Eastern Slope Aviation Academy
The Eastern Slope Aviation Academy was developed to fill a need in the Mount Washington Valley for focused, affordable education and guidance in aviation. Born from several years of hosting summer STEM aviation camps, ESAvAc is organized and registered as a 501c3 charitable non-profit with recent funding secured through a variety of grants and tax deductible donations.
We're Opening in July!
Membership opens to the general public on July 1, 2021. Public membership will help us fulfill our mission to provide an introduction to careers in aviation to people of the Mount Washington Valley and Western Maine.
Offering membership to the general public is a way of reaching more potential aviation students who might be further along in their career aspirations or those who simply want to take flight. “Rusty” pilots are also welcome!
We have a Cessna 172 that will be available for training, and we’re planning to add additional aircraft to our training fleet as funding is secured. We also are working with our local FAA Flight Standards Office to be sure of full compliance with applicable regulations.
To date the Aviation Academy focus has been on providing an introduction to aviation to STEM Aviation students at the Mount Washington Valley Career Technical Center and Fryeburg Academy through the use of the Academy’s Redbird flight simulator, which will also be available to general members.
In addition to affordable flight training the Academy has acquired through donation a Grumman aircraft, which will be used by those interested in aviation mechanics and avionics. The Aviation Academy also plans to provide speakers, events, activities to promote, introduce, and educate.
The Ramp Bird Refurb Project
Help us restore this plane and raffle it off!
Building on our commitment to education, we’ve partnered with the Mountain Washington Valley Career Technical Center to adopt the AOPA STEM Aviation curriculum for high school freshmen interested in pursuing a career in aviation, which helped launch MWVCTC to become the leader of 5 high school STEM Aviation programs in New Hampshire, with FAA grants guaranteed through the next 5 years. We have already provided simulator training to 13 STEM Aviation students from Kennett High School in the fall semester, and we will have have 15 more STEM students and more in the spring semester.
Our plans for the near future include reaching out to area schools in both Maine and New Hampshire to make them aware of STEM aviation opportunities and offering membership to the general public as a way of reaching more potential aviation students who might be further along in their career aspirations or those who simply want to take flight. We’ll soon have a Cessna 172 available for training, and we’re planning to add another aircraft to our training fleet as funding is secured. Instruction will be given by one of several CFIs who have expressed interest in teaching our students as we work towards formalizing our staff, and we’re working with our local FSDO to be sure of full compliance.
