a practical perspective

What’s Special about Practical Aero courses?

After attending a Practical Aeronautics course, you’ll leave with:

Improved foundational understanding of airplane and engine systems
Practical appreciation of why different airplanes and engines look the way they do
Better understanding of how what you do fits the “big picture”
Increased excitement, confidence and motivation

What's special about PAI courses? — Keith Boyer teaching during an Introduction to Jet Engines Course.

Unique Content Design

Our introductory courses are taught with a systems-level, practical perspective and are suitable for all, regardless of education, functional specialty, or years of experience. We focus on foundational principles, not equations, and connect to the “real world” through discussions, examples, teaching aids, videos, and field trips when available.

Being an aero engineer many of the concepts were fully understood but this course really helped with the “practical” understanding of when to use these concepts and why you would use them, which I did not get in my undergrad or masters.

Dayton, Ohio

Good level of knowledge without getting bogged down with technical details, a good “overview” that helps understand the “big picture”.

North charleston, south carolina

The course covered the topic at a high level without dumbing down too much. I appreciate the physics based approach.

Dayton, ohio

Systems Focus

Governing principles are introduced in basic ways showing practical application in aircraft and engine systems design.

Absolutely…understanding how everything works gives a morale boost as well as sheds light to the importance of how important our jobs are. Everyone who works on the product should have to take this course.

North charleston, south carolina

This course definitely helped me understand the bigger picture. It was good to understand how all the complicated aspects come together to make the airplane fly, and all the more, make it fly efficiently.

North charleston, south carolina

Understanding how the systems are integrated gives added insight to the depot overhaul I work with.

ogden, utah

Unique Teaching Style

Team taught by award-winning instructors who are highly experienced in the field and as educators. We often pair PhD and pilot instructors.

The ability of the instructors to take complex ideas and communicate and explain at a level that employees with non-technical backgrounds can understand.

North charleston, south carolina

Both instructors did a great job of mixing academic material with analogies and relevant aviation experience to enhance the understanding. Enthusiasm and humor kept the material interesting without sacrificing quality.

North charleston, south carolina

Technical expertise and laid-back approach created a relaxed but informative environment. No complaints!

oklahoma city, oklahoma

Context-Based Building Block Approach

To develop “big picture,” systems-level understanding of the fundamental concepts.

Course was a good mix of overview and details for someone with little engineering knowledge. It was presented in practical terms to make it easy to understand. Videos and visual aids made it interesting.

hampton, virginia

Time was very well used…There was a logical framework that allows students to understand the systems much better.

hampton, virginia

I liked the level at which this course was taught. It was taught at a relatively high technical level. This helped me gain a better understanding of how each system works. Really well organized class.

ogden, utah