The perspective of the world from above was enough for Ms Lomas to know she wanted to spend time in skies.

"One of flight schools came to careers night at school and I didn't think it was for me but my interest grew," she said. "Seeing the ground get further and further away is an amazing feeling."

Ms Lomas is now past the halfway mark of her RMIT flight training course. With RMIT's flight school expanding its operations to Bendigo, the 22-year-old student is paving the way for more regional students to take up a careers in aviation.

"It is tough to study as a pilot but it is very rewarding. It is always great to be out in the skies. If you put in the effort and have the right attitude, you can definitely be a pilot.

"I started my training in Bendigo and got my recreational pilots licence here. I know how it was in Bendigo a few years ago and it is great to see the airport expand with the upgrade. (With) RMIT arriving, (I'm sure) that interest in aviation in Bendigo will grow."

RELATED: Bendigo Flying School welcomes RMIT flight training school

RMIT senior manager of flight and aviation Michael Heffey said a global shortage of pilots was one of the reasons the flight school wanted to expand its operations.

"About 800,000 pilots are needed in the next 20 years. For the Asia-Pacific it's about 270,000 pilots," he said.

"So we were looking at alternative site to set up and Bendigo was a fantastic place to do it. It's very central and we have visited a number of towns over the last two years to try to promote women in STEM and Bendigo can reach out to those areas.

"We are looking at have a mid-year intake of Bendigo and regional students but, in the meantime, it doesn't stop us using Bendigo as a stopover base. Students do navigational fights over three or four hours to Mildura or Albury and are able to stop here for lunch and briefings."

RELATED: Bendigo businesses, council welcome RMIT expansion of flight school to airport

RMIT's Point Cook flight school currently has 150 students. Mr Heffey expected a large class to be in Bendigo by this time next year.

"A majority (of Point Cook students) are from metropolitan areas but I believe 10 to 15 per cent are from regional areas," he said.

"For (the Bendigo intake) we are looking for year 12 leavers. You need an ATAR of about 60, which is fairly low, but as long as you've got reasonable maths and English skills, we'll do the rest."

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