A Rare Breed: Students Who Finish Training

To maintain my face-to-face social skills and keep my mind nimble I am a substitute teacher for the local school district. Getting an early morning call from the high school offers the added treat of hearing how its principal is progressing toward his private pilot certificate.

He started training just before the 2008-2009 school year ended last June. Just before Thanksgiving he was halfway through his checkride; the weather turned nasty during the oral. He was hoping to fly over the weekend, and the weather was good, so I’m eagerly awaiting my next call so I can learn the outcome.

Little different from others I have talked to, his trials, tribulations, and well-earned joy at overcoming obstacles and surmounting learning plateaus are more poignant and riveting than any contrived TV reality show. Becoming a pilot might make a good reality show, but it would not inspire many to crash the airport party.

Like many students who learn to fly for fun, he’s not finishing his training with the CFI he started with. Most CFIs teach part time and support their families with “real jobs” because students are scarce and the pay low. When the job moves you to another part of the state, you go. At least his CFI gave him a lead on another one in the area.

Then there were scheduling problems and last-minute cancellations on top of the inescapable challenges posed by Mother Nature and the learning process itself. Being a teacher he was better prepared than most for the latter, but through it all he never lost his enthusiasm for flight, for achieving the goal he’d set for himself—becoming a pilot.

Even more remarkable is that becoming an aircraft owner is his next goal, and I have no doubt that he will, eventually, achieve this as well. But this stalwart principal is the exception, not the rule. Anecdotal data suggests that more than half the students who start training never get beyond solo.

Most quit not only because of the inherent challenge of mastering a complex skill, but because of seemingly ceaseless disappointments that await part-time students. Students who finish their training are a rare breed, and we should nurture them at every opportunity, and do everything in our power to make their path to pilot hood smoother. — Scott Spangler