Learn more about EMU’s aviation program.<\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n\nThe aviation program, offered at EMU\u2019s Lancaster site, is an educational track within the Leadership and Organizational Management degree. Students split their time between on-site classes at EMU Lancaster and flight training at Aero-Tech-Services, Inc, in Lititz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn addition to technical excellence, they\u2019re being nurtured as future aviation leaders,\u201d Sibole explains, \u201cin a Christian institution whose value system includes promoting the welfare of local and global communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Missions and humanitarian track in the works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Sibole was working as an inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) when he accepted the position with EMU Lancaster, where he already served on the aviation program\u2019s advisory committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cI was very happy in my work at the FAA, but began to sense a calling to come to EMU full-time,\u201d says Sibole. \u201cMy vision is that this program will produce graduates with the best technical foundation, the potential for leadership, and a framework in which to continue to form godly values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWhat\u2019s next for the program? Sibole is preparing to introduce a missions and humanitarian track to the curriculum. And with the combination of capable administrators and the excellent flight training partner Aero-Tech Services, Sibole says, \u201cwe have an agile, intelligent platform from which to move this into the top tier of collegiate aviation programs.\u201dEvery evening, John Sibole and his dog, Charlie, go out to the small airport where Sibole keeps his airplane, and they walk the turf runway together. “He considers himself the official greeter,” Sibole says. “When a plane lands, he waits for the propeller to stop turning and then runs out and greets the occupants as they disembark.” (Photo by John Sibole)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAn adventurous resum\u00e9<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\tSibole has always had a knack for mechanics. As a child, he tinkered with with go-karts, motor scooters, and cars. He was bitten by the aviation bug when a family friend took Sibole and his mother flying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cApparently something took root there,\u201d Sibole says. At age 16, in 1967, he started working as a \u201cline boy\u201d at a small airport \u2013 gassing up the planes, checking the oil, and washing windshields. His dollar-an-hour wages all went towards flying lessons, which his father also helped pay for. He then earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1972 from Lehigh University on an Air Force ROTC scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sibole has gone through six engine failures while flying: three in jets, one in a light airplane, and two in helicopters. But the seasoned pilot says that the hardest part, in one case, was not making an emergency landing, but navigating danger on the ground afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once, during a safety inspector training course, Sibole was flying a helicopter over the St. Johns river basin near Cocoa Beach, Florida, \u201cwhich is very scenic but which also is full of alligators, whom we would see sunning themselves as we flew over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The engine cut out. Sibole and his instructor safely set the craft down in a patch of solid ground within the swamp, but then had to run about 50 yards \u2013 through alligator habitat \u2013 to the helicopter that came to pick them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe engine failure didn\u2019t bother me at all, but these gators were enormous,\u201d Sibole says. \u201cAnd I had heard that they\u2019re very quick!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n