and
(04:24):
[Speaker 0]and they just opened it up. I wanna
[Speaker 0]say less than a month ago. And, you
[Speaker 0]know, they keep getting in new aircraft and,
[Speaker 0]you know, they're just, they're building. The the
[Speaker 0]guy that runs it over there is a
[Speaker 0]former seven forty seven pilot, young guy too.
[Speaker 0]You know? He worked for, Atlas Airlines. You
[Speaker 0]probably never heard of Atlas, but you have
(04:45):
[Speaker 0]heard Prime Air. They're a cargo outfit, and
[Speaker 0]one of their claims to fame is they
[Speaker 0]operate all of the prime aircraft or not
[Speaker 0]all of them, I should say, some of
[Speaker 0]them. They, you know, they they operate those.
[Speaker 0]They also operate the Dreamlifter, which is that
(05:07):
[Speaker 0]really weird looking seven forty seven that hauls
[Speaker 0]the parts around for the seven eighty seven,
[Speaker 0]for Boeing. But, but, anyway and I and
[Speaker 0]I actually know three people that either have
[Speaker 0]worked there or do work there. Rick and,
[Speaker 0]Kelsey, the two that I know that are
[Speaker 0]both captains on seven forty sevens. This guy,
(05:28):
[Speaker 0]I don't think he was a captain, but
[Speaker 0]he was, on seven forty seven. He got
[Speaker 0]tired of, being gone all the time. So
[Speaker 0]he, took the job here at NMC Aviation
[Speaker 0]and is doing a bang up job. It's
[Speaker 0]a it's a really cool facility and, you
[Speaker 0]know, they like I said, they train a
[Speaker 0]lot of people, to be airline pilots, and
(05:50):
[Speaker 0]other, you know, paid pilots. You know, people
[Speaker 0]do it for a career. But, that leaves
[Speaker 0]a little gap there because, you know, recreational
[Speaker 0]pilots and some people that also wanna do
[Speaker 0]airlines. There's another outfit. One that I've taken
[Speaker 0]advantage of is Giving Wings Aviation. That's, done
(06:13):
[Speaker 0]by a guy, Eric. And, he he, is
[Speaker 0]running this flight school and maintenance facility. You
[Speaker 0]know? So he does maintenance on other people's
[Speaker 0]airplanes, but mostly, the airplanes for the school.
[Speaker 0]So I don't know what's going on with
[Speaker 0]my watch here. But, you know, so I've
(06:34):
[Speaker 0]been flying with them for a few years
[Speaker 0]and renting airplanes and taking instruction and all
[Speaker 0]that good stuff. And it's, you know, it's
[Speaker 0]a nice outfit, and it's a small outfit,
[Speaker 0]which is kinda nice. So, you know, that's
[Speaker 0]another option for, you know, pilots who wanna
[Speaker 0]get their sport pilot license or private pilot
(06:54):
[Speaker 0]license, even their commercial. And, you know, they
[Speaker 0]do all the stuff. It's just, you know,
[Speaker 0]they don't do multi engine anymore, and they
[Speaker 0]don't do seaplanes anymore. At one point, they
[Speaker 0]were doing seaplanes and and, multi engine. But,
[Speaker 0]they've kinda paired it down to, just single
[Speaker 0]engine land aircraft, and you get all your
(07:16):
[Speaker 0]ratings, on those, at least all the single
[Speaker 0]engine ratings. And, yeah, it works out really
[Speaker 0]good. It's a more laid back school, the
[Speaker 0]way the FAA does it. There's things, called
[Speaker 0]a part one forty one school, which goes
[Speaker 0]by a syllabus. And and, you know, Giving
(07:37):
[Speaker 0]Wings also does one forty one training as
[Speaker 0]well. But one forty one training is more,
[Speaker 0]you know, airline focused or career focused aviation,
[Speaker 0]Whereas part sixty one is kind of the
[Speaker 0]more laid back, you know, you get an
[Speaker 0]instructor, you get all the boxes checked, and
[Speaker 0]then you take a check. Right? You get
[Speaker 0]a certificate or a license, you know, for,
(08:00):
[Speaker 0]you know, what most people call a pilot's
