Trade & Industry Instructor Profile

Judy Maxwell
Professional Pilot Technology

     It’s tough to walk in the moccasins of a legend like our past department chair, Peggy Lang.  Judy Maxwell is just the person to try however. 

When Aviation Chair, Peggy Lang, lost her battle with cancer, Maxwell accepted the position of interim program manager.  Maxwell had served as Lang’s assistant for several years but left the program to focus on her family. 

When Lang first became ill, Maxwell agreed to step in and help out; she has directed the program since.  Now she is leaving her own footprints.      

“My dad is a pilot and he got his license before I was born.  Aviation has always been in my blood.” 

Is Flying in Your Blood? 

.   Maxwell’s love for aviation started when she was young.  “My dad is a pilot and he got his license the year I was born.  Aviation has always been in my blood.”  She jokes that she has been flying since she was in the womb.  If you spend any time around Maxwell, you know she is ready with a laugh—a booming and contagious laugh.  She even brought her brand of chuckles on a job interview with Continental Airlines, once.  She laughs when she says, “I had my first log book with me and I got a laugh out of the examiner when he saw my first entries were made with one of those Big Chief pencils.”   What can you expect when you’re learning to fly while in elementary school?  It showed she had a passion for aviation at a very young age.

 Maxwell uses her experience as an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP), a corporate and charter pilot, as well as a training pilot, today.  She spent more than 16 years as an instructor pilot at local flight schools before coming to Palm Beach Community College.  Having gone through big airline interviews, she knows what to tell her students to expect. 

A Bridge from High School . . . to Bachelor's Degree . . .

Maxwell was also instrumental in completing an articulation agreement with Boynton Beach High School’s Aeronautic Magnet Program. This will allow high school students to complete Embry Riddle classes in high school, transfer to PBCC to complete their AS degree, and then complete their Junior and Senior years at Embry Riddle World Wide Campus in Ft. Lauderdale; finishing with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics.

to Employment

Students will also benefit from the newly designed job affiliation agreement that Maxwell is working on with local aviation businesses.  “We are going to affiliate with charter flight schools, corporations with corporate airplanes, and that will give our grads great interview opportunities.”

Helicopters Too! 

As if that wasn’t enough, Maxwell was successful at including helicopter curriculum into the existing program. “Our first helicopter student has soloed.  He will have his license shortly.  It’s exciting times in the aviation program. “

The Flight Path

"Then, while teaching as a flight instructor at the local flight schools, the students can take evening hour classes at Embry Riddle Worldwide.  Once they graduate from ERAU they should have the flight experience they need as well as the degree required by airlines.  That will make them extremely marketable.”