AOPA helps students find mentors through its unique Project Pilot program, and provides both with resources that allow the student to achieve his or her objective.
What exactly is a Mentor? A Mentor is not your flight instructor. He or she is a pilot--perhaps at your local airport, often in the area, sometimes across the country--who shares his experience to help support you as you master the aeronautical knowledge and flying skills you need to become a safe, conscientious pilot. Mentors all started out as student pilots, just like you. They can help to explain hard-to-understand concepts; reassure you that any problems you may experience in training are not only common but also normal; and above all, provide you with encouragement.
Let some new pilots tell you, in their own words, how much their Mentors helped them as they learned to fly--and why they chose to become Mentors themselves after they completed their training.
One pilot helping another
Daniel Kartchner, of Pendleton, Indiana, grew up in a military family. "I've always been interested in aviation, since I was a little kid watching airshows," he said. Kartchner joined the United States Air Force after high school, then earned a college degree and decided to pursue flying through the Air Force. He began his flight training at Mount Comfort Airport near Indianapolis.
"At the same time I joined AOPA and learned about the Project Pilot program," he said. "I thought that was something that would help me get through this, and signed up." Through the Project Pilot Web site he met Kyle Ward, a pilot who flies from the same airport. Ward was in the process of checking out in a Garmin G1000 glass cockpit-equipped airplane (see "Glass Class," p. 32). "We talked about flight instructors, and he helped me study for my written and my oral," Kartchner said. "Kyle would call to check in, or I would call him with questions."
Kartchner earned his private pilot certificate in September 2006, then transitioned into the G1000 and began instrument training. Still an enlisted member of the Air Force serving in the Air National Guard, Kartchner has applied for a flying assignment.
While completing a degree in organizational leadership and supervision from Purdue University, Kartchner did his senior research project on the flight training process. "I found that there were so many students who just didn't make it--whether it was time, or money, or they just didn't like the experience," he said. "When I realized how many students don't make it through, it sparked my interest to do something about it."
Now, he wants to help build enthusiasm for flying. "I've got a younger brother who's kind of following me in my career path, and I'm helping to mentor him toward his private," Kartchner said. And a couple of Air Force acquaintances in Ohio have expressed an interest in learning to fly.
Kartchner has signed up his brother and an Air Force friend in Project Pilot, and he checks the AOPA Project Pilot Web pages for potential students in his area.
"Project Pilot is a great program," he said. "Anything we can do to increase the awareness of general aviation is good. So many people I know are in awe of the fact that I'm a pilot, but I don't think it's that big a feat. It's not as difficult as most people think."
"How does this really work?"
Mitch Veenstra of Arlington, Texas, began flying lessons in the mid-1980s, right after he graduated from high school. Veenstra had logged about 25 hours and had soloed, "and then life happened."
Active on a pilot Web board in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and flying with some of its members, Veenstra found a flight school at Arlington Airport in May 2006 and started flying again at age 40.
A couple weeks later he located a Mentor, David Whitford, who runs the DFWpilots. org Web site. "I'd known David for about two years. He'd taken me on a couple of flights in a Cherokee that he flew back then," said Veenstra. Having a mentor was invaluable. "Any time I had a grey area, he was somebody I could call and ask, 'How does this really work?' I had three books, DVDs, and a CFI, and they didn't always all agree." Whitford also reviewed Veenstra's cross-country flight plans. "He was very encouraging that I'd done it right."
Although he sometimes called his flight instructor, Veenstra respected the fact that his CFI had to teach to make a living. "I don't want to make it sound like my CFI wasn't staying on top of things, because he was. But sometimes something would make sense in the airplane, then I'd start thinking about it at home and it wouldn't. I still remember the night when I was trying to figure out VORs and David talked me through them, for a couple of hours, until it finally clicked."
Veenstra passed his checkride on December 26, 2006, and became a Mentor himself shortly thereafter. "The guy I'm mentoring works with me at the office. He started on his private pilot [training] a few years ago but stopped, so I'm encouraging him to get back into the air," he said.
"There's another student that started a couple of months after me, with the same CFI, and she's getting ready for her checkride. She has a Mentor who has been pretty busy, so I'm helping her practice for the oral exam," he explained. "Being a pilot mentor is getting together with somebody and talking about flying--if you like to fly, what's a better way to spend a Saturday morning?"
Project Pilot can help draw people from outside the aviation community into the air, Veenstra noted. "Because airports have gotten, in some cases, so restrictive, it's hard for somebody who's not already part of the aviation community to walk around the ramp and talk to the people with airplanes."
Cross-country Mentor
Brian Witkin began flying lessons in San Diego, California, during May 2006. "Since I was 10 or 15 years old, I was fascinated by airplanes," he said, explaining that it wasn't until he graduated college and started a small business that "I had the means to pursue flying." Once he started, he trained aggressively, earning his private pilot certificate in about four months. "I went every day. That's the way I do things," he said.
Witkin read about Project Pilot in AOPA Flight Training and looked for a Mentor in the San Diego area without any luck; so he posted a message in search of a Mentor on the Project Pilot Web site. Witkin was contacted by William Wang in New York. "Most of our communication was over e-mail and phone conversations. He really instilled confidence, and allowed me to ask questions."
Witkin said that he may have idolized or respected his instructor a little too much "and wasn't able to ask all of the questions I should have asked. It was a lot easier to ask William a lot of questions that I didn't want to ask my instructor," he said. "My instructor was great--there was not an instructor problem."
