BOWLING GREEN — Aviation student Kevin Andujar stepped into the sunlit “bravo” classroom at the new Bowling Green Flight Center and looked around the space where he’ll pick up skills he needs to become a pilot.
“It’s nicer. The environment is a lot better too,” the 20-year-old Bowling Green State University student, who wants to be a commercial pilot, said of the 16,800-square-foot facility that will replace a nearby building constructed in 1945.
The nearly $3 million facility features classrooms, office and conference rooms, a full-motion flight simulator, and an 8,000 square-foot aircraft hangar.
About 120 people — including university and flight-center officials, students, instructors, and local dignitaries — gathered Friday to cut a ribbon and tour the new structure at East Poe Road and Tarragon Drive, on university property leased to the Bowling Green Flight Center, LLC.
The project was paid for by the flight center, whose parent company is North Star Aviation of Minnesota.
BGSU in 2014 agreed to privatize portions of its flight-school operations and signed a five-year management agreement with the flight center. The center receives funds from students’ aviation course fees as well as an annual management fee from the university. During the first two years, the fee is $185,000 annually.
The flight center owns and will run the new facility.
University President Mary Ellen Mazey praised the partnership during a short ceremony before the ribbon-cutting. She compared it to other recent construction projects created through partnerships, such as the student health center built in coordination with Wood County Hospital and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation crime lab opened on campus by the state Attorney General’s Office.
Ms. Mazey said the flight center will attract more students who want to study aviation at BGSU.
“This is an area of demand in terms of future employment in this country and beyond,” she said, of pilot careers. “We will do everything we can to meet that demand.”
The program has about 110 students, including 70 to 75 flight students plus others studying engineering and management, said Kevin Doering, the general manager.
Provost Rodney Rogers said BGSU officials think they can double the program’s size within the next few years.
Officials hope to begin holding classes in the new aviation center after the current semester’s conslusion. The building it replaces is to be torn down.
Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.
First Published April 18, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
