PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — This year, aviation students at Charlotte High School are learning how to build, repair and maintain airplanes, while getting hands-on experience with real aircraft.
“The students in our assembly class will actually, from the ground up, be building aircraft for them to hopefully go next door, to the PGD Airport, get jobs, and we can keep the students and our community,” aviation instructor Dakota Hoyle said.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report on Charlotte High School's aviation program:
Hoyle said that kind of real-world training can’t be matched by a lesson on paper.
“It’s one thing to be able to look at how to do rivets from a textbook, but to be able to actually cut and bend the aluminum, do the drilling, do the riveting yourself, taking apart, building the engine, that’s lessons that they are going to remember because it’ll be muscle memory,” he said.
According to Hoyle, two aircraft were donated to the program. This year, students will also learn the basics of flying with nine new flight simulators.
Just outside the classroom, construction continues on the program’s new hangar.
“We’ll have planes located there, all of our equipment for learning how to assemble and and take apart planes,” said Dr. Brian Granstra, the district’s Career and Technical Education director.
Granstra said the aviation program is now the most popular career track in Charlotte County Public Schools, with more than 180 students enrolled — a number expected to keep growing.
“We want to make sure our students have job opportunities locally here in Charlotte County, in addition to this state and nationally,” Granstra said.
The hangar is expected to be completed in February 2026.