[Speaker 0]license, but, you know, it's not really a
[Speaker 0]license. It's a certificate. That's what the FAA
[Speaker 0]calls it anyway. And, you know, it's but
[Speaker 0]it's it's really nice that here in Traverse
[Speaker 0]City, we have these schools available. You know,
[Speaker 0]really nice for me. I live, you know,
(08:22):
[Speaker 0]five minutes away from, the airport here from
[Speaker 0]giving wings hanger. So, you know, when I
[Speaker 0]go flying, it's oh, I'm gonna go flying
[Speaker 0]at, at four. I leave here at, you
[Speaker 0]know, ten minutes to four over there plenty
[Speaker 0]of time, and, you know, it's great. Like
[Speaker 0]I said, it couldn't be more convenient. The
(08:42):
[Speaker 0]airspace is a bit of a challenge, especially
[Speaker 0]with all the college planes and and all
[Speaker 0]that, but, you know, it's it's a busy
[Speaker 0]airport, but, there's a lot of airports around
[Speaker 0]here. In part two of this, aviation up
[Speaker 0]north series, I'll I'm gonna talk about some
[Speaker 0]of the other airports around here, but we'll
[Speaker 0]focus on the the schools that are in
(09:04):
[Speaker 0]the area right now and, you know, and
[Speaker 0]other interesting things. Our high school also has
[Speaker 0]an aviation program. And now somebody else is
[Speaker 0]talking. I don't know what's going on. I
[Speaker 0]think my my phone and my Alexa and
[Speaker 0]all that stuff, it's sorry. I don't I
(09:26):
[Speaker 0]got my headphones on. I won't pay any
[Speaker 0]attention to it. But, anyway, our high school
[Speaker 0]or not our high school, I should say,
[Speaker 0]our regional, career tech center, which is affiliated
[Speaker 0]with a bunch of high schools around here,
[Speaker 0]also has an aviation program. Now they're not
[Speaker 0]flying. These are, you know, eleventh and twelfth
(09:47):
[Speaker 0]grade students, in high school. And, you know,
[Speaker 0]it's kind of a aviation introduction to aviation
[Speaker 0]and some maintenance and, you know, our local
[Speaker 0]EAA group is is is gonna get involved
[Speaker 0]with them a little bit as for mentorship
[Speaker 0]and maybe building, airplane or something, you know,
(10:08):
[Speaker 0]something like that. Again, it's it's a fairly
[Speaker 0]new program, and a lot of the, a
[Speaker 0]lot of the guys from, EAA are are
[Speaker 0]helping out the instructor and and all that,
[Speaker 0]getting that program off and running. But, you
[Speaker 0]know, it's it's pretty pretty slick how that
[Speaker 0]works. It used to be called the TBA
(10:29):
[Speaker 0]Career Tech Center, and I don't remember. They
[Speaker 0]they've changed their names, like, name, like, twice,
[Speaker 0]but it's part of the intermediate school district,
[Speaker 0]which covers the five county area around here.
[Speaker 0]And they teach a lot of other things
[Speaker 0]over there, the building trades and small engine
[Speaker 0]repair, auto mechanics, auto body shop, medical. That's
(10:52):
[Speaker 0]what I went to it for, you know,
[Speaker 0]thirty, forty, forty years ago. Jeez. But, yeah,
[Speaker 0]I did a year. My senior year of
[Speaker 0]high school did the, medical thing. It's called,
[Speaker 0]I don't even remember what the class was
[Speaker 0]called, but, basically, teach how to be a
[Speaker 0]nurse's aide, which I never did. I I
(11:15):
[Speaker 0]mean, I got through the the course, but
[Speaker 0]I went in the air force and and
[Speaker 0]did a lot of airplaney things. So, didn't
[Speaker 0]didn't really, use the medical thing. But, yeah,
[Speaker 0]it was a way to get off campus
[Speaker 0]for half a day my senior year because
[Speaker 0]I I had enough credits to graduate high
(11:35):
[Speaker 0]school, early anyway. So, you know, I just
[Speaker 0]like, it wasn't really a goof off class.
