Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Kyle Falwell, shown with a Diamond DA-40, is an executive with Falwell Aviation and serves as head of its flight school. Falwell Aviation is one of a handful of business ventures put together by the Lynchburg Falwell family.

Pilot training ground nearly to a halt at Roanoke Regional Airport this year.

Now, a Lynchburg company has stepped up with an ambitious business plan to teach a federally certified curriculum, train in multiple aircraft and operate under the Falwell brand name that's known in aviation -- and not just matters of faith.

A private, family-owned company, Falwell Aviation Inc., intends to open a division of its flight school in September at Roanoke's airport. The plan has the blessing of the airport's governing board and envisions Falwell occupying leased space at Landmark Aviation.

Landmark is the private operator of the municipal airport's 24-hour service center for aircraft maintenance and parking, fuel, logistics and traveler services.

"The lease agreement is just about in place. We will have a flight school here," said Landmark general manager Karen Roberts.

Falwell's plan is good news for beginning and experienced aviators and gives a boost to the general aviation side of the airport. The diverse sector is distinguished from the air-transport side of the airport that serves the greatest number of individuals and often gives an airport its identify. But general aviation with its cadre of experienced aviators who support businesses, government, law enforcement and other vital services is an economic engine in its own right and contributes to the airport's civic value.

Advocates of learn-to-fly programs make a strong case that flying is a quick and exciting way to get around. A private pilot in a small plane can go from Roanoke to Richmond in 40 minutes. Travel time to California is half what it takes to go by car.

More than 5,000 community airports scattered over the national landscape welcome airmen and women on their leisure or business travels, though some lack the gear for pilots to land and takeoff in foul weather. By comparison, about 500 airports offer scheduled, commercial air passenger service.

Roanoke's airport lost both its flight schools earlier this year: a Roanoke city schools program, which closed due to a budget cut, and LC's Flying Service, which moved to Montgomery County's airport when it learned that its leased building would be razed to relocate a taxiway.

Although free-lance instructors continued to give lessons at Roanoke Regional Airport, some pilots and airport officials expressed regret that Roanoke airport, the home base for 109 aircraft at the latest count, lacked a flight school. Aircraft movements declined noticably, altering the airport's statistical profile with the Federal Aviation Administration.

"You can't get a private pilot's license any more in Roanoke," lamented student pilot John Anstey, a Roanoke advertising executive who was taking classes with LC's Flying Service when it relocated.

Indeed, after the loss of the school program and LC's, Roanoke's airport became something of an oddity. About 45 of Virginia's 66 airports have flight schools, say Virginia Department of Aviation records. There are also a handful of university-based pilot programs which offer ground-school training on campus and fly out of a nearby airport, said Betty Wilson, the agency's communications and education coordinator.

Aviation is an active sector of Virginia's economy.

"Pilots are in demand," Wilson said. "The airlines are still hiring pilots and so is corporate aviation."

Training to qualify for a basic pilot's license from the FAA costs an estimated $5,000 to $6,000 at an airport-based flight school, Wilson said. A plane can run $25,000 for a small, used Cessna 20 or 30 years old; nicer planes run $500,000 and much more, with a business Beechjet that seats seven costing $2 million or $3 million.

But many pilots rent the airplanes they fly or co-own a plane with several others or even a club of fellow aviators, according to Wilson.

Now, Roanoke airport is close to having a flight school, again.

Falwell Aviation is one of a handful of business ventures put together by the Lynchburg Falwell family. Kyle Falwell, 29, said if you go back a couple generations in his family, you'll find a host of enterprises in truck equipment, shipping and aviation and non-transportation sectors such as well drilling. His elders decided they wanted an airstrip and built one on the family farm. Jerry Falwell, the late conservative Christian televangelist who died in 2007, benefitted from easy access to air travel as he spread his conservative religious message.

Today, the old airstrip is Falwell Airport, a private, public-use, all-weather airport. It is still in the family and family patriarchs Lawrence and Calvin Falwell, 87 and 86, respectively, both inductees in the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame, live there.

Falwell Airport is one of two hubs of operations for the family aviation company, and student pilots are challenged to land upon its moderately inclining runway. Because it is a one-directional airstrip, there is no option to land from the other direction to avoid the incline or get the wind right. But that's okay because flying to less-than-ideal locations is a skill some Liberty University student pilots wish to develop because they want to become mission pilots flying to far-flung locations to spread the word.

The other hub is Lynchburg Regional Airport, where Falwell Aviation runs one of two service centers and is building a hangar.

Mark Courtney, who directs the Lynchburg airport, said the company has contributed to 25 percent increase in general aviation operations from a year ago.

"They have been growing very rapidly," he said.

Kyle Falwell is an executive with Falwell Aviation serving as head of its flight school, manager of Falwell Airport, president of its aircraft brokerage business, among other things. He logged his first hour in the cockpit at age 6. Today, holds a commercial pilot's license.

His dad, Jimmy, is the company vice president. His grandfather, Lawrence, is secretary and Lawrence's brother, Calvin, Jerry Falwell's cousin, is president, according to records of the State Corporation Commission.

Kyle Falwell said the company has been focused on expanding its charter business, laying the groundwork to open a helicopter school in Lynchburg, training its 50 student pilots and supporting a growing Liberty University aviation program, with an estimated 200 students.

Landmark Aviation called to interest Falwell Aviation in teaching pilots at Roanoke's airport and the company decided to take a look. Kyle Falwell said he found that each of three flight training programs in the Lynchburg region, Falwell's and two others, had been more active than flight trainers at Roanoke airport.

Odd, he thought.

"Roanoke's a big market," Falwell said.

So for that and other reasons, the company decided to pursue the opportunity.

Like other Falwell Aviation pilot classes, the program will operate as a "part 141" school with the most intense form of FAA oversight. Basic and advanced courses will be offered. There's a list of eight prospective students. New carpeting, computers and furniture are due to be installed in a second-floor office that is the former home of the city schools program.

Additional airplane traffic should boost the airport's statistical profile with the FAA, which has committed resources to Roanoke Regional Airport's air traffic control tower to support 140 to 215 takeoffs and landings per day. Since the loss of the two flight schools, the airport has not met the minimum traffic benchmark in some months.

Kyle Falwell said he is aware of the issue and thinks Falwell Aviation's Roanoke school will have a boosting influence. Instructors will be teaching at least 40 students in four airplanes by the end of 2009, said Falwell, who dropped off a 2004 Cessna 172S to get things started. He said the company, with 20 to 25 planes dedicated to instruction and seven dedicated to charter service, has the resources to add more planes and more types of planes to the Roanoke operation as student interest materializes.

"We want everyone in the area to get excited about what we got coming," Kyle Falwell said.

The company retained Roanoke area aviator Gordon Ewald to play a lead as Falwell Aviation's assistant chief flight instructor in Roanoke.

"Very well established, very well financed" is how Ewald described Falwell Aviation. "It's very good news."