Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Gaetz Aerospace Institute

Over the weekend, West Orange High School teacher Brian Noe got the privilege to fly with one of our seniors, Nicholas Rogacheski, who is also the WOHS 2026 Embry-Riddle Senior of the Year. We flew the $100 hamburger to Albert Whitted field in Saint Petersburg, the site of the first commercial airline flight in history and had lunch at the Hangar restaurant.

In the attached photo, you can see Nick circling West Orange High School in a Diamond DA 40. Nick just earned is Private Pilots License and plans to attend Polk State in the fall and pursue a degree in Aviation while earning his commercial licensure with intent to fly for the passenger airlines.

The River City Regional SeaPerch competition was a huge success thanks to the hard work of the Mayport Robotics teachers and students from over 20 North Florida teams. Outstanding design and creativity skills were showcased at the Cecil Aquatics Center this week. Congrats to all participants!

Check out this free event happening this weekend!!!

The Aerospace Career Academy was honored to welcome the Cocoa High School AJROTC Journey of Flight team “Drone Crashers” to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to present their incredible Drone 3D Mapping Project!

This group of first-year Journey of Flight students went above and beyond this school year by taking on a real-world UAS mapping mission. With the mentorship of Dr. Jeoffrey Bispham and the ACA UAS team, students conducted photogrammetry flights using the Parrot Anafi Ai UAV to aerially map Cocoa High School’s 54-acre campus.

Over the course of the project, the team captured more than 6,200 images across 101 total project hours, mapping 21.4 acres of their campus with 87% image alignment accuracy. Imagery was processed by the team in Pix4Dmatic, exported through Blender and slicer software, and ultimately transformed into detailed 3D printed models produced in their school’s computer science lab.

From manual flight operations to autonomous mission planning, log documentation, emergency response planning, and advanced 3D modeling workflows, these students demonstrated teamwork, problem-solving, and technical skill at an impressive level, all while maintaining a record of zero crashes.
After their presentations, students toured our campus and lab spaces, getting a firsthand look at the next step in their aerospace journey.

We are especially excited that Cocoa High School will begin offering dual enrollment aerospace courses in the 2026–2027 school year, allowing these students to continue building their aviation and UAS expertise.

The future of aerospace is bright, and it’s already taking flight in Cocoa! 🚀

Congratulations to Frank H. Peterson High School for winning First Place at the NDIA Drone Challenge sponsored by Andromeda Systems Incorporated. Mr. Claypool’s Unmanned Aerial Systems students applied principles of design, aerodynamics, electronics, and manufacturing to reverse engineer and optimize a standardized drone kit. Teams from Clay, St. Johns, and Duval counties were judged on their technical data package and obstacle course performance.

We are thrilled to announce and celebrate that Mr. Keith Bona was nominated and selected as the Caliber Teacher at Walter C. Young Middle School in Broward County, Florida. Mr. Bona teaches ERAU Middle School Aviation, Microsoft Industry Certification, and Introduction to Coding. Mr. Bona will proceed to the final district round of the prestigious Caliber Teacher of the Year Award. Congratulations, Mr. Bona! We are cheering for you.

Great things are happening in Osceola County Public Schools and at the Embry-Riddle Aerospace Career Academy. I am extremely pleased to share that the United States Marine Corps has awarded AFJROTC Cadet Chief Master Sergeant John A. Ennis a $108,000 NROTC Scholarship. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Woody had the honor of delivering the great news with a visit to Osceola High School. Cadet Ennis is the first Osceola County School District student to ever receive this scholarship.

It was Frank Sinatra who released the hit ‘Come Fly with Me” back in 1958. This morning, ERAU Rising Eagle Jenna Jackson can now borrow those very words from “Old Blue Eyes”... she passed her commercial check ride. Well done, Jenna! 👩🏻‍✈️🛩️

As an educator, there is no greater gift than inspiring a student and watching them take that same gift of learning and pass it on. Professor Andrew Nicholson and his ERAU dual-enrollment students at Blanche Ely High School in Broward County, FL, exemplified this phenomenon today when they visited Sanders Park Elementary School to introduce students in grades K-5 to all thing’s aviation. Well done, Junco, Gustavo, Professor Nicholson, and our Rising Eagles 🦅 .