Jemma Abel and Luke Werner, University of North Dakota

Our next stop was the University of North Dakota’s (UND) aerospace programs. Tour guides, Jemma Abel and Luke Werner, explained that UND has about 1500 aerospace students. With 150 to 200 flight instructors and 95 C172s, plus a few Piper Seminols, Arrows, Decathlon, C150 and 14 helicopters, they are well equipped to provide flight training to the 190 students who enter PPL training each Fall. About 55% of the student body are foreign students; surprisingly just over 10% are women.

 UND’s altitude chamber can go from sea level to 100,000’ and students experience two sessions in the chamber at 25,000’. The first session provides an opportunity to understand personal symptoms of hypoxia, the second session requires that students recognize their symptoms and successfully attach their oxygen masks. In addition, there is a rapid decompression chamber, where students get to practise recognizing the signs and getting on their oxygen masks within 5 seconds.

Clint Hanus, an ATC student at UND explained the ATC simulator, which actually simulates movements at “Academy Airport”. UND’s new unmanned aerospace program is the first in the country and involved in collision avoidance research; all UND aircraft are equipped with ADSB, an automatic collision avoidance system.