Will they ever be as safe as those that eat, breathe and sleep aviation? Are they going to be inclined to stay with it?”

I think they could be as motivated to become a good pilot Pat. They may not live and breath airplanes like I do, but that doesn’t mean they can be good pilots.

Part of becoming and remaining a good pilot is based on the camaraderie of other pilots and instructors. Sometimes we don’t make learning to fly and they life after learning to fly very friendly.

That needs to change.

But really, do we want to expand the realm of pilots to the point that those that aren’t drawn to it naturally are getting into it? Is that really good for them and for aviation? Will they ever be as safe as those that eat, breathe and sleep aviation? Are they going to be inclined to stay with it?

“Learning to fly will change your life.” How many of us has that happened to. Quite a few I bet.

I for one would like to hear how learning to fly changed people’s lives. C’mon … spill the beans.

Next … how about a photo that we can post here? What kind of airplane did oyu fly and from where?

Rob

I think we would be in a good position to follow-up with students that stop the training.

We will send an email to the last 10,000 student prospects and ask them if they quit to complete a survey or call us.

It used to be I could fly my club’s Piper Archer at an average of 125mph over a short 1.5 hour trip that took 6 hours to drive thanks to the lack of any interstates except for about 50 miles of the trip. At the rate of $70/tach hour (this was 2004ish) the trip cost about $250 including ramp fees. It made for a long day, but it was one day.

Compared to driving, which cost about $210 in mileage reimbursement and a hotel room for just one night($100+), flying was actually cheaper when just looking at dollars and cents. It also saved at least one full working day, more if you wanted to be in town at 8am and leave after 5pm without driving at ungodly hours of the night.

The new job doesn’t let me fly myself while on business, unfortunately and I haven’t touched a plane in about 2 years as my priorities have changed and there isn’t a practical reason to keep current.

Convincing insurers that properly trained pilots are on par with or less risky than the airlines would be the only thing that would let me get back into aviation. Unfortunately, the recent run of accidents at A.D. Williams Engineering in Canada doesn’t bode well for this. It was all over the engineering industry newsfeeds.

Personally, I always loved aviation but, just soloed last Friday. I happened to get extremely lucky by surrounding myself with others who bring the excitement back to flying everyday.

But I’ll give it a shot by looking at the reasons for terminating training. But let’s keep in mind. If someone was just barely on the wrong side of the fence a call from someone at the AOPA might alone be enough to push them back over.

Money… Not a lot we can do about this one except maybe but them in touch with a school that teaches LSA or is otherwise less expensive.

Time… Here they might be shown that there are programs that fit better with their schedule like a 2 week course in FL, TX or AZ.

CFI they don’t like/didn’t get along with… Introduction to another instructor or school.

Unrealised Expectation… This one can either be the easiest or the hardest to deal with. Having the student talk to a pilot in a like situation. Something like the current Mentor program.

The idea of following up with people who have terminated their training does sound like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?

I go back to the point about flight school marketing. Our industry is not good with that ecause so many people involved in flight instruction are there because they want to fly, not sell.

If the BMW guys left customers walk away as much as the folks in our industry do, they’d get canned. We put up with it.

What a good idea. Sort of a Young Eagles program for older eagles. I wonder how many other folks have thought of that.

Has anyone decided they might want to take lessons after one of those flights?

Rob

Now that I know you’re reading, I’m just going to call it OPF … I know that hasn’t changed.

Thanks for your note.

Rob

Once AOPA or someone contacted them what would they say?

Then what would they do about what they were told?

I would like to know more about your idea.

Gary
gary@pilotjourney.com

I’ve proposed just such a program more than once to the AOPA at least twice. Once via e-mail about a year ago and once in response to to the current request for ideas.

Basically the idea is for the AOPA to contact FBOs and flight schools and get contact info on pilots that started their programs and then didn’t finish and then have AOPA and/or the local mentors program contact them.

I started my flying “hobby” - after getting the private ticket - with the goal of achieving as many cross country flights as possible. Doing that for fun, and not with a set purpose such as business/travel, it eventually got old. I’d do a touchdown and taxi back and return right where I came from. The luster of that type of minimum-time trip wore off quickly.

Once I realized that fact, I was unsure how I should spend my time in airplane. I knew I loved being up in flight, but needed another reason to do so after a while (beyond simple practice time). Not coming up with one, and college taking more and more time, I quit flying for 7 years.

But after I got back into it I realized a great way to keep flying fresh - view it through the eyes of others. With that in mind I had a new goal - take as many people as possible on their first flight in a small plane.

Since then I have tracked my first-flights count in my logbook and have gotten to around 17 so far. I work hard to give smooth flights with just the right amount of information - maybe one day one of those folks will take me up! :)

Maybe that’s because they are run by so many flight instructors.

Many times we men do not want to talk about the soft issues and that does not help. We find it hard to say “I felt better about myself when I got my pilot certificate” or “flying made me realize I could accomplish what I put my mind to”

We try to tell people that on Pilot Journey and it seems to be working. The problem is the schools post “prices” and sell steak.

Gary
Pilot Journey