John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences

The John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences (JDOSAS or UND Aerospace) is a part of the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The school was formed in 1968 and has become one of the premier flight schools in the world. The school's fleet of 120 aircraft is based at nearby Grand Forks International Airport and is the largest fleet of civilian flight training aircraft in North America. Today, the school has many aerospace-related programs including commercial aviation, air traffic control, and airport management. Other departments that are a part of the School of Aerospace Sciences include Space Studies, Computer Science, and Atmospheric Science. Currently, the school has over 500 faculty and 1,500 students making it the second largest of UND’s degree-granting colleges. The present dean of the school is Bruce Smith.

History

John D. Odegard started the program in 1968 with only two donated aircraft and one other faculty member besides himself. Over time, the program was able to purchase more aircraft and grew dramatically in the number of students enrolled. In 1982, the Center for Aerospace Sciences was established as a result of the growth of UND’s atmospheric research and aviation education programs. In 1997, as part of a 30th anniversary celebration, the school took on its present name in honor of its founder.

The founder of the aviation program at UND, John D. Odegard, logged over 10,000 hours of flight time in his life and was licensed for commercial flight and instrument operations. He was type-rated in Cessna Citations, Learjet, and Beechjet, as well as being a CFI and certified examiner for commercial, instrument, tailwheel, multiengine, and Citation type-ratings. Having broken the sound barrier in the Concorde (as a passenger) and having flown as a crop-duster to help pay for college, Odegard was no stranger to the varied envelopes of flight. He was quite familiar with the many aspects of aviation and his vision for a well-rounded school which trains pilots in all aspects of flight helped the aviation program at UND become what it is today. Odegard died of cancer in 1998 at the age of 50. He is buried in Grand Forks, less than a mile away from the UND campus.

Facilities

UND Aerospace maintains top of the line facilities including 360 degree air traffic control tower simulators, a remote learning classroom, and a wireless network that is available throughout the entire aerospace complex on the main campus and in any of the buildings at the airport.

Main campus

All School of Aerospace Sciences facilities on the main UND campus are connected by a series of skyways. Buildings here include Odegard Hall, Clifford Hall, Ryan Hall, and Streibel Hall. The complex also includes several other buildings including the Center for Entrepreneurship, the Skalicky Tech Incubator, and the Grand Forks Hilton Garden Inn.

Odegard Hall is the main building in the School of Aerospace Sciences complex on campus. It houses classrooms, the main office of the School of Aerospace Sciences, a full-motion spatial disorientation simulator, an altitude chamber (used to teach flight students about the effects of various human factors in flight), and the Atmospheric Science department.

Clifford Hall is the location of the Space Studies Department,the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium, the Scientific Computing Center, as well as the location of the ATC simulator and UND's Polarimetric Doppler Radar.

Ryan Hall is home to UND's flight simulators. There are six Piper Warrior simulators and four Piper Seminole simulators. In addition, there are various simple instrument panel trainers and a basic instrument simulator CBI lab. Also in Ryan Hall is a radar simulator lab which is used to demonstrate radar based air traffic control. A set of two tower simulators, one 225 degrees and one a full 360 degrees, round out the air traffic control simulations. Also at Ryan is a CRJ simulator which is used to provide a basic introduction to turbine engine systems and to prepare soon to graduate students for the pace of airline training. Finally, Ryan Hall is home to the remote classroom and several state of the art digital classrooms.

Connected to Odegard Hall by a large, windowed room is Streibel Hall. Streibel Hall is the home of UND's Computer Science department.

Airport

The Grand Forks International Airport campus consists of the dispatch office where students request aircraft and are assigned to practice areas. The dispatch office opens out onto Bravo Ramp where the Seminoles, Arrows, Cirrus, and Decathlons are stored. It also connects directly to the display hangar where aircraft not in use are sometimes kept, and also where the Cheyenne and Beechcraft are generally kept. There are several other hangars lining Bravo and Charlie Ramp all owned by UND and used to hangar UND's large fleet at night.

Aircraft

UND Aerospace operates a fleet of over 120 aircraft with 80 based at Grand Forks International Airport and the rest located at their various satellite campuses throughout the United States. [ [http://flightops.aero.und.edu/airplanes/ Information about UND's fleet of aircraft] - und.edu] The fleet is comprised primarily of Piper aircraft, including the PA-28-161 Piper Warrior III. UND owns 46 of these simple, light trainers. Many of them have been upgraded to have "glass" flight decks, allowing instrument students and CFI students to learn how to fly with this technology. Rounding out the main fleet, providing capability to train for complex and multi-engine ratings, are 13 PA-28R-201 Piper Arrows with retractable gear and constant-speed propellers and 11 PA-44-180 Piper Seminoles with twin engines. UND has recently added a small number of Cirrus SR20-G2 aircraft, which allow students to train on a highly digitized flight deck. UND recently acquired a King Air 200 for advanced fixed wing training. This aircraft is primarily used for contract flight training for Air China and Tokai University. In addition, the university's fleet contains 2 American Champion Aircraft Super Decathlons which are used for aerobatic flight courses and to introduce flight instructors to spins, a level of training experience that few flight instructors have an opportunity to get. Other aircraft include a Cessna 150 to be used for spin training, and a Cub Crafters Top Cub used for tailwheel and, during the summer months, float plane training.

On Wednesday, March 28, 2008, the JDOSAS took delivery of a brand new Cessna Citation Mustang business jet. [ [http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=5ec3837b-cf2a-42f6-b7b7-f15599bae23b Cessna Delivers First Flight School Citation Mustang] ]

In the summer of 2008, UND will be retiring the Piper Warrior fleet in favor of Cessna 172 aircraft to be equipped with the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit package. The aircraft will be delivered beginning in July 2008 and will initially be used for CFII and CFI students until there are enough aircraft that private and instrument students can use them, at which time, the Warriors will leave the fleet.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.aero.und.edu/ UND School of Aerospace Sciences website]
* [http://www.und.edu/ University of North Dakota website]
* [http://www.space.edu/ Department of Space Studies website]