BROOKINGS – About 5:25 p.m. Friday afternoon, Brookings High School freshman Colby Kabris was at the controls of 52JB and on final approach for landing at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport.

Touchdown for the state-of-the-art Aviation Mobile Simulation Lab in the South Dakota State University hangar at the Brookings Regional Airport was smooth and uneventful.

In a few minutes Kabris would take the controls – under the watchful eye of a qualified SDSU instructor – of a real airplane for a real flight in the skies over Brookings.

The freshman is one of seven BHS students in a three-month aviation class under the watchful eye of Cody Christensen, an assistant professor who oversees the SDSU Aviation program. The students are taking the course for credit. And they earn it.

“They all had to make a commitment,” Christensen explained. “They had to write an essay. They meet for the third quarter at 7 a.m. before class time. So they have zero class time to do their training.” And some of that training is hands-on and practical.

“The takeaway from this is that they should be able to essentially do a takeoff unassisted; be able to fly the airplane; get an introduction to the (Aviation Program) major; get an introduction to aviation.

“They work through air space and weather,” he added. “We have guest speakers. They get to fly the simulator quite a bit.”

The simulator has been a major part of the program for more than a year. Its call sign – 52JB – honors the late Jeff Boulware, a retired Air Force colonel who served as Air Force ROTC Detachment commander following which he joined the faculty as a professor of aviation education. A B-52 bomber pilot, with 4,000 hours as a command pilot, Boulware died of cancer in 2015.

Christensen said the call sign in Boulware’s honor “just shows how his legacy is living on.”

Now with the simulator and three months of other on-the-ground aviation instruction behind them, the seven students were able that Friday to fly an airplane as a capstone to the class.

“Today the winds are quite a bit, so they’ll probably do a guided takeoff,” Christensen said. “And the flight instructor will probably do the landing with the student holding on to the controls. Our hope is that they should be doing the majority of the flying today.”

Great group of students

“I got interested in aviation probably about four years ago,” Kabris said, as he waited for his turn to head off into the wild blue yonder. “This class came up in high school about six months ago. It sounded real interesting. I’ve kind of wanted to be a pilot the past few years.

“This will get me a little closer to achieving that. I want to be commercial airline or a charter pilot.”

He plans to enter the SDSU Aviation Program following high school graduation.

“It’s really cool with the technology and everything,” Kabris said of his simulator flying. “Twenty years ago this wouldn’t even exist. This is a really nice thing. You crash, you don’t have anything to worry about.

“What I like about this program, it’s a good introduction to aviation. If you don’t know anything about aviation, this is a good introduction to it.”

He explained that the simulator he’s sitting at is “an exact replica of those planes out there. Everything you’ve learned here, you’ll take out there with you. It’s really interesting.”

Christensen brings a solid background in aviation to the program he now oversees. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from SDSU and a doctorate in education from the University of South Dakota.

Add to that a couple years as a pilot-captain and ground instructor with Great Lakes Airlines, out of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Then in 2008, Boulware invited him back to teach; Christensen, who saw the colonel as a mentor, decided “it was time for me to come home.”

Today, coming up on 10 years later, he oversees the program that has about five full-time and 15 part-time staff. The program has seven aircraft, including both single- and twin-engine and is looking to get two more within the next year.

“We’re fully accredited,” Christensen said of the program that started as a major in 1993. “We’re seeing some phenomenal growth. We’ve gone consistently from about 50 to 65 students over the past five or six years and we’re looking at our biggest incoming class this next year.”

Despite the higher pay of an airline pilot, Christensen likes being a flight instructor better. 

“There’s a lot more money in airlines,” he explained. “But I work with a great group of students. Even to work with the students in Brookings High School was really a joy. They’re a great group of individuals that really have renewed my faith in the school system, my faith in the Brookings community. They’re great.”

The program does offer a minor that allows a student to get a private pilot’s certificate that would qualify for “recreational flying.”

The program has been well received by women. Christensen said the national average for women in aviation programs is about 6 percent; at SDSU about 10 to 12 percent of students in the program are women. And more are being sought.

While the SDSU program offers its graduates a wealth of opportunities in civil aviation, he also noted that the program gives its graduates a “leg up” should they opt for a military aviation program.

“Absolutely,” Christensen said. “We have quite a few of our students that are flying (in the military). We have two of our students (Army National Guard) out in Rapid (City). We have a lot of F-16 pilots down in Sioux Falls, KC-135s, C-5s, C-130s, they’re all over the place.” 

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.

Register photo: At the controls of SDSU flight simulator 52JB, Brookings High School freshman Colby Kabris prepares to land at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport on Friday.