Alabama Aviation College’s Michael Barton said there are 24 students enrolled in the aviation program housed at the Covington Economic Development Commission building.

“It will get larger when more word of mouth gets out,” Barton said. “We just hit our one-year mark.”

Barton commended local schools for being helpful.

He said that Andalusia City Schools is providing transportation for those who wish to participate.

He said he is working with the county schools to see what can be worked out at this time.

For the first time since the program re-opened in Covington County, Barton has four adult learners.

It takes time to build the program, he said.

He said the college has begun an new advertising policy in which advertisements for the college appear on media such as Pandora.

Barton said that there are students from every county school, except Opp High School, currently enrolled, and there are students from Brantley High School who travel to take the classes.

“They can get everything in general and airframe with me,” he said. “But they will have to go to Ozark to get the powerplant portion.”

Barton said it’s very expensive and requires a large facility to do the powerplant portion.

“We would need 21,000 square feet and it costs about $600,000 for start-up costs,” he said.