In NYC there are several specialty high schools like Aviation High. There is the New York City High School for the Performing Arts, made famous by the movie/tv show Fame. There is the Bronx High School of Science, Automotive High, Transit High, and several other vocational type schools available to NYC 8th graders. It is a system that I wish other major cities would use as it gives kids a leg up on their career paths-post high school. I know that most of the guys I work with had to pay for their A&P licences and are shocked to hear that I got mine for free from high school.
When I was an 8th grader they handed us this book which had all the specialty school listed in it. I took it home to check it out since I really had not thought about going to any high school other than my local one. I thumbed through it and finally saw Aviation High School. I liked the idea so I went to talk to my parents about it. My dad tells me that that was the school he went to!! I did not know. As with a lot of these types of schools I had to go and take a test to get in so on the right day I went down there and did the test, waited a few days and was accepted into Aviation High School, Long Island City, NY.
The first day there was an eye opener! Not only did we have a full high school curriculum, we also had to do shop classes to learn all the aspects of aircraft maintenance. This translated into the longest school day in the NYC School System. A lot of us had "zero period" at like 6:50am (I'm not sure if that's right but it was early!) and didn't get done with classes until 3:40pm. Me personally, since I lived way up in the North Bronx, I had to leave my building by 5:30am to be able to make it to school by 7:00am. Since the school was training us for a federal licence we had to have a certain number of hours of training. This meant that the school had less holidays and half days than other schools and when it snowed and other schools were shut down ours was open!
These things were all sort of PITA (Pain In The Ass) at the time but made for a fiercely unique and proud bunch of students. We worked hard because it was hard work, just to attend that school.
The pride you felt as a 14 year old when you finished your first project in your first shop class was amazing. I started out in Wood Shop working on a jig for wing rib. A simple board with blocks attached that were used to make the ribs that create wings on older airplanes. When I was done and finally got my last signature from my shop teacher I was so proud of myself. I made something that was made to a standard that would hold up in any real world application, had learned about how to use tools, how to form wood, how to fasten wood and the kids that went to my local high school were just learning the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
 |
| Recip. Shop |
Aviation High School has a hangar attached to it and by the time you were a Junior or Senior you were actually working on the airplanes that we had in the hangar, actual real live airplanes! When Senior year can around you had learned, Wood, Dope and Fabric, Sheet Metal, Electricity, Avionics, Carburation, Reciprocating Engines, Turbine Engines, Propellers, and a bunch more that I am sure that I am forgetting. As a Senior you attended shop for 3 or 4 hours a day! Every minute of it was like heaven to me. I stumbled like all teenagers do, had to take a class over (electricity, which I am strangely good at as a practicing A&P mechanic) made some life long friends and most importantly found out what I was good at and passionate about at a very early age. Aviation High School has steered the direction of my whole life.
 |
| Turbine shop |
I remember when I became a Junior and really decided that I was going for the A&P licence. I got the FAA Test Prep book and read it over and over again for the next two years! The pages were literally falling out of the book by the time my test date came, but I knew that thing inside and out. I passed and was able to graduate with both my Airframe and Powerplant Licenses. I made friendships that have lasted up to this day, I learned how to use tools (more important that I thought it was), I learned that hard work is rewarded, I learned how to make things (another thing that is very important), I learned that graduating from a school like ours is very unique and not all that easy, and I learned about my love for airplanes. That love has seen me through a lot of good times and a few bad times, that love has fed me and my family, clothed us and put a roof over our heads. The Aviation industry is not an easy place to work and the Airline Industry is and always will be a mess but God willing there will always be an Aviation High School at 4530 36th St. Long Island City, NY to help kids like me fulfill their dreams.
As a foot note I have met a lot of people while working in this industry. I attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University after my time at Aviation High School and knew a lot of people from there as well. When you meet a fellow Aviation High School grad there is some thing about that person that is different than all the others. There is a little twinkle in the eye, a nod of the head, a way they walk, that lets you know they have shared an ordeal with you at such an important age in their life and the bond is there instantly. A few years ago (2003 or 2004) I went with my wife to an OBAP (Organisation of Black Aerospace Professionals) Convention in Phoenix AZ. While we were checking in at the hotel front desk there was an older guy standing next to me I do not recall if I mentioned Aviation High School or he simply saw my high school ring or what but he politely introduced himself and was a graduate of Aviation High School also, in something like 1952! We talked for a long while and he even gave me his email address. He still had that confidence and swagger of an Aviation High School grad.
