Orem, Utah – October 29th, 2026
UVU’s aviation program offers two Bachelors degrees: Aviation Management and Professional Pilot. While Aviation Management focuses on ground operations within an airport, Professional Pilot gives students the opportunity to fly planes themselves. Many students have heard of these programs but have no clue how one becomes a pilot within their program. What kind of training is required? What comes next?
UVU’s partnership with the Provo Municipal Airport allows them to operate a facility within the airport to train future pilots. This facility includes two hangars, several classrooms, two kinds of airplane simulators, and direct flight line access. A few weeks ago, members of UVU Review staff were invited to tour UVU’s facility within the Provo Airport and were given the opportunity to take an introductory flight with staff.
Upon arrival at the facility, we were greeted by a commercial plane engine taking off. Below, a distant commercial plane began to situate itself at the start of the runway as another plane landed nearby. UVU’s flight program uses the same runways and control towers as the commercial airlines, and accounts for ~70% of Provo Airport flight traffic.
The facility lobby was filled with many bustling students and faculty studying and chatting. In the middle of the room, a giant screen detailed the status of each of UVU’s twenty-five planes. The chart documented which planes were out flying or which were under maintenance.
This is where we met Shawn Worthington and Presley Truong, two of UVU’s Certified Flight Instructors. Truong graduated in May with his Bachelor’s in Professional Pilot; Worthington graduated a few years prior with the same degree. Certified Flight Instructors will fly with prospective pilot students and instruct them in the air. Each instructor is assigned 3-4 students they work with, making it easier for the instructors to give personalized instruction.
While the average flight school will graduate their students with 200 flight hours and a Commercial Pilot Certificate, commercial airlines will not hire pilots with under 1,500 flight hours. The license instead certifies that the user can be paid to fly. This requires graduated students to find alternative jobs that will allow them to build up these hours. UVU Professional Pilot students will graduate with their Airline Transport Pilot license, which brings down the required flight hours to become a commercial airline pilot down to 1,000. Additionally, UVU will often hire recent Professional Pilot graduates from their program to teach new students as Certified Flight Instructors. Both Worthington and Truong are in the process of building their commercial airline hours.
“The high school I went to had a contract with UVU, where we were offered a private pilot ground class,” Truong reminisced. “I really liked it. Around when COVID hit. I was actually working in a pharmacy. I wanted to become a pharmacist, but I couldn’t see myself in a pharmacy for the indefinite future. So, I applied to UVU. I got accepted at the end of 2021, and I started flight training in 2023. All the flight courses didn’t feel like homework. It honestly just felt like they were another day of just fun. So that’s how I got to flying, and I’ve been here ever since.”
Worthington’s pilot journey also began from a young age, after he took a test flight with the program. “You can book an intro flight where they take you up on the plane. They let you fly around in it for a minute to see if that’s what you like to do. I did one of the flights when I was 11. I have an old picture of me walking back inside with Provo Towers in the background from 20 years ago. I remember when the plane lifted off the ground for the first time, I had this feeling that flying is really cool. Ever since then, I thought that flying was what I wanted to do. At this point, I’m not being too picky on where I end up. I just want to go fly.”
We were led outside by Worthington and Truong to the UVU’s flight line. Roughly half a dozen planes were lined up on top of a massive concrete expanse. The school gives their students the opportunity to pilot two kinds of planes: the Diamond DA40 XLT and the Piper PA-44 Seminole. DA40s are typically used for single-engine training, while PA-44s are used for multi-engine training. Each plane has a total of four seats, two of them being able to pilot the plane. We passed two instructors checking fuel on a DA40 as we approached UVU’s maintenance building.
“For every 50 hours that each plane is flown, our maintenance team will do a thorough inspection of that aircraft to ensure that everything is working operationally,” Truong explained. “Our maintenance team is really fantastic. They ensure everything’s running smoothly, and will take a plane offline immediately to work on it if there are any reported issues.”
We were guided to the entrance of the maintenance building, which had the appearance of a massive garage. Roughly half a dozen planes were sitting under its domed roof in various stages of deconstruction. A small team of uniformed staff members busied themselves between the planes; one of them introduced himself as John James, head of UVU’s aviation maintenance team. James has been working for UVU maintenance for 19 years.
“I learned I was not an architect, so I went into business, and then aviation presented itself. I went and got my maintenance degree and then got my professional pilot degree from UVU. I ended up flying for SkyWest in Tucson, Arizona, and then came back to do maintenance here.” James and his team are responsible for regularly certifying each plane is safe to fly.
“[Maintenance does] a full tear down, it’s not a simple oil change. With our DA40s, you can expect about 7-9 hours for an inspection: Each of the wings come completely off, tanks come out. It’s a very detailed inspection. All the interior is coming out to actually look at the structure of the aircraft.”
“If maintenance technicians don’t do our job, that’s lives lost. So, we take it very seriously. Obviously, there are some [maintenance teams] that don’t take it this seriously, but there’s lives at stake if you don’t do your job right. The same goes for pilots, right? If they don’t fly correctly, lives are lost. Same thing. But without good maintenance, we wouldn’t have an airworthy aircraft where they can do a really good job. We have a high standard.”
After our meeting with James, we were led to the flight simulators. UVU currently houses two different kinds of flight simulators: the FRASCA RTD DA40, and the FRASCA PA-44. Each simulator comes with accurate instruments, and comes with many pre-programmed scenarios to help students train. We first walked into the RTD DA40 simulators. Each simulator came with replicated DA40 instruments with three monitors resting above them. Three students were scattered across two different simulators. Worthington explained: “The option of having [flight simulators for the] students helps reduce flight training costs. The best part is it’s free. If you’re enrolled in the flight program, you can contact the dispatchers and they can get you a simulator session for free. That way, you can work on your proficiency without paying an arm and a leg.”
We then moved into the PA-44 simulator. The walls were covered with massive screens spanning across half the room. In the center, the top-half of a fake PA-44 sat with accurate instrumentation. Truong walked me through the software of the simulation itself.
“This simulation is currently placed on the runway of the Provo Airport. This is our main runway. Because most of their students do their training here, [the simulator] has it set as a default to the home airport. However, we have access to basically every airport [within the software]. I can go to the map, and I can zoom out.” Truong scrolls out from a map of Utah into a map of North America. There are hundreds of tiny yellow dots scattered across the expanse of the screen. “[Every airport] is one of these little dots, so you can fly out of any airport you want.” Truong clicked on the yellow dot (representing JFK Airport), and the screens around us transported us. Suddenly, we were standing in the middle of a virtual airport; this gives students a chance to have a unique simulation every time, and gain practice in a variety of simulated environments.
As the airplane marked a trail of smoke across the skyline, it was much clearer to see the dedication that went into it being able to fly.
Earlier coverage
