Students in Lakeland’s aviation minor program passed a major milestone in recent weeks when three of the five who are enrolled in the practical flight instruction class performed their first solo flights.
Ryan Graves, Joe Toman, and Brian Groshek each left Joe McGeorge, Lakeland College’s instructor of aviation, standing at the Aviation Heritage Center of Wisconsin’s hangar at the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport to watch from afar as they went back aloft by themselves to spread their wings over the cornfields of eastern Wisconsin.
Graves’ first flight occurred on Oct. 27, Toman’s was on Nov. 4, and Groshek soloed on Dec. 1.
McGeorge said that the other members of the class should be accomplishing their own solo flights soon. He appeared to take particular pleasure in these three breakthroughs.
“The first solos really establish the program, and it shows things are really in swing,” he said. “We’ll just progress from here, now.
“Next semester we’ll be talking about the first private pilot [license], then the first Instrument rating, and in 2013, we’ll be talking about commercial pilot ratings.”
The students, for their parts, are glad to have attained the goal as quickly as they did.
“It’s been exciting,” said Graves, a freshman criminal justice major. “I enjoy the flying. It was one of my main reasons for coming to Lakeland, so it’s exciting to actually be getting into it now.”
Toman, a freshman who is undecided on a major, agreed. “They have an aviation program at Madison-East high school, where I came from,” he said. “When I was checking out college opportunities, the teacher there said Lakeland had a new program. So I checked it out online and, well, I ended up flying.”
McGeorge said that two of the students are pursuing aviation careers, Toman in the commercial sector and Graves through the military. He said that three of the five in the class came to Lakeland specifically for the program. The other two were already enrolled in other programs and added the aviation minor after it began.
Groshek, a senior education major, was already well into his major program when the aviation minor began.
The next milestone McGeorge anticipates is the first cross-country flight, which he said should happen during the spring semester.
Editor’s note: As the first class participating in the new aviation minor progresses through the program, the Lakeland Mirror will be there to document the milestones they pass along the way. We hope to tell our readers about the first solo cross-country flight as well as the first students to achieve their private pilot’s licenses, and then eventually their commercial pilot’s licenses.