Happy 75th Anniversary!!!! I hope to see a lot of you grads on June 9th 2011 for the dinner and school tour. Here is a link to a video tour of the 75 years of Aviation High School: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=202662
Now THAT was a great story!
ReplyDeleteJust watch when you come in your pants Just Jim. Just like porn, this BS story is nothing but a fantasy designed to get you off.
DeleteI go to this school, and I can say this. Everything this school is made out to be is not true. The things they teach you are very outdated, such as most of the composite work as well as much of the wood portion. Even some of the sheet metal information is not used in today's world anymore. At first I was honestly fixed on be a Aircraft mechanic but doing research made me realize that this school wasn't helping me achieve that at all. Glad it worked for then but its not the same anymore.
ReplyDeleteWhile anonymous was busy knocking our program, over 500 alumni,staff, retirees, FAA staff, and aviation partners were sharing praise and recognition about what a great school AV is and how it served as the foundation for the start to their aviaiton careers.
ReplyDeleteI'm suspect of "anonymous's" motive. He or she says he goes to this school but writes as though he/she has experience about aircraft. Sounds like sour grapes-didn't make the cut or just lost interest.
It's not just about the curriculum - it's about the school culture, the traditions, the expectations, the core values. We know that many of our grads do not enter the industry, but they walk away with skill sets that will benefit them for life.
Ralph - I am no the same Anonymous that rattled your cage, but I will tell you that I ATTENDED and GRADUATED from that POS school 20 years ago, and what Anonymous said in 2011 applies to 1994 as well. Too bad Anonymous' comment was like a bucket of ice cold water in your face. It is a wake up call to those militarized sheep, always willing to please and obey as well as accept any bullshit as long as it comes from some uniformed guy. There is no "sour grapes" bullshit as you mention. Rather than explore or ask why Anonymous posted such truths, you attack him personally, sweeping any voice of discontent under the rug, or behind the curtain. The school is paraded as some type of elite place of education when in reality is a workshop for grease monkeys who don't have the intelligence to go to a real high school where they teach everything from the arts to science instead of pounding on a piece of sheet metal for 4 periods, leaving 1 for lunch, 1 for gym, and only 3 for math, science and English (or history). Anyone who falls for this fraud of a school is being cheated of an education. Go parade in front of the mirror, you pathetic future military cripple. Those who have ambition in life should get out of that rat hole as soon as they smell the hydraulic fluid, as AHS credits are worthless if transferring to another school. GET OUT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
Deletewell as what anonymous said, i agree but to an extent. Aviation is a great school but its not what it was decades ago. I went to aviation thinking of the feild but as as senior going to college now (didnt apply fifth year), i see that the school is b.s. They give too much consideration on fifth year kids and make it seem like shops the only important subject there is.
ReplyDeletethe school is realy falling apart. im sure most of u came in to the reunion earlier this month and saw the amazing shop classes. but to me, it was a show they just put on. Half the time the kids are bullshitting, smoking, doing drugs, signing of falsse documentation, aznd writing graffiti on coveralls. the school takes in kids who berely pass out of middle school.not to be a hater, but ive passing shop classes by lieing, falsifing documents, and sucking up. i dont know mich about airplanes, and this schools fucked it up for me. sorry for my language, but seriously, I HATE AVIATION HIG HSCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
I graduated in 1984. Though I took a test and was interviewed for admittance, they also admitted a lot of animals to the school. This is the reason the school has been in decline for a very long time now. A lot of what they show in the brochures and school catalog is not true. They fail to explain clearly that if you don't like the school and don't transfer out by the middle of the 9th grade, all future classes you take will NOT be transferrable to any other NYC school, and then you are stuck in that military prison for the next 3 years. Telling kids they will be fuck ups if they don't get their A&P licenses is a cruel and malicious lie. Two months ago I drove by there and stopped to look in. They have some newer airplanes out back, and they finally removed those falling letters from the auditorium entrance on Queens Blvd. But overall, the deception continues: Kids don't get to work on real airplanes people fly in, the engines are from the Korean War, and the tasks they are made to do are so stupid