Sam Long signed up for the aviation class at Gulf Shores High School thinking he might give piloting a look at a possible future career.

“I just really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my future exactly and I saw an opportunity to work on the plane and I thought that might be something interesting,” Long said. “That led to my future plan.”

Though his exposure to all things aviation was limited, Long said he’s had a childhood fascination with space.

“I haven’t been on many flights either so it’s kind of like an opportunity because I haven’t experienced too much,” Long said. “It seems like something completely new to me. I’ve always kind of been interested in like the sky. Since I was a little kid, I was always interested in space and stuff. I really can’t do that so I’ll settle with the closest thing.”

The aviation program at Gulf Shores is in its second year and its popularity has caused the school to expand the program to two classes and even added the class to summer school. It was started with one when the city school voted to spend $74,000 on the program which includes an airplane kit that students actually build through with the help of aviation-minded mentor volunteers from the community.

“We were probably the only school board in the country last night that bought an airplane and our kids are going to build it,” Superintendent Dr. Matt Akin beamed after the April 15 meeting.

It’s generally a two-year program with the class limited to 10 students per semester. For the 2022-23 school year the board bought a second plane kit and expanded to two classes of students studying aviation and actually building airplanes. Annual costs for training and class materials are about $11,300 per plane.

“Originally, we were going to do one kit at a time,” Instructor and airline pilot Haley Kellogg said. “Because the program’s grown and we’ve got extra kids it’s kind of hard to keep 20 kids busy on one plane. We presented to them we need to be running simultaneous builds. There’s a lot of interest in it and it probably has to do with the kids not having to be at the school.”

In the short period of the class one student has earned a private pilot license and two others are interning at the airport working in aviation mechanics.

“There’s going to be opportunities for the kids that do well in this class,” Kellogg said. “They’ll have internships on the field and also have opportunities for flight training that they otherwise wouldn’t have.”

Gulf Shores is working with the nonprofit TangoFlight which supplies the curriculum and helps train the volunteers and instructors. When the plane is complete and flying, the school board gives it back to TangoFlight and the nonprofit sends another build kit for as long as the board wants to continue the program.

“At the end of the build, Tango will take it and sell it,” Kellogg said. “The idea is they’ll ship us a new kit. We’ll start on our third plane when this one is done.”

She expects the first plane, now 80 percent complete, will be finished in the spring with second being finished in the spring of 2024.

The initial $74,000 for the kit is a one-time payment and the only recurring costs are training and class materials. Akin said when the city first signed up there were about 25 high schools in the country in the same program.

Kellogg is an airline pilot for Horizon Airlines based in Seattle but is currently on voluntary leave after her husband, also a pilot, found a new job in their native Alabama.

During the first year, she was also the classroom instructor but moved to part time just to work mornings at the airport helping the students with the build. It allows her more time for care of her young sons who haven’t yet reached school age.

“I get to be home at night, home most of the day and still get to be around airplanes,” Kellogg said. “As far as the airlines go, I don’t know when but I’ve got a little bit more leave to use so we’ll see if I end up going back. But for right now this is a pretty good place to be. Good quality of life wise place to be.”

It has another perk she is enjoying, too.

“I get to be part of an airplane build which is cool,” Kellogg said.