Aviation Flight Technology

Objectives

After matriculation at Lewis University (regardless of major), students are required to do all their flight training at Lewis. Flight training received outside the university (while a Lewis University student) will not be transferred as flight lab credit into the flight program and the student will be ineligible to receive any academic credit for that Flight Lab. To graduate as a flight major/associate/minor, a minimum of five flight lab credits and six credits in ground schools must be earned at Lewis University.

In order to be admitted into the Aviation Flight Technology program, applicants must have achieved a minimum high school GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) and an ACT composite score of 21 or a minimum score of 1060 on the SAT. In addition to appropriate ACT/SAT scores, transfer students must have earned an overall 3.0 GPA in the transferable courses. Lewis University students who request admission in to the program must have completed a minimum of 12 credit hours at Lewis University and must have earned no less than a 3.0 GPA overall.

Students not meeting the entrance requirements may be accepted into the Pre-Aviation Flight Technology Program. This major allows a prospective flight student to enroll in the same ground courses taken by flight majors. Pre-Aviation Flight Technology students will not be issued a flight block until the summer semester at Lewis University. Students may also complete their certificate/rating outside of Lewis during the time leading up to the subsequent fall. Returning students must complete either the Private Pilot Certificate or Instrument Rating in totality by the start of the following fall semester in order to officially be enrolled as Aviation Flight Technology majors. Students unable to complete the aforementioned requirements may switch to another major at Lewis, but will not be accepted as Flight Technology majors.

The by-pass exam is the method the Aviation Department uses to validate the FAA training that an incoming student has previously completed prior to matriculation into our program. Upon successful completion of the by-pass exam, the student will receive the academic credits for the appropriate Ground School and labs for the previously completed FAA Certificates. For instance, most commonly a student will enroll as a freshman and already have a FAA Pilot Certificate “in-hand.” That student will take a two hour oral exam with an Assistant Chief Pilot (when deemed ready by their Lewis flight instructor) and upon successful completion, have the Private Pilot Ground School 1 & 2 (AVTR 13000 & AVTR 13100) along with the Private Pilot lab (AVTR 13200) added onto their transcript under notations. This requires completion of the Review and Award of Academic Credit Form by the Chief of Pilot Training and the approval of the Department Chair. Credit hours for the by-pass are added to the student’s transcript during the second semester of the student’s attendance at Lewis University.

The by-pass exam includes the additional material appropriate to the additional ratings held.

By-pass credit hours (which are PLA or Prior Learning Assessment credits) awarded for a FAA license earned before matriculation do not replace the obligation of the student who pursues either the major or minor or associate degree in Aviation Flight Technology to complete at Lewis the required upper-division courses (AVTR 40000’s in the major curriculum; AVTR 33100/33200 and AVTR 46000/46100 in the associate curriculum; and AVTR 33100 and AVTR 33200 in the minor curriculum). Completing these major/associate/minor requirements includes a series of flight lessons in these aforementioned upper-division courses at Lewis with a Lewis flight instructor, on-going flight performance evaluation by the instructor, demonstrated piloting ability, an oral or written examination, and a successful FAA flight check.

For information that pertains to all aviation students, see Aviation Majors.