July 15 – 19, 2013
Great news – I accepted a position with Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology, and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. I started 2 weeks ago, but this was my first time on-site in Tulsa, OK. All 3 Spartan campuses are in Tulsa; they focus on 3 primary avionics programs: non-destructive testing, aircraft maintenance, and pilot training. The “South” campus is comprised of 11 buildings, one of which is the administrative offices. The other two campuses are located at airports where the schools have several hangars plus of course classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, bookstores, etc. This summer I’ll be travelling to Tulsa every other week and during the school year it will likely be one week a month or maybe less, depending on the need.
I fly out of a small airport a few miles from my home, and into a small airport in Bentonville, Arkansas. It’s just under two hours drive from there to Tulsa, Oklahoma. 
On my first day there I took a tour of the three campuses. These are our Spartan planes at the campus appropriately named “Flight”, where pilot training is conducted. Notice the Spartan logo on the nose, insignia on the tail, and Black Cats on the wing tip.
It’s official!
The flight school logo “Knowledge and Skill Overcome Superstition and Luck,” is exemplified by the Spartan black cat and the number 13. This insignia dates back to 1929 and the beginning of the Dawn Patrol. CLICK HERE to read more about the Spartan Black Cat 13.
I snagged this awesome flight jacket while I was in the Spartan Gear store.
The school is truly rich with history, as evident throughout the hallways of each campus.
Here’s an instructor flying a remote-controlled drone in the classroom (students: not impressed, haha).
I don’t know why this struck me as being so funny… but it did.
Here’s one of the older flight simulators at the flight school. There’s a newer model that’s completely enclosed in a pod which tilts and spins in all directions, but I didn’t get a good picture of it.
I actually watched this C3 take off then do touch-and-goes, VERY impressive!! Spartan College did an amazing restoration of this aircraft;Â CLICK HERE to see photos of the restoration project.
This is one of the two caravans.
Caravan
Jet engine in the aircraft maintenance bay.
Ceiling of one of the hangars, all wood. Very cool.
Aircraft maintenance hangar. I was surprised at how large our hangars were, and how many planes the school has!
This is inside one of the classrooms:
Inside the gutted jet (in the classroom!)
Cargo area underneath
The front of the jet protrudes into the adjacent hangar
FedEx donated one of their retired jets to Spartan.
On the way to the airport (heading home) it was 109 degrees!
There are hay bales EVERYWHERE in Oklahoma! Arkansas, too!
View from the plane on our ride home
It was a great week for me. I was thoroughly impressed with the college and it was so nice to meet my coworkers in person! My job is fantastic – I’m leading some pretty exciting projects including building a student portal, building an intranet, and assisting with the upgrade of all networks, desktops, servers, and telephony (switching to VOIP). I’m also the PM for an HRIS and Accounting system upgrade, as well as a member of the external-facing website redesign team. ALL good stuff!!! They are all things I’ve done before (mostly at Remington) so I know what’s involved, and most importantly – it’s exactly the sort of work that really makes my heart sing. I’m currently residing on cloud 9. It doesn’t get any better than this! 🙂