The sky’s the limit for students thanks to University partnership with Leicestershire Aero Club

Lectures are taking to the skies for aerospace students at the University of Leicester as they apply their studies to real aircraft at Leicester airport.

Students from the School of Engineering have been conducting flight tests with Leicestershire Aero Club, who are partnering with the University in providing flight training, for the first time.

It forms part of the students’ Aircraft Performance and Navigation module in which they learn the theoretical aspects of aircraft performance and different phases of flights. During the flight test students collect data to analyse and report on. 

It aims to equip students with the skills to go on to work in the aviation sector and to inform them for future decisions they might have for their career.

Students in the Aircraft Performance Navigation module learn about the theoretical and fundamental aspects of aircraft performance which they then apply to a practical flight test at Leicestershire Aero Club.

After six months of preparations, the inaugural flights of the new Flight Test Course took to the sky in March. Students experience first-hand a test flight representative of the flight-testing phase of aircraft development programmes, in the safety of a fully certified and commercial flight-rated aircraft. 

The students’ first test flight was in a Piper PA28-161 Cadet in the wonderful and crispy winter weather, with beautiful clear skies, taking amazing pictures of the winter landscape over Leicester. For some students, this was the first taste of flying on a General Aviation aircraft, for others it was an opportunity to repeat a flying experience in the role of a flight engineer.

The programme is run by a new academic–airmanship partnership between the University of Leicester and the Leicestershire Aero Club using qualified flight instructors, who are also commercial pilot’s. The flights run under the Part SPO section UK Civil Aviation Administration, which is a new enterprise for Leicestershire Aero Club and it is a unique offer in the Midlands.

Dr Ali Haghiri, the Programme Director of Aerospace Engineering at the School of Engineering at the University of Leicester, said: “We selected the Leicestershire Aero Club due to its proximity to the University of Leicester and its reputation as a well-established local aviation organisation. A key advantage of this collaboration is the unique experiential learning it provides. By sitting alongside a  qualified flight instructor and commercial pilot in the cockpit, students gain direct exposure to real-world flight operations, effectively bridging theoretical knowledge with practical experience.”

Duncan Grocott, Aerodrome Manager and flight instructor, Leicestershire Aero Club, said: “It has been a been a team effort all round to obtain the necessary accreditations to be able to develop and cover the flights on the programme.  It has also been our pleasure and privilege to develop our partnership with the University of Leicester in providing students with practical flight experiences which complement and underpin the aircraft performance and navigation module they are studying. The grins and smiles on student faces after each flight said it all.”