New partnership to bring improvements to GIPS aviation technology program
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - Grand Island Public Schools aviation technology students and teachers are in for a new and improved curriculum starting this fall.
During Monday night’s Grand Island Public School Board meeting, board members approved of an agreement to partner up with Tango Flight Incorporated (TFI).
TFI is a nonprofit, educational aviation program meant to provide mentorship to aviation instructors.
The new partnership between TFI and GIPS is expected to facilitate technology aviation students’ Van’s RV-12iS aircraft build.
“One of the big pieces that they have to build early on is the tail piece and so, for example, the mentors and the curriculum providers, the folks from Tango Flight — they’re going to come in and actually, they will provide a tail piece and they’ll go through the instructor and hands on building that out so, they get that experience of building it before we’re doing it on the real one that’s going to go in the air one day,” said Academy of Technology and Engineering Principal Matt Wichman.
The RV-12iS kit has been offered for a couple of years, but Wichman said they had run into a few bumps in the road along the way. But now, he says this new curriculum will to help fill those gaps.
“As you go through the development of a new program, there’s always ebbs and flows of the growth and so, one thing is, is this curriculum resource will help us make that plane building process more engaging for kids, which we’re real excited about,” he noted.
Wichman told Local4 News they plan to put the aircraft on the market after it is fully assembled, and this partnership will help facilitate the selling process of the plane.
The new curriculum is expected to go into effect as the students head back into the classroom this fall.
Wichman said they hoped to come close to finishing or, completely finish putting the plane together by the end of the school year.
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