A Columbus High School student climbs into his seat with the view of the Columbus-Lowndes County Airport stretched out in front of him.
He flips switches and makes final checks before he takes off down the runway. Soon, he is flying above landmarks he’s grown to know fondly. He tries to find his house, his best friend’s house and his favorite restaurant.
He is doing all of this from the safety of the Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps classroom with the group’s new flight simulator.
“It’s amazing for me just having a dream of being a pilot, and with the flight simulator you can kind of get a head start on what it’s like,” said Collin Moore, a rising sophomore. “When you’re in the air, it’s going to look just like that. It’s kind of giving you that feel of being in the air. I think it’s better for me, and JROTC is a good way to prepare me for real world situations.”
Though Major Allen Williams, who previously taught at Aberdeen High, just finished his first school year as the senior instructor for CHS AFJROTC, he wants to let his students know the sky’s the limit. In fact, he wants to eventually have a program that allows 17-year-old students to receive their private pilot’s licenses and 16-year-old students to receive their drone licenses.
He has started at step one — getting drones and a flight simulator into the classroom.
Right after class let out for the summer, Williams received a three-screen Redbird, which is a mid-level simulator certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. Williams believes a private pilot’s license and drone license are the next steps in creating the future workforce.
“If you look at what’s going on across the state and the obvious interest in developing more defense- and aviation-related industries, we should be exposing our kids to those industries so that we can retain that talent within the state for the jobs our leaders are out pursuing,” Williams said. “… When you hear workforce development folks talk about, ‘Well, the long pole in the tent is the workforce,’ well, we can start helping and exposing and training that workforce at this level. We just have to recognize the fact that our kids are capable.”
Williams wants students to know there are opportunities in the Golden Triangle and Southeast in the aerospace industry. Over the past school year and even into the summer, Williams has taken his students to Columbus Air Force Base, FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, overnight cybersecurity camps at University of Southern Mississippi and more.
In July, Williams is hosting an aviation day camp that is open to 25 total participants for those going into sixth through ninth grade at no cost. It is available at no cost as Williams partnered with Atmos Energy as the camp’s title sponsor.
The camp will be July 11-15, and while each day will be different, the camp will start at CHS. It will include a trip to CAFB, Mississippi State University and aerospace industry facilities like Airbus. On the final day, those who want to ride in an airplane will get the chance.
“My vision for the (AFJROTC) capstone and the aviation camp, that last day, I want every camper that wants to to get their first airplane ride,” Williams said. “During that week they will have been exposed to drones, and it may be their first opportunity to fly a drone for the first time. (I want) just to kind of awaken them to the fact that we may be here in small town Mississippi, but we live in a global world and we can go out and compete just as well as anybody anywhere else.”
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