and useless, they seldom learn anything useful in the real world. The usual Republican reply to criticism of the school is the B.S. affirmation of "core values", the "tradition", the "school culture"... all bullshit. Core values come from the home, Tradition implies some stupid way of doing a task and repeating it for decades, and School Culture is nothing but threats of expulsion, suspension, and belittling of the student the same way a Marine drill sergeant would do when attempting to train people into soldiers. I'm not sour grapes as I knew by the 10th grade I was going to have to stick it out. By the time I graduated the "$25,000-$30,000 / yr jobs" as mechanics were going and gone. Only the hardcore people who believed in the "Aviation Culture" stuck it out and are trapped in their low paid,, unstable aviation jobs - from mechanics to pilots. I went into the computer field and later into the IT field, and made and am making a decent salary. I pity the poor fools who defend the lies and deception because they've been brainwashed into being "good and obedient soldiers", and one day be conned into joining the military "to defend America" somewhere in Pakistan (when a couple of well placed nukes could do the job without spilling one drop of US blood), and return home in a box, or missing a limb or some other organ. You love your kid? Send him somewhere else. You have a trouble kid? Sending him to AHS is preparing him to sign on the dotted line and end up in an Al Qaeda video in the act of losing his head. There are lots of other schools who will give him a real education.
ReplyDeleteAviation High School is for the Archie Bunkers and G.I. Joes who don't or need to go to college. This is a trade school, not an educational institution. It's like Apex School in NYC: LEarn refrigeration, plumbing, electrician, etc... but it's free. Nothing wrong with a trade school if you hate school or don't want to go to college but need to learn to make a living. The only thing I object to is to LIE to the kids and parents making them believe they are going to be turned into Albert Einsteins. I am not a hater. I just despise lies and wasting people's time, especially kids'.
ReplyDeleteI went to Aviation for two years. I had to move because of family before I even got to Junior Year. I was crushed. But I promised my friends that they keep on doing what they do and I'll go off for a little bit, and one day well meet back up at Embry Riddle.Now I gotta pay for my A&P!
ReplyDeleteDO NOT GO TO EMBRY RIDDLE IF YOU WANT TO GET A JOB AND NOT BE $250K IN DEBT
DeleteI can not speak to the school as it is today, but I will say that when I went to Aviation in the mid seventies it was a top notch education. I personally graduated with a Regents Diploma as well as an A&P certification as did many of my classmates. Many have gone on to productive careers in both the aviation industry and other industries. Education is what YOU make it. As for the aviation subjects being outdated, you are being trained in basic aviation maintenance working toward passing the FAA exams to obtain your FAA certifications, you are not being taught AIRLINE maintenance. Aviation maintenance to this day consists of working on light aircraft; older aircraft, military aircraft, private aircraft and commercial aircraft.
ReplyDeleteHow do you expect a CHILD - some kid of about 13, to make a choice that he will have to be responsible for the next 4 years or more? The school focuses mainly on shop classes and only barely, marginally, the academic courses that will be of benefit to you should you decide to go to college. This school should be presented as a TRADE SCHOOL - similar to Apex , DeVry or some other trade schools, and not a full formal "high school". The school is run by military people, who, with all respect, may be excellent warriors and workers, but often, have no sense of compassion or humanity. What they do there, putting on a bullshit show for the impressionable 13 years olds, is nothing short of a FRAUD. Unfortunately, most kids are too afraid or believe they's be branded as "failures" if they choose to transfer to another school. It is misleading and cruel to a child. I'm glad it worked out for some, but I sincerely don't think it did for most. Class of 1997
ReplyDeleteAlways in the back of my head is the training I got in AHS.I used the training I got at AHS every day.Life was easy for me because AHS trained me in every thing.Retired from an electronics company I started.Served in the air force as a electronics specialist.served in viet nam.I was a lone servivor and just got lucky.Came home raised a family. AHS was good for me in the class of 1963.
ReplyDeletePS There were gangs in the school in the 60s.I was lucky. I was in volved in martial arts and made friend with a group of spanish kids.We were the The Vigalantes. And we were big. We only had 2 big fights in 4 years.Everyone knew you would have to fight all of us if you beat up one of us.It worked.We were left alone.But it was not easy.We had no cops.And Im not spanish.
ReplyDelete