[Speaker 0]It was a very informative class and not
[Speaker 0]particularly easy. But, anyway, wish they had aviation
[Speaker 0]back then, but, they didn't. But now they
[Speaker 0]do. And, like I said, a lot of
[Speaker 0]our EA guys are, involved with, helping the
(11:56):
[Speaker 0]instructor set that up. But, you know, I
[Speaker 0]don't know how much they're involved, but pretty
[Speaker 0]cool. And then there's Legacy Aviation. Now this
[Speaker 0]is unique in the aviation maintenance world. It's
[Speaker 0]the only school in the country that you
(12:19):
[Speaker 0]can do a twelve month program, and that
[Speaker 0]takes you all the way up to, where
[Speaker 0]you can get your airframe and power plant
[Speaker 0]license, which is the license you need. And
[Speaker 0]that well, they call that a certificate too
[Speaker 0]probably, but FAA is weird. But, you know,
[Speaker 0]get get your certification to be a, aircraft
(12:39):
[Speaker 0]mechanic. And this one does it in twelve
[Speaker 0]months. The the the one that's even, you
[Speaker 0]know, close to that is eighteen months to
[Speaker 0]two years, usually. And for, you know, fairly
[Speaker 0]substantial amount of money, but not, not ridiculous,
[Speaker 0]not college level amount of money. You can
(13:01):
[Speaker 0]go to Legacy Aviation, and, I think they
[Speaker 0]do fifty weeks. So they get two weeks
[Speaker 0]off, during the the year, but it goes
[Speaker 0]year round. And when you come out of
[Speaker 0]there, you are eligible for the AMP certificate.
[Speaker 0]And, you know, actually, I've got a, interview
(13:25):
[Speaker 0]lined up with the founder of that and,
[Speaker 0]some of the the people involved with that.
[Speaker 0]So that look for that coming sometime in
[Speaker 0]the not too distant future. We we've been
[Speaker 0]planning it for three or four months. But,
[Speaker 0]yeah, I wanna sit down and interview those
[Speaker 0]guys because that is, quite the the program
(13:45):
[Speaker 0]they have over there. And what's really cool
[Speaker 0]about Legacy Aviation is on top of that,
[Speaker 0]they're also, donating the office space and meeting
[Speaker 0]area for the, local experimental aircraft association and
[Speaker 0]the local civil air patrol. And they're right
(14:07):
[Speaker 0]on the airport. They have a hangar. They
[Speaker 0]have, well, actually, I think they have I
[Speaker 0]wanna say it's a seven twenty seven aircraft
[Speaker 0]that's up in, Oscoda at the, the old
[Speaker 0]Air Force Base up there, the old Wurtsmith
[Speaker 0]Air Force Base. And there's a huge maintenance
[Speaker 0]facility up there, and Evergreen Airlines is up
(14:31):
[Speaker 0]there or or at least part of them
[Speaker 0]is up there. There's a big seven forty
[Speaker 0]seven engine, facility up there. Just just a
[Speaker 0]lot, you know, a lot of aviation stuff
[Speaker 0]over there in Oscoda on that old airbase.
[Speaker 0]And they donated a seven twenty I think
[Speaker 0]it's a seven twenty seven. One of their
(14:52):
[Speaker 0]one of its engines is, in the hangar
[Speaker 0]over at Legacy. And, yeah, that's really quite
[Speaker 0]the facility. And, you know, when the kids
[Speaker 0]graduate that, they graduate with a a toolbox,
[Speaker 0]you know, all donated and or paid for
[Speaker 0]by, you know, the tool manufacturers and, you
[Speaker 0]know, all this all the stuff they need
(15:12):
[Speaker 0]to do to to, become an aircraft mechanic.
[Speaker 0]And there's a big shortage in aircraft maintenance,
[Speaker 0]both for, you know, airlines and and military
[Speaker 0]even, you know, higher civilian mechanics. Although I
[Speaker 0]don't believe they have to have their AMP
[Speaker 0]license to to work on military aircraft because
[Speaker 0]I didn't. I never got the AMP. But,
(15:36):
[Speaker 0]but I was military too. So I I
[Speaker 0]don't know what the requirements are for that.
