NEXT LEVEL: The Campaign for NMC Aviation

You believe in hard work, high standards, and striving for excellence. So does NMC Aviation.

Flying on day one. Taking off in the snow, wind, and rain. Spending spring break covering long-distance routes across the country. We believe that introducing students to real-world experiences in a safe environment is the way to train the skilled, confident pilots our world needs now.

Our training philosophy isn’t the only thing that positions us to meet the aviation industry’s pressing challenges…

Our program is focused as much on personal development as it is on flight training. For more than 50 years, we’ve trained professional pilots with maturity, leadership skills, and sound decision-making capabilities. Our location at Traverse City’s airport is unique in that it provides both a challenging airport environment, diverse weather conditions, and a low-density training area for practicing flight maneuvers.

We’re proud that in an industry that normally has only a five percent representation by women, NMC leads the way. Our enrollment and student body is now more than fifteen percent women. With our focus on practical experience and personal development, our unique geographic location, and our high number of women in aviation, we know NMC Aviation can be one of the country’s leading flight schools, staying on the cutting edge of aviation education and producing the pilots that will address the country’s pilot shortage and keep our world moving forward. And having a leading flight school here in Traverse City offers our regional economy–along with thousands of our students–a big competitive advantage.

NMC Aviation is ready to transform the way ir delivers education and help solve the global pilot shortage, but can only do it with your help.

There’s an unprecedented pilot shortage, and you’ve already felt the effects: flight delays, cancellations, and discontinued routes. The result of an aging workforce, mandatory retirement age, increased certification requirements for new pilots, and the ever-growing demand for timely connectivity across borders, the pilot shortage has no end in sight.

But with this challenge comes opportunity…

The opportunity for NMC Aviation to produce more of the new and well-trained pilots our world desperately needs. The opportunity for NMC graduates to enter a job market of open positions with big salaries, signing bonuses, quick advancement, and the chance to live in Traverse City and commute to major airline hubs—significantly increasing the number of early and mid-career employees with strong earning potential who will sustain our regional economy.

We’re ready to build on our 50-year tradition of excellence and harness this industry demand to benefit students, the college, the community, and the world.

Currently, NMC Aviation can serve 125 students at any given time, with about 50 seats available for new students each year. But student demand is far outpacing our capacity.

Since 2017, we’ve received up to 150 applications per year, with students waiting up to two years to enter the program. We’ve done our best with limited space and resources to admit as many future pilots as possible. But our current hangar, built in 1978, cannot support this demand. Not only is our current hangar limiting the number of students we can admit; it’s hindering our ability to deliver efficient, effective education.

With your help, NMC Aviation will…

• Acquire four new technically advanced aircraft including two Cessna Skyhawks and two desperately needed multi-engine planes to increase flight capacity.
• For every additional aircraft we can add ten students to the program;
• Expand both our hangar’s cold and warm storage capacity, creating space for 8 additional planes;
• Modernize our infrastructure including the HVAC system, windows, and exterior, reducing energy costs;
• Relocate our aviation classrooms to the Parsons-Stulen building, revitalizing and reconfiguring our existing space for simulations, testing, and flight planning, ensuring NMC Aviation delivers the most efficient and effective training.

The NEXT LEVEL plan requires $14 million in investment from visionary people, law makers, corporations, and foundations. Government is already at the table. Thanks to $3.75 million in support from the State of Michigan, and an additional $550,000 in federal funding, we’re on our way to expanding our facilities and addressing the nation’s pilot shortage.

Fundraising efforts are already well underway. Groundbreaking for the hangar expansion is planned for late October 2024, with a construction period through the summer of 2025, opening the facility for use in the 2025-2026 academic year. Following the conclusion of the hangar project, classrooms and offices will be relocated to renovated spaces with the Parsons-Stulen building, capitalizing on the south wing of the building, overlooking the airfields and runways of the Cherry Capital Airport.

The Aviation Division will purchase planes as we have the funding available. The total projected amount needed for four additional Cessna’s and two multi-engine planes is $7 Million. The two multi-engine planes are to replace our current aging Aztecs and the four new Cessna’s allow us to grow our enrollment. Each new plane will allow ten more aviation students to enroll in the program—which means ten more future pilots per additional plane each graduating class.

Would you like to learn more about NEXT LEVEL and how you can help the Aviation Program move forward to serve more students, supporting the aviation industry and our regional economy?

Send us an email and we will get in touch and schedule a time to share more information about the details of the campaign and learn about your interests and priorities. Call (231) 995-1021 or email us today at foundation@nmc.edu!

NMC BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Laura Oblinger, Chair
Kenneth Warner, Treasurer
Andrew Robitshek, Secretary
Douglas Bishop
Chris Bott
Bill Marsh Jr.
Kennard Weaver

NMC AVIATION DIVISION ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Alex Bloye
Scott Dennis
Frank Jabour
Willow MacLaughlin
Steve Plamondon
Heather Robinson
Bilal Sheikh
Stephen Siciliano
Julia Vannatter
Sam Warren
Todd Zrimec