Barrington Irving, the founder and CEO of Flying Experience and The Flying Classroom, detailed plans for a new aviation technical training center today at the NBAA Regional Forum at Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport (KOPF). The Oliver G. Gilbert III Innovation Lab, named after the current Miami-Dade board of county commissioners chairman, is set to open this summer at KOPF.
The goal of the facility is to help students gain technical skills that enable them to have careers in business aviation, but which are also transferable to other fields. Irving told AIN that technical training at the lab will include line service skills such as tanker and tug operation, GPU utilization, lav servicing, and aircraft marshalling, as well as advanced remote pilot operations and aircraft maintenance.
During the reveal this morning, Gilbert handed Irving a check from the county for $100,000 to help fund both the new lab and the Business Aviation Training Center announced at NBAA 2022. The latter facility, set to open in 2027 on a four-acre lot near KOPF, is being developed under a partnership with NBAA, Miami-Dade County, Miami-Dade Aviation Department, Atlantic Aviation, and Bombardier. Further, Gilbert said Signature Flight Support at Miami International Airport (KMIA) will donate five cents for every gallon of fuel sold to help fund Irving’s training facilities.