[Speaker 0]But, yeah, legacy is quite the outfit. They
[Speaker 0]would give us an extra room there in,
[Speaker 0]the EAA, and we have a simulator room.
[Speaker 0]We have one, two, three, four, five five
(15:56):
[Speaker 0]simulator setups in there for a flight sim,
[Speaker 0]different versions of it or whatever, but they're
[Speaker 0]really pretty nice simulators. You know, they have
[Speaker 0]the throttle quadrants or rudder rudder pedals, either
[Speaker 0]a stick or or a yoke, all on
[Speaker 0]the desk and everything. And they can all
[Speaker 0]be tied together, and some of the controllers
(16:17):
[Speaker 0]from Traverse City come over and pretend to
[Speaker 0]be controllers, when the kids are are flying
[Speaker 0]and mostly kids, but I I played with
[Speaker 0]them too. I don't like to use the
[Speaker 0]SIM all that much because it gives me
[Speaker 0]bad habits in the real airplane. So, you
[Speaker 0]know, but it's it's still pretty good and
[Speaker 0]pretty realistic. And then they have a, motion
(16:38):
[Speaker 0]SIM in another room over there at Legacy,
[Speaker 0]you know, where I mean, it isn't one
[Speaker 0]of those full motion ones, but it's, close
[Speaker 0]enough, and they wear the VR goggles. It's
[Speaker 0]it's pretty intense flying those things, and, that's
[Speaker 0]pretty cool. But, yeah, Legacy is, is a
(16:58):
[Speaker 0]relatively new startup, and, they're doing good. A
[Speaker 0]lot of benefactors around here, got that going.
[Speaker 0]And like I said, we'll be talking to
[Speaker 0]some of them, in a future episode, not
[Speaker 0]during NAPOD, POMO. But, yeah. If you wanna
[Speaker 0]learn to fly, you can come to Traverse
(17:19):
[Speaker 0]City to do it. If you wanna be
[Speaker 0]an airline pilot, go to nmc. You wanna
[Speaker 0]just do it for fun, do, giving wings.
[Speaker 0]Or even if you wanna be a airline
[Speaker 0]pilot, it's a little cheaper to go to
[Speaker 0]giving wings, to get up to a certain
[Speaker 0]level. But to go get your multi and
[Speaker 0]and a few other things, you gotta go
[Speaker 0]over to NMC or somewhere else. There's also
(17:42):
[Speaker 0]a relatively new flight school, and I don't
[Speaker 0]have great big details on it over at
[Speaker 0]Cadillac Airport, which is about, well, driving about
[Speaker 0]an hour south about fifteen minutes by air.
[Speaker 0]They go down there and shoot touch and
[Speaker 0]goes once in a while when they're not
[Speaker 0]busy. But, there's a relatively new one going
(18:05):
[Speaker 0]on down there. I saw it on Facebook,
[Speaker 0]So I don't really know much about it,
[Speaker 0]but, that's another option for those that wanna
[Speaker 0]learn to fly. And then, there's a guy
[Speaker 0]that does seaplane training. And, like I said,
[Speaker 0]I don't have any great big details, but
[Speaker 0]he does it over on Silver Lake over
[Speaker 0]close to Traverse City. And, I could probably
(18:28):
[Speaker 0]get the guy's name and phone number if
[Speaker 0]you're interested in in pursuing a seaplane rating.
[Speaker 0]Chances are, though, you probably have to have
[Speaker 0]your private pilot's license before starting with him.
[Speaker 0]I don't think he does any initial training.
