Flight school coming to Rosecrans
Mar. 3—A local man's goal of starting a flight school is beginning to take off, with a new home expected to land at Rosecrans Memorial Airport next month.
Lute Atieh became interested in flying more than 10 years ago when he had to drive to Jefferson City once a month for his job. After growing tired of the long drives, he figured there must be a better way to commute, so he got his pilot's license in 2014, and now he's ready to help others pursue their dreams of flying.
"I have just kind of a basic private pilot's certificate," he said. "I can fly most single-engine, smaller airplanes. For me and what I like to do, that's like a 300-to-400-mile radius, you know, it's about half the time of driving somewhere."
Atieh and five other individuals co-founded FlyTech Pilot Academy to give people a chance to learn how to fly an aircraft while learning at their own pace.
Now he is working toward higher certificates. It's one of the reasons why he and other FlyTech Pilot Academy co-founders were inspired to start a training school.
"There's a national organization, AOPA, that built a curriculum and offered it at no cost to flight schools and organizations like ours," he said.
Rosecrans Airport Manager Julius Rice said Atieh's love for aviation will help ensure the flight school's success.
"His personal drive and conviction and wanting to see success out here both at the airport and then obviously for the academy itself will definitely go a long way in getting it up off the ground and keeping it running strong," he said.
The aircraft that will be used for the flight school is being inspected by the Federal Aviation Administration in California. It's one of the last hurdles to clear before the flight school takes off.
"I think we'll be up and running by April," Atieh said. "We already have a list of 14 students that have pre-enrolled, and many have already pre-paid to make sure they're among the first."
Anyone interested in joining the flight school can sign up for a discovery flight on the FlyTech website at flystj.com.
"Our instructor will actually, once you get in the air, let you kind of fly a little bit and get familiar with the plane and talk about what goes on," he said. "And then if you're interested after that, then you can talk about signing up or just do a few more discovery flights just to see how it goes."
Rice said it will be great to have a formal training environment in town for the next generation of aviators.
"Reaching out to the community and fostering that love of aviation into the next generation is definitely something that's near and dear to my heart, and I know it is with Lute as well," he said.
