Ozarka College

Ozarka College in Melbourne, Arkansas runs an aviation program for commercial pilots. The program leads to an Associate of Science degree in Aviation-Commercial Pilot. The college is at 524A Airport Road, Melbourne, AR 72556, and its aviation office has a phone line at 870.368.2391.

Students learn to fly single-engine and multi-engine aircraft through the college's FAA-approved Part 141 training course. The site lists Air Agency Certificate 80ZS312L for the course. Flight labs must be completed within the academic semester, and a lab can be retaken once.

The degree prepares students for FAA tests. Students qualify to take the Private Pilot, Instrument, Commercial, and Multi-Engine tests through the degree. The site says a student should finish with about 190 hours of flight time.

A full-time student takes about 15 credits per semester. The degree takes four semesters. The site says commercial pilot students should plan to fly four or five times a week to finish their flight labs.

The site notes that an Airline Transport Pilot certificate is needed to be hired by an airline. It cites a Boeing outlook for 674,000 new commercial airline pilots over 20 years. It also cites a U.S. Department of Labor median wage of $113,080 for commercial pilots in May 2023.

The staff listed on the site include John Catlett, director and chief flight instructor, and Trevor Jones, aviation faculty and training records coordinator. Scholarships are available. The college can be reached at 870.368.2300 for main line questions.