Hoover Academy adds sim training to maximize learning

The Salinas, California-based academy named after aviation great and airshow performer Robert “Bob” Hoover sees multiple options for integrating the simulator into its training. According to the news release, the academy will use the simulator to introduce students to visual and instrument flight, to debrief flights, and to re-create flight paths in order to reconcile a student’s mistakes.

The program’s mission statement explains that the high school academy uses the “power of flight to change lives” by incorporating science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics concepts to bolster confidence and to introduce aviation careers to youth who are challenged daily by violence and crime.

Tucker noted that many of the area’s parents work long hours in the agricultural industry and their children often fall into the wrong crowd when they are unsupervised. The area was ranked “number one and number two” in the United States for youth homicides, Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter said in a promotional video.

Tucker vowed to turn the trend around by exposing the youth to aviation as "a metaphor for the deeper mission, to capture students’ minds, focus their energies and to cultivate success in the classroom and in life.”

In the partnership announcement, Redbird CEO Charlie Gregoire complimented the academy’s mission: “Sean and his team have created an incredible program worth replicating throughout the country.”