His relationship with his mentor was different from that with his instructor. "I felt that William was one of my peers," Witkin said. "It was great to have an advocate on my side. To be honest, I don't think I'd have my pilot certificate right now if it wasn't for Project Pilot." He said a Mentor helped him to stay motivated, and to avoid discouragement if, for example, rain cancelled a lesson.
Although they have yet to meet in person, Witkin stays in touch with his Mentor, who sends messages and forwards useful information to an e-mail list of students. "I look forward to his e-mails. They're really helpful."
The distance was never a problem in his mentor relationship, Witkin noted. "I think I got just as much out of it as anyone could in person--there isn't any difference except maybe being able to go flying together," he said. "I don't think I could have gotten more from actual face time. He was there for all the important things. My instructor was great, but he never instilled confidence like William did."
Today, Witkin is mentoring a student who lives down the street from him. "We've been longtime friends. He is the first person I ever took up [after I earned my certificate]. He had been living aviation vicariously through me."
Witkin knew that his friend really wanted to learn to fly. "Having a Mentor was such a valuable tool and asset to me that I wanted him to have that," he explained. "It was so helpful, I just wanted to give that to someone else. I wanted to help increase the population of the general aviation pilot community, and I felt an obligation to give back."
He and his student talk and e-mail regularly, and they fly together regularly. "It's great to have someone to fly with, even if they don't have their license," Witkin said. "I think he's going to solo pretty soon."
Reminder of why we fly
Jeff Smith of Spartanburg, South Carolina, always enjoyed airplanes. He served as an aircraft technician in the Navy. "Many years ago, my supervisor was a pilot, and he actually took us up and flew us around. He actually taught us ground school when we were on the aircraft carrier, sailing around the world for nine months at a time."
Smith finally had the opportunity to learn when his kids got older. He took his first lesson on May 13, 2006, and his private pilot checkride eight months later, on January 13.
"A guy that I met at the airport while I was taking lessons had received his training from the same instructor that I used," he explained. "He offered to help me out and mentor me. Since then he's mentored several students."
Smith said it was amazing how much his Mentor, Jim Payne, helped.
"My biggest problem for the written exam was weather--I just had the hardest time with weather. He'd call me or I'd call him, or we'd just sit at the airport, and we went over it every day for two weeks before I took the knowledge test," Smith said.
"With the flying part, I had trouble with turns around a point and S turns. I'd call him, we'd go out, and he'd say, 'This is how we do it.' "
Perhaps most important, his Mentor reminded him why he was learning to fly. "We did a little cross-country one time for sightseeing. He didn't want me to get in a rut." Smith said his Mentor believes that everybody hits plateaus in their training, and if things aren't going right, it's good to take a break from the structure of lessons. "He said, 'Now you'll remember the reason you wanted to fly in the first place.' It really lifts your spirits, to go up and enjoy flying, and not have to worry about the training."
Smith, 42, credits his Mentor's support for the fact that he earned his private pilot certificate in 46 flight hours. "I couldn't have done it by myself. You've got to have a good instructor, and you've got to have somebody helping you out. I truly believe that. And I had both."
He signed up as a Project Pilot Mentor the day after his checkride. "I decided if I had the chance, I wanted to help somebody else the way I was helped," Smith said. "I found a student at my airport. I've talked with her several times, and she just had her first lesson."
All in the family
Yaakov Forchheimer of Lakewood, New Jersey, earned his private pilot certificate on January 28. "The weather's been hard on me. I got to take my wife flying right afterwards, but haven't been up since," he said. His introductory flying lesson was in September 2005.
Forchheimer's Mentor was his brother-in-law. "I've always been really fascinated with aviation," he explained. "Then when my sister married a private pilot, that was great--he took us on trips. That's when I realized that being a private pilot was something I could do."
His Mentor, Jacob Gottleib, took his first flying lesson at age 14, but he stopped flying for a few years when the flying club at McGuire Air Force Base shut down. "When I got interested in starting, that helped him get back into it. Now he's joined the flying club I'm in, and we should get to do a lot of flying together." They belong to the Monmouth Area Flying Club at Lakewood Airport.
"He was the most fantastic mentor," Forchheimer said. "Every single lesson I took was discussed before and after. He pretty much walked me through each part. When I actually took my intro flight, it was hard to convince the instructor that it really was my first flight.
"The greatest aspect of his mentoring was the confidence that he built up, especially when I was getting ready to solo and trying to master the landings." Those lessons where it seemed every flare was too high or each touchdown was too hard could be frustrating, he explained. "A lot of times with a lesson like that, the problem doesn't get fixed until you walk away from the lesson and can talk about it. Sometimes we would talk for two hours."
When Forchheimer began his flight training, his younger brother--who also had been interested in aviation for some time--was "really excited about the whole idea." So Forchheimer enrolled him in Project Pilot. "He called me right away and was ecstatic. He said, 'Do you really think I can do this?'" Because his brother is a 45-minute drive from the nearest airports, finding the right flight school has been a challenge.
"'A good pilot is always learning' is a good slogan, because pilots are always learning," Forchheimer said. "You're always getting better at something, and you're trying to perfect your approaches and your landings. Staying in that mindset--whether you're training or you're helping out someone who is training--is important."
Whether you're a student pilot--or a prospective student--without a mentor who would benefit from one, or a new pilot ready to become a mentor and share your passion for aviation, go to the AOPA Project Pilot Web site and sign up today for this helpful, rewarding, and free program. Through the site, you can find a Mentor, or a student that you can mentor. See how it can make a difference in your aviation experience.
E-mail Mike Collins, editor of AOPA Flight Training
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