“Landing isn’t as hard as people think it is,” Jake Decker told us. “You keep your speed at 65 to 70 knots per hour, you check the light bars [glide slope] on the runway, and come down at a 3.5 degree angle.”
It was Friday afternoon and we were sitting outside the principal’s office at Cornwall Central High School, where Jake is a senior. He studies aviation in the morning at the BOCES Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC). And returns to Cornwall at about lunch time to tackle the more traditional subjects.
The schedule is demanding, but Jake knows it’s a unique opportunity. “How many people can fly a plane ,” he asks, “before they can drive a car?” Jake made his first solo flight a few months before he got his senior drivers license.
It all started with the CTEC catalogue that students receive when they’re sophomores. Jake noticed that aviation was one of the options. He sat in on a ground school class in Goshen, and signed up for the following September. At the time, the course was a year old.
Like other school subjects, it includes lectures, a lot of book work and regular tests. Students have to receive at least an 80 to move on to the next unit. Subjects include:
-meteorology
-instrumentation
-airplane systems
-flight environment
-communications
-aircraft performance
-principles of flight
Students use flight simulators, and arrange for free air time on weekends or after school. They get to fly a Diamond 20 with an instructor for 15 hours in their junior year and for 25 hours as seniors.
The literature for the Diamond 20 says it’s like driving your favorite sports car and adding wings. It’s a two-seater that’s ideal for training.
Jake has flown from Orange to Dutchess and Columbia Counties — jaunts that are considered “cross country flights” since they cover more than 50 nautical knots. He’s also flown at night. “It takes a lot of concentration,” he told us. “You have to know your plane and know where you are.”
Jake is looking into colleges with flight schools, although he hasn’t ruled out enlisting in the military. His instructor, Helen Deeley, says that some schools will give him academic credits for the work he’s done at CTEC. She praises Jake as one of her top students.
When we asked for a highlight of his brief flying career, he referred to a return trip from Dutchess County. He was a few thousand feet in the air when he noticed a sunset over the Hudson River. “That’s when I knew that all the hard work had paid off,” he said.
