Efforts ongoing to keep pilot training in Urbana

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Efforts are under way to keep pilot training in the Champaign-Urbana area after the University of Illinois Institute of Aviation closes next year.

The News-Gazette reports that Parkland College and the University of Illinois will meet with a New York-based firm called Riverside Research. The firm provides engineering and technical service to governments and businesses.

Kris Young is vice president for academic services at Parkland. He says a reinvented flight school at Willard Airport is “a good idea.” However details have to be sorted out.

The University of Illinois Board of Trustees voted in 2011 to close the institute. Campus administrators said there was declining interest in the program. Estimates were that the school could save as much as $750,000 annually.

A closing date is set for August 2014.