First Landings Aviation, Apopka’s oldest aviation school, is set to provide flight simulator instruction to Wekiva High School Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFJROTC) cadets upon the simulator program’s launch in the 2026-27 school year. 

“What they have promised is to help with getting the simulators set up — FAA-certified simulators — and provide the guidance and instructors to help get the program started, which is huge for this school,” said Wekiva AFJROTC senior instructor and retired Col. Scott Stewart.  

The AFJROTC program previously received a $10,000 check in March from Lockheed Martin, in partnership with the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), to purchase two flight simulators, with OCPS providing a buffer of $5,000 for any additionalcosts.  

The simulators, known as Basic Aviation Training Devices (BATD), would feature three cockpit window monitors and a smaller monitor with flight controls. Both simulators were expected to open by the beginning of the coming school year. 

Stewart had hoped that, within the next few years, Wekiva would then launch “Phase 2” of the program, which would involve the purchase of Advanced Aviation Training Device (AATD) simulators. 

“AATDs offer a more sophisticated and realistic training experience compared to BATDs,” said the concept paper for the simulator program. “They are designed to replicate the cockpit environment and performance characteristics of a specific class of aircraft (e.g., single-engine piston, multi-engine piston) or even a particular make and model. This higher fidelity allows for more in-depth procedural and scenario-based training.” 

After Stewart contacted First Landings for a potential partnership, however, the school encouraged Stewart to consider purchasing AATDs instead of the BATDs. 

“Because they’re a formal school, they’re like, ‘Scott, for a couple more dollars, I can get you the certified ones,’” Stewart said. “The estimates came in basically just under $18,000…To OCPS’s credit, they said, ‘We will cover the rest of the cost. Please go ahead and order both of those.’” 

Stewart said the new simulators should arrive in late July or early August, although he now anticipates starting the simulator program in the spring 2027 semester instead of this fall. 

“We’re two years ahead of the concept, so I’m good if we spend three or four months learning the process, understanding everything, making sure we get all the glitches worked out and we know it works,” Stewart said. “With the war and delays and embargoes, some of this equipment could get delayed.” 

First Landings director of operations Craig Butterworth said that Stewart initially reached out about three weeks ago, calling it “fortuitous timing” since the aviation school was “looking at some different ways of being able to help out.” 

“We’ve done sponsorships before, so this time, it’s just a little bit different, where we’re not sponsoring individuals,” Butterworth said. “Now it’s more, ‘Okay, how do we give back and basically donate CFIs (certified flight instructors) and also the A&P (airframe and powerplant) team so that these kids can start learning more about different paths for the future?’” 

Although the schedule for the CFIs is yet to be determined, Butterworth said that when the simulator program launches, students can report each hour of flight with a CFI in their logbooks. As a result of the partnership, he hopes Wekiva AFJROTC cadets will develop the same appreciation of aviation that he did when he joined the Royal Air Force Air Training Corps (ATC), the United Kingdom’s equivalent to AFJROTC. 

“You actually got to go out and fly the planes and do an awful lot of military-based training,” Butterworth said. “I got to fly my first plane that way, and I think that kind of molded my future at that point. It was great, and it got me into aviation.”