President's Perspective

Get involved to stay involved

It's pretty easy to stay involved with flying during the initial training period. Learning new physical and mental skills can occupy much of a student's leisure time and energy. These tasks include studying for the all-important knowledge test; passing phase checks; and progressing through solo, cross-country work, and the checkride. These tasks tend to become a full-time assignment in addition to your job or other studies, as well as friends and family.

However, if you are currently a student with the checkride in sight or you have just become a private pilot, how can you continue to stay involved after earning a certificate to fly? Many students don't think about this. The reality of having a "ticket" and its accompanying autonomy -- no longer booking a lesson, reviewing it with a flight instructor, and having someone readily available to answer your every flying question -- actually can cause you to lose interest and drop the very activity that you worked so hard to learn. After those first few flights with your family and friends, often just around the local area or for a $100 hamburger, how do you maintain proficiency, interest, and a sense of community?

Sometimes on one of those first flights you scare the heck out of yourself, and more than likely that sense of fear is picked up by your non-pilot passenger. Nothing serious, mind you -- maybe a blown radio call to the tower where you are criticized in the hearing of everyone on board, or making multiple landings when you were trying to kiss the wheels to the runway just once. Maybe it's that choppy air that your passengers think is heavy turbulence. We, as pilots, grow accustomed to it, but imagine the family member who thinks a 19-seat commuter turboprop is a "small plane" and then gets into your two- or four-place, fixed-gear single.

Throughout your training you hoped that your family or friends would be as thrilled with flying as you are. More often what happens is the non-pilot passenger develops reasons not to fly. Your hard-earned certificate sits in your wallet; your skills get rusty; and you don't renew your medical at the end of two or three years. You are another lost pilot in the FAA records. You have become a dropout.

In speaking to pilots across the country, I can't tell you how many times I have heard stories such as this, and my personal experience was almost the same. As I reflect on what made me stay with it, I realize that it was involvement with other pilots and their families that solved the problem. You are involved outside of actually flying just by reading this magazine. A tremendous amount of information, insights, and tips can come from aviation periodicals. As writers share their flying experiences in print, we learn that our fears and desires, and those of our passengers, are normal.

Some of those writings might inspire you to fly to a particular destination -- such as "Postcards," a regular feature in this magazine's sister publication AOPA Pilot that is archived online. You can receive a companion electronic publication, "Postcards Online", each month in your free subscription to AOPA ePilot Flight Training Edition.

The more than 400,000 members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association are involved beyond just receiving a monthly magazine. These members help to shape and mold legislation and regulations that allow general aviation to survive in an environment often focused too closely on the airline community.

Beyond membership in our national organization, I would credit the camaraderie gained from being a member of a local general aviation group as very important. The social and flying opportunities provided by mingling with other pilots and their families truly gave me a reason to stay involved. In some cases it might be a state organization or a local airport pilot group. For those who own or fly a single model of aircraft, participation in an aircraft type club can stimulate friendships that will last a lifetime.

In my case, it was the Sacramento Valley Pilots Association (SVPA). It was here that my wife found her fears were shared by many of the other spouses. SVPA organized trips as far away as Mexico. Through these group experiences, I gained the individual skills to handle Customs, weather decisions, different procedures, and the like. Plus, it provided my wife and family with a new group of good friends and opportunities to take trips that we never would have tackled by ourselves. And, as one with a tight budget for flying, participating in a group often brought me opportunities to accompany pilots on trips for maintenance or to fill up an airplane for a weekend fly-out. Even those of us at AOPA who toil in aviation all week still try to schedule trips to several flying destinations a year for employees and their families or friends.

Learning to fly only starts the process of enjoying the freedom and fun of general aviation. After that, you must get involved in order to stay involved in what I feel are some of the most rewarding experiences in life.