From July 1 of last year to June 30, the University of North Dakota’s flight training programs kept an unprecedented pace, smashing a 2013 record for hours flown by students at the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.

The 126,000 hours flown between 2020 and 2021 went well beyond the FY13’s 110,000 hours across plane, helicopter and unmanned aerial systems flight training. Airplane training alone comprised 121,000 hours of the FY21 total.

The milestone was reached amid circumstances never before experienced. After the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered UND Flight Operations from March through May in 2020, training resumed in earnest as students were determined to keep their college careers on track.

“This flying hour milestone is a culmination of the hard work of all of our students, instructors, maintainers, line staff, and others,” said Robert Kraus, dean of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. “Even more so, they have done it professionally and safely, even under pandemic restrictions.”

Source: Texts are excerpted from the University of North Dakota Press Release.

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