The crowd of aspiring aviation students stands in awe as their gaze focuses on the lineup of retired planes, alongside the turbofan engines and motors in the gigantic, well-lit hangar. On March 13, 2025, the Texas High Tango Flight Program took a trip to the newly founded Texarkana College Aviation Maintenance Program, which recently opened its doors to aspiring aviation professionals in the fall. 

This tour was primarily intended to give the students the necessary exposure to the aviation and aircraft repair fields and to pique their interest in lucrative employment in this industry. 

“For some of [these students], it’s gonna be the first time they’ve ever seen a Learjet or a jumbo jet engine,” Tango Flight Instructor Don Broyles said. “They’ve been available to see different parts of the airport and stuff like that in aviation that they would never have an opportunity to have seen before.” 

Using wiring diagrams and logic gates to simulate genuine aviation mechanic operations through a digital logic project was another element of this trip that aided students in practicing real-world procedures. By doing this, instructors hope the students become better equipped to approach other avionics programs with a foundational understanding of the ins and outs of how these devices operate by honing their skills in this project. 

“We’ve designed a digital logic project for them to build things where they press different buttons and different lights come on based on the control inputs. At this point in the course, they’ve learned about logic gates and digital logic, what that does, and how to interpret a wiring diagram. What we want to do is get them familiar with what this process looks like in real life,” Texarkana College Director of Aviation Protection Brandon Sanders said. “Projects like these take the theoretical and put it into a reality because the next step is real-world application. So when they start learning about avionics, it starts to make sense.” 

Students who went on this trip and took part in the activities designed to help them understand how realistic this experience is have already found ways to utilize the knowledge they have learned to become mechanics in fields other than aviation. 

“This experience allowed me to be out here with new people and learn many new things about being in the hangars and different branches of aircraft corporations and everything,” sophomore Garret Evans said. “I believe I could put this information to use  in different workspaces, or even if I’m working on something in my car.” 

All of the students participating in this program share a common interest in aviation, which helps them develop their interest in this career path and strengthens their connection to the industry. As a result, students can immerse themselves in a setting that is exclusively focused on material relevant to their future endeavors.

“I think this is good for the students to be able to see the environment that they’ll be learning in, and speak to the people who are going through the things that they’ll be going through soon,” aviation student Brian Brits said. “I also think seeing people who are doing what you want to do motivates you and gives you a clearer vision of how to get to where you’re trying to go. Plus, it’s always nice to see people who are on the same track as you.” 

This program at Texarkana College strives to start students, like those in the Tango Flight program at Texas High, off early and give them an immense amount of understanding and knowledge in the sector of avionics so they can have an advantage over the competition in their given workspace, allowing them to become experienced in a shorter duration of time.

“We’re optimizing for heavy commercial aviation, therefore, we need them to be very comfortable with composites and advanced avionics and computers,” Sanders said. “Since I have a background in that sort of thing, it’s very easy for me to take things that I used to teach myself and teach other mechanics and diagnose airplanes and put it in front of the students. So they’re seeing stuff that took me 30 years to culminate and get together, and they’re getting it on day one, which gives them a drastic advantage over the competition.  

Projects and experiences such as those presented at this workshop, according to many, give students useful knowledge that they can use to their advantage if they decide to stay in aviation. 

“It really just exposes them to something new and different,” Broyles said. “A lot of students right now have no clue what they want to do in life, so this gives them another chance to figure out what they want to do, whilst also preparing them for their future and understanding what’s expected out of them going into these careers.”