Class by class, homeless man gets closer to building aircraft

The homeless man who bicycled from California to Kansas last September to learn how to build airplanes has completed his first technical certifications and could go to work immediately in the aircraft industry if they are hiring.

But Keith Callison says he plans to take more classes at Wichita Area Technical College, where he’s compiled what the college president says is an impressive 3.7 grade point average.

Callison last week completed classes to earn a certification in composites fabrication and passed an industry certification credentialing program called CertTEC, also for composites fabrication, said Sheree Utash, WATC’s president.

“Not everybody passes that,” Utash said. “But he passed.”

Callison, 53, said he was smoking marijuana and methamphetamine in Escondido, Calif., until last summer, when he decided suddenly to climb onto a bike that he dragged out of his ex-wife’s Dumpster. He pedaled to the prairies, first to Tulsa, then to Wichita, where he presented himself to Utash and said he wanted to get a job in the aircraft industry.

He had no high school diploma or any college education.

Callison said he didn’t score as well as he had hoped on a pre-test on Wednesday. “But I am a perfectionist, after all.”

He slept under bridge overpasses for several days after arriving here in September, he said, but then found a bed at the Union Rescue Mission, which shelters homeless men. After he got a job at Goodwill and then at a QuikTrip in northeast Wichita, he took a room at a hotel, where he’s been living since. He still bikes to work and to WATC classes on North Webb Road.

“He’s defied all the odds,” Utash said. “I pulled aside one of his teachers the other day; she said he’s one of the best students in her class.”

If he were to apply for jobs now, with the certifications he earned on Wednesday, he could earn as much as $13 to $17 an hour working for some of Wichita’s aircraft supply companies.

But Callison told her he plans to take a break from classes, then start on May 1 at WATC taking courses to earn higher certifications in airframe and power plant classes. The course of study will take about 18 months, Utash said.

This story was originally published March 12, 2017 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Class by class, homeless man gets closer to building aircraft."