By David Downey | Contributing Writer
Alaska Airlines is partnering with a private Inland Empire university on an initiative that aims to put more pilots of color in the cockpit.
The Seattle-based airline launched the True North initiative in 2021, sponsoring aspiring pilots at two historically Black institutions of higher learning: Delaware State University and the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Alaska officials added California Baptist University to the program in November.
“We are a West Coast airline and we are looking to move the program west,” Capt. Ron Limes, pilot outreach director and one of the pilots who came up with the idea, said.
The Riverside school was a natural addition, Limes said.
“It’s very diverse, and they have a top notch — top notch — aviation program,” he said.
True North offers up to $50,000 in flight training tuition support for minority students and a path to becoming a pilot for Horizon Air and, eventually, Alaska Airlines, Limes said. In turn, recipients commit to flying at least five years for the passenger services that are under the Alaska Air Group.
On Monday, March 11, Limes announced the first California Baptist University recipients, both of them women: Tatem Foster and RosaLee Cabral. Their selection brings to 11 the total number of aviation students in True North across the nation, he said.
Program suits university and airline
University officials welcomed the opportunity to boost their aviation program. Alaska Airlines embraced the chance to tap into a campus that mirrors Southern California’s rich ethnic diversity.
“If you look at the Inland Empire, it is quite diverse,” said Phil van Haaster, dean of the Gordon and Jill Bourns College of Engineering, which oversees aviation studies. “And our student body reflects that.”
As of the fall semester, the student population was 42% Latino, 30.2% White, 7.8% Black, 6.3% Asian, 5.3% mixed race, 0.7% Pacific Islander and 0.4% Native American, university spokesperson Kristeen Farlow said in an email.
California Baptist University has nearly 12,000 students, van Haaster said.
He said 197 of them are pursuing aviation majors.
Among aviation students, Farlow wrote, 37.4% are White, 30.8% are Latino, 12.6% are of more than one race, 7.1% are Asian, 2.5% are Black and 1% are Native American.
John Marselus, chair of aviation science, said 20% of the students studying to become pilots are women.
When it comes to the nation’s airline pilots, the vast majority are White.
According to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, 5% of pilots and flight engineers were Latino, 3.4% were Black and 2.2% were Asian in 2020.
Opening doors for pilots of color
Limes, who is Black, said that when he started flying for Alaska Airlines in 1999 he was struck by how few pilots looked like him.
Determined to boost minority representation in Alaska Airlines cockpits, Limes said he and Capt. J.P. Wilson, Portland, Oregon, chief pilot, came up with the idea of creating a company-funded program to support aviation students.
“I’m excited about it because I think we are helping pilots who may not have been able to enter the profession,” Limes said.
He characterized True North as a “first-of-its-kind pilot development program in the airline industry.”
Several California Baptist University aviation students applied for the sponsorship.
One was Josiah Bair, 19, who commutes to the Riverside campus from Fontana. Bair is a mixed-race student whose father is Black and mother is Filipino.
Bair knew he wanted to become a pilot when he was 5 years old.
Traveling with his family to the Philippines at the time, they had a layover in Hong Kong. While waiting for a flight to Manila, he stared out an airport-terminal window at a 747 jet, the fingers of his right hand pressed against the glass.
“I was just shocked at the size of that aircraft,” Bair said.
His mother captured the moment in a photo.
“I started to become more excited about the airplane ride than the destination of our family vacations,” he said.”It became my form of entertainment and my passion.”
Students pursue their dream job
Trevor Ng, 18, whose father is Asian and mother is White, also applied. He’s a first-year student from San Diego who lives on campus.
Neither applicant’s enthusiasm was dampened by the blowout of a door plug on an Alaska Airlines jet in early January seven minutes after takeoff from Portland. The plane landed safely and no one was seriously injured.
“As unfortunate as it was, and as traumatic as it was for passengers, in the long run it is going to improve safety,” Ng said.
Like Bair, Ng traces his enthusiasm for flying to trips taken during his childhood.
“I grew up practically in the passenger seat of airliners,” he said.
Ng said flights were “always super memorable” for him. Also memorable were the annual air shows at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
“It’s been my dream job and the demand for pilots is higher than ever right now,” he said.
Industry officials say there is a shortage of pilots that is forcing airlines to park some planes, The Associated Press reported last year.
And it could get worse. According to a CNN report in April 2023, more than half of U.S. pilots will reach the mandatory retirement age of 65 in less than 15 years, and airlines aren’t hiring younger pilots fast enough to replace them.
Future pilots take flight quickly
As for the aviation science program at California Baptist University, it is 10 years old, said Marselus, the department chair.
The program has a satellite campus at Riverside Municipal Airport with four buildings, three classrooms and four flight simulators.
Students spend half their time at the airport, Marselus said, and the other half at the main campus nearby taking general education courses.
Marselus and three other faculty members teach classes on topics such as aerodynamics, turbine systems and aviation safety.
About 90% of students in the program are looking to become pilots, he said. The rest are headed for jobs in aviation management and operations.
Aspiring pilots — pursuing majors in aviation flight — train with a fleet of 20 aircraft, including 14 Piper Archers, two Piper Arrows, two Piper Seminoles and two Cessnas, Marselus said.
“The first question I ask every student is, ‘Why do you want to fly?’” he said.
Within the first month, he said, new students go up in the air.
“We fly our students right away because I want them to find out whether they can do this.”
Coursework calls for 215 hours flying and learning in a simulator. Students typically log 220 to 230 hours by the time they graduate, Marselus said.
With bachelor’s degrees in aviation flight in hand, they still must log hundreds more hours of training before they can fly commercially.
Because the university’s aviation science program is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, though, graduates don’t need to accumulate 1,500 hours like many pilots do. But they do need to complete a minimum of 1,000 hours before they can get their airline transport pilot certificates, according to the university’s website.
“It’s a long haul,” Marselus said. “But they are getting there quicker now.”
Many students earn degrees in three years instead of four, he said.
That’s what Ng said he plans to do, by taking summer classes. Then he aims to become a flight instructor for two years to pick up the remaining hours of required flight time.
Ng said he wants to shorten the journey for the simple reason that he loves flying.
“It’s not so much the feeling of power that you feel when you are in the air, but the feeling of freedom when you are in the air.”
