Blue Ridge Community College's Aviation Technology Program to Launch Online Effort

Sept. 12--Blue Ridge Community College's aviation maintenance technology program will next month become the country's first to offer part of that curriculum online.

College officials say the move will reach students who live outside the immediate area or who have work schedules that do not allow them to participate in the program at Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport.

Fred Dyen, the associate professor who runs the Blue Ridge curriculum, said it's only one of four in the nation that is a one-year program. He said participants attend classes and labs for eight hours a day, five days a week at a hangar at the airport.

With distance education, Dyen said the online participants "can do a lot of their study in the evening and then come in for the laboratory classes."

Among the courses to be offered online starting Oct. 17 are applied technical math, reciprocating engines and aircraft drawing. The latter is a computer-assisted drawing program.

Blue Ridge began its aviation maintenance technology program in 2007. Those who complete it must pass 13 federal exams to be certified, Dyen said.

He said Blue Ridge graduates have gone on to work in aircraft maintenance as far west as Arizona and as far south as Florida.

They are "qualified to work on anything from single-engine planes to transport aircraft," Dyen said.

Getting enrolled in the online program requires an application process, said Blue Ridge spokeswoman Bridget Baylor. She said applicants also have to be interviewed, either remotely or in person.

Copyright 2012 - The News Virginian, Waynesboro, Va.