HENDERSON (KTNV) — All in Aviation, an independent flight school in Henderson and North Las Vegas, just joined the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program.
The program has been around since 2011, but no flight school in Nevada has enrolled in it until now. It allows active military members in their last six months of duty to work for a civilian company, helping to transition them into the workforce outside of the military.
MORE: Southern Nevada's All In Aviation joins Defense Department's SkillBridge program
“We’re hoping we can be that bridge,” said President Paul Sallach.
Sallach said he found out about the program through a pilot conference in Las Vegas where a flight school based in Texas mentioned the success of the SkillBridge program.
“They were getting a ton of qualified pilots,” Sallach said.
Sallach believes the program is a win for his school and transitioning pilots. He said his company hopes to attract retiring aviators from Nellis Air Force base into the program.
“The active duty members here in the Las Vegas valley were the ones we thought were a natural fit because they’re right next door,” Sallach said.
He said this program could also help alleviate the national pilot shortage.
“It is across the industry,” Sallach said. “So the challenges that a military aviator may have is the hours they have in the military may not apply to the civilian world.”
Carl May, director of flight operations at All in Aviation, said right now is the perfect time to land a career in aviation.
“We’re coming up on a pilot shortage because of a mandatory retirement age,” May said. “It’s creating a demand, and we’re not filling those seats fast enough.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, there are about 18,000 openings for airline pilots each year. But the Federal Aviation Administration issued only about half that number of pilot licenses between 2017 and 2021.
May hopes more people will choose a career in aviation.
“Let’s get everyone out and start flying,” May said. “If it’s something that you’re passionate about or even if you don’t know you’re passionate about it, it’s a great time to come out and take a discovery flight or an intro flight.”
