Highest quality and lowest cost - but only under 215 lbs

Imagine a Biology class in which 10 percent of the students in it can't use one of the lab instruments because they are built for people with small hands. Or an English class that uses a textbook far beyond the reading comprehension level of even the smartest university student. Or an entire building full of desks and tables built for first graders.

This might seem like an outlandish set of actions for any public university, even one like UND, to take. Unfortunately, something very similar has taken place semester after semester in the School of Aerospace Sciences' Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) course.

Becoming a flight instructor is one of the biggest steps of an aspiring aviator's career. Upon completion of the certification process the pilot is allowed to be a teacher for new and developing pilots. Due to the fact that new pilots can often be unfamiliar with an airplane's handling characteristics at slow airspeeds, the FAA requires that all CFI applicants go through spin awareness and recovery training for their certificate.

UND Aerospace uses the 8CAB Super Decathlon for their spin training flights. This airplane is a high-wing taildragger that is an aerobatic airplane. Utilizing this type of aircraft can serve a dual purpose of providing aerobatic and tailwheel training while having an aircraft that can be used for spin training.

There are huge issues with using only this airplane for spin training. The planes are notorious maintenance pigs that spend an average of seven days not flying for each discrepancy. They are also unable to fly when the temperature falls below 10 degrees or when it is windy. This makes students fall behind in their training, something that is in turn not tolerated by the culture presented by the faculty and staff at the airport. Just as any science student would not want to fall behind in their labs, aviation students have an obligation to get done with their labs so they don't have to spend extra semesters flying and paying tuition to the school.

While this airplane's customer service issues are large enough to be of concern, there is an issue that has large legal implications in the lack of accessibility it provides to those students above the aircraft's 215 pound weight limit. Those students (myself included) that do not fit in the airplane are forced to go above-and-beyond the normal requirements for lesser-weighted students by not being allowed access to the special agreement UND has with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that allows for UND to do flight tests in-house. By not having the ability to use this agreement, students above the 215 pound threshold must do their required spin training through a UND-suggested instructor in Fargo. In addition, these students are also forced to do a rigorous flight test with the FAA in Fargo that often includes four-to-five hours of oral testing followed immediately by a flight test. This is in addition to the two in-house tests that normal students must take.

To relate this scenario back to that of the biology student with tools that are too small, UND is in effect currently making their biology students drive two hours twice to complete part of their lab and then take a test much harder than the rest in addition to the ones required for the normal class.

While I will freely admit I could stand to lose some weight, my body type and the types of people built like me are wholly unable to fall within the aircraft's weight limits. This problem has been going on for years and until now was not addressed by students or administration. When it was addressed this year, the airport staff and administration denied the fact that there was a problem and flat out rejected the one plausible solution to it: buying a new airplane. There are common training aircraft out there that are affordable and can handle people of any weight for spin training.

UND Aerospace's mission is "To provide the highest quality of flight training at the lowest cost to its student." The situation that 2 to 10 percent of flight instructor students face denies them the opportunity for high quality training and in fact greatly increases the monetary and brain-power cost they face. It's high time the administration admits they have a problem and works to fix it. Denial on the basis of excess cost to the school is reprehensible when accessibility is at stake. Just as one would expect handicap ramps to be installed outside our buildings, it is fair to expect that UND can provide someone who meets FAA medical requirements the same, standard, quality training.