[Speaker 0]But, again, you know, like I said, that's
[Speaker 0]not really a school. That's just a a
[Speaker 0]dude in an airplane. And I told you
(18:51):
[Speaker 0]I was gonna talk about helicopters. Well, there's
[Speaker 0]no real helicopter school here, but the US
[Speaker 0]Coast Guard air station is here. And a
[Speaker 0]lot of the students not students. A lot
[Speaker 0]of the coast guardsmen, you know, let's say
[Speaker 0]they because they all go to helicopter school,
[Speaker 0]Fort Rucker, Alabama. That's the big army school
(19:14):
[Speaker 0]and even the air force sends pretty much
[Speaker 0]everybody there to get their initial helicopter training
[Speaker 0]and then they go out to their individual
[Speaker 0]services. Now I know the Coast Guard's really
[Speaker 0]big air stations, Elizabeth City, North Carolina, I
[Speaker 0]believe. But, pretty much everybody in the Coast
(19:34):
[Speaker 0]Guard and aviation cycles through Traverse City at
[Speaker 0]some point. And they do a lot of
[Speaker 0]training and not initial training or anything like
[Speaker 0]that. You know, a lot of it is
[Speaker 0]just, you know, training people to fly the
[Speaker 0]h sixties, which is what they have up
[Speaker 0]here. And, you know, I I hear them
(19:54):
[Speaker 0]a lot on the scanner. I I'm lucky.
[Speaker 0]I live right near the airport here, and
[Speaker 0]I've got, you know, my ham radio set
[Speaker 0]up. And and on my ham radio set
[Speaker 0]up and a scanner, I can listen to
[Speaker 0]air traffic control. In fact, I wrote the
[Speaker 0]book on it, flight radio. I think it's
[Speaker 0]mostly out of print now, but it was
(20:16):
[Speaker 0]available on Amazon. I don't know. I keep
[Speaker 0]getting little tiny royalty checks once in a
[Speaker 0]while, but, anyway, it is out there. It's
[Speaker 0]a re a book called Flight Radio. Basically,
[Speaker 0]it's just how to listen to airplanes on
[Speaker 0]a scanner, or on a, you know, whatever.
[Speaker 0]But now, you know, there's, there's live a
[Speaker 0]t c dot com where you can stream
(20:37):
[Speaker 0]it from all over the world. So, you
[Speaker 0]know, most people just do that. But, you
[Speaker 0]know, some of us still listen to it.
[Speaker 0]But I'm real close to the airport, so
[Speaker 0]I can hear, you know, I can hear
[Speaker 0]hear the people on the ground. I can
[Speaker 0]hear people in the air. I can, you
[Speaker 0]know, hear most of what goes on around
[Speaker 0]here as far as air traffic. And a
[Speaker 0]lot of times, the coast guard will be
(20:57):
[Speaker 0]out there, you know, doing auto rotations and
[Speaker 0]pattern work in the helicopters and, you know,
[Speaker 0]full run on landings and just, you know,
[Speaker 0]obvious training. And also the, North Flight, I
[Speaker 0]guess it's called still, but the local air
[Speaker 0]ambulance outfit. They have a King Air and
(21:18):
[Speaker 0]a and a, s seventy six helicopter. Anyway,
[Speaker 0]sometimes you'll hear them out training, but they're
[Speaker 0]just doing that for, currency. It's not really
[Speaker 0]a school. But, anyway, that's, that's really about
[Speaker 0]it. But what I got about the, the
[Speaker 0]training in schools here in Traverse City and
(21:41):
[Speaker 0]and all that, Like I said, if you
[Speaker 0]wanna learn to fly, it's not a bad
[Speaker 0]place to do it. It's just in the
[Speaker 0]winter, you're gonna have a little challenge with
[Speaker 0]the weather. Like, when I'm training, it's, always,
[Speaker 0]you know, summertime, springtime, fall, and, you know,
[Speaker 0]maybe go for a flight in the winter
[Speaker 0]if you get a really nice day or
[Speaker 0]something like that. But, again, I'm a fair
(22:03):
[Speaker 0]weather pilot, so I'm not gonna go when
[Speaker 0]it's crappy. I'd rather be sitting here wishing
[Speaker 0]I was flying than up there wishing I
[Speaker 0]wasn't. So with that, tomorrow's episode, I'm gonna
[Speaker 0]talk about some of the other airports around
[Speaker 0]here. Why not? Since, it's my show. Anyway,
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