Be a Mentor as part of this exciting partnership between FlyQuest and the Madison County Career Technical Center’s Aerospace Technology Academy!
We are looking for aviation-minded and technically-experienced men and women to guide high school students in learning and applying the skills to build an FAA-certified Van’s RV-12 light sport aircraft. We're here to answer the many questions you might have as you consider whether this opportunity is for you. Let’s use the 5Ws to get right to the important information:
The Madison County Career Technical Center (CTC) is a technical high school in the Madison County, AL, School District system. One of the CTC programs is the Aerospace Technology Academy. Starting in the Fall of 2025, the CTC is expanding the program to include building an actual aircraft.
CTC has contracted with a national non-profit corporation, Tango Flight, Inc., for professional logistical, technical, and programmatic support for this RV-12 aircraft build project. Tango Flight also provides an academic curriculum, aircraft build plan (modified to allow multiple build teams to work simultaneously), tools, workshop setup guidance, project management, instructor and mentor training, quality assurance oversight, and FAA coordination.
A local non-profit youth STEM education organization, FlyQuest, is providing funding and volunteer administrative and logistical support to CTC for this program. FlyQuest is leading the effort to recruit volunteer mentors for this project. FlyQuest will provide the names and credentials of qualified applicants to CTC administration, who will select mentors. All selectees will undergo the standard background check required by the Alabama State Department of Education.
It’s estimated that up to forty 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade students will be involved in this inaugural class, which will start in August 2025. Classes will alternate between the academic curriculum in the classroom and building sessions in the workshop. When in the workshop, students will usually work in teams of 3-4, with 3-5 teams working simultaneously. Ideally, one mentor will supervise one workshop student team, but doubling up may sometimes be needed.
Shop mentors arrive before the students to prepare the work area per the instructor's daily directions, teach and demonstrate the construction skills to their student teams, then supervise the students as they apply the skills to actual aircraft construction. Shop mentors also provide workmanship quality assurance and ensure the students learn and follow standard shop standards for cleanliness, tool usage and control, foreign object/debris (FOD) elimination, etc.
Mentors also serve as role models and counselors to the students, including regarding that most important life lesson: the necessity for good teamwork and productive collaboration. In a project this large, one professor can’t do it all; the instructor will need the dedicated and experienced help of each mentor.
The program will run during regular school hours, on regular school instruction days. At this time, no after-hours, weekend, or school holiday operations are anticipated. Mentor training is scheduled for July 30th and 31st, 2025. Tango Flight staff will provide the training in Huntsville, including constructing an actual airplane part (the vertical stabilizer). All mentors should plan on being available for those two full days. The program starts with the beginning of the Madison County Schools fall semester, on Aug 1, 2025. We are asking each volunteer to participate at least one school day a week. The total number of mentors will depend upon interest and needs, but we hope to arrive at a cadre that is large enough to accommodate the unplanned absences and personal schedule requirements that inevitably occur. As volunteers, we understand schedule flexibility is a requirement, and we hope to staff accordingly.
Where:
The Madison County Schools CTC is located at 1275 Jordan Road, Building B, Huntsville, AL 35811.
Please go to TangoFlight.com to see the impressive results being achieved by high-schoolers across the country. By building a real airplane to strict FAA certification standards, our students will learn not only about science, technology, and engineering as future careers, but also about working productively within a team toward a common goal, the joy of fulfilling challenging aspirations, and the weight of responsibility for the safety of future crew and passengers of the plane they build.
How:
The aircraft will be built strictly to Van’s factory specifications and certificated as an Experimental Light Sport Aircraft (ELSA). The goal is to complete an aircraft every two years, although extensions are occasionally required. These schedules include moving the completed subassemblies to a nearby airport for final assembly and testing. Airworthiness inspections and first flights will be accomplished by Tango Flight staff. After completing the required test flights (and perhaps some orientation flights for the builders!), Tango Flight will sell the aircraft and use the proceeds to buy the next kit for CTC, thereby funding the next class of students.
The Next Step - Are YOU ready to help?
If you’ve decided you would like to volunteer, please click on “Apply to be a Mentor” and fill out the application. If you have additional questions, please email us! Questions specific to this program partnership can be addressed to mentors@flyquest.org.
Be A Mentor