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PIA breaks ground for expansion
By Kalea Hall
VIENNA
The sky is the limit for the graduates of the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics.
That’s what 1985 graduate Dan Bender, 51, of New Middletown says.
Bender was in attendance Tuesday morning at the groundbreaking ceremony for the institute’s $1.54 million expansion at its Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport campus in Vienna.
“It’s amazing that [PIA] is doing this,” Bender said. “I think this industry is going to need so many mechanics. This [expansion] will be happening in another five years in my opinion.”
When the two-story facility is finished in less than a year’s time, the building will feature new electrical and welding classrooms, an aeronautics lab, administrative offices and a conference facility.
Phase 1 of the project is expected to be finished by Dec. 1, with the second phase of the project planned for a March 1, 2017, completion.
The expansion will give the Youngstown PIA campus more room to prepare more students for the growing aviation mechanic field.
The aviation industry will require more than 1 million new aviation personnel – 558,000 commercial airline pilots and 609,000 maintenance technicians between 2016 and 2034, according to Boeing’s 2015 Current Market Outlook.
“The significant thing is [the expansion] will enable us to have more technology in the classrooms and better classrooms,” said Dave Mitchell, the Youngstown PIA campus director.
The PIA Youngstown campus, one of four in the U.S., has 35 students and will get an additional 32 in August.
Bender comes out to the Youngstown campus to talk to students about the work he loves doing. Bender was hired right after he graduated from PIA. He worked as a mechanic for 24 years and has been an aircraft maintenance inspector for the last five years.
“I love airplanes,” he said. “I wish more kids got into it. A lot of kids aren’t into the hands-on type of jobs.”
Jared Haigler, 19, of Mineral Ridge likes the hands-on part of learning to be an aviation mechanic. Haigler, who graduates in December from the 16-month program at PIA, likes to work on the turbine engines the most.
“I like that I get to work with my hands a lot,” Haigler said. “It challenges me to have attention to detail, to be careful with what I am doing and follow procedure.”
Jim Haynes, 23, of Poland plans to move south to start his career as an aviation mechanic after he graduates in December.
“It’s hands-on, and if you are into mechanics, this is a cleaner and better paying version of it,” Haynes said.
The plans to expand PIA’s Youngstown campus, which opened in 2006, were developed with Sidock Group Inc., a Michigan architecture firm with a focus on heavy industrial and aerospace industries. Jack Gibson Construction Co. of Warren is the general contractor on the project, which is expected to employ 30 construction workers.