(Radio Iowa) – A new flight school in Sioux City is just weeks away from starting operations. The former commander of the 185th Air National Guard, retired Colonel Brian Miller will serve as director of aviation for Morningside College, which is partnering with Sioux City, Oracle Aviation, The Siouxland Initiative and Western Iowa Tech. A new 40-thousand square foot building will house the flight school at the Sioux City Airport.

“As part of that facility Morningside University will occupy some of that space and that will be the home of the flight school so we’ll have a combination of on campus classes and down at the airport,” he says. Miller says they have around 15 students signed up for the first class even though they haven’t done any promotion of the program yet. He says they plan to get students up in the air in their first semester, and having the facility at the airport is an added advantage for the students.

“These pilots on day one are going to be down at this new facility and learning to fly interacting with corporate pilots. You know, commercial pilots, air ambulance pilots,” Miller says. “So these students literally right when they get to campus are going to be learning in the very environment they’re going to work in.” Miller says they expect to get the students up in the air in the first semester. He says the area has been lacking in a facility to train graduating high school students and college undergrads in aviation careers.

Oracle rendition of new flight-school.

“That’s one of the main things we’re trying to do is to let everyone know here in the upper Midwest that we now have a world class training program to produce commercial pilots right here in Sioux City, Iowa,” Miller says. Private pilots will teach the courses, and students will get 400 or so hours of flying time while in the program.