Learning to fly is no walk in the park. Training is full of challenges—most having to do with mastering a complex set of new skills, but some having to do with the training process itself. In fact, it’s so challenging that as many as 80 percent of those who start flight training will drop out before they earn a pilot certificate.
I find that figure alarming, especially at a time when the pilot population is steadily declining. A dropout rate that high tells me there’s something seriously wrong with the way we train pilots. But what, exactly, are the problems, and what can be done to stop so many people from giving up before they achieve their aviation dreams?
AOPA, through the AOPA Foundation, is trying to find answers to those hard questions through the Flight Training Student Retention Initiative.
We’ve commissioned a research study to model the flight training process and identify the key factors that affect student retention. Surveys and focus groups with student pilots—including those who have quit training—certificated pilots, flight instructors, and flight school operators will help us find out more about why so many students drop out of training. We know that time and money are factors—but we also know they are not the only factors, and our research is designed to dig deeper into the underlying causes.
As of this writing, the research is nearly complete, and we have scheduled a Summit of industry leaders who are directly involved in flight training. Together we will review our findings, identify best practices, and seek solutions.
We realize that any proposed solutions will have to work in the real world—a world where weather delays are beyond our control, aircraft must be taken out of service for maintenance, and multiple priorities compete for our attention. So, we are looking at the issues raised by the research from both educational and business perspectives.
We will unveil our research results at AOPA’s Aviation Summit in Long Beach, California. Of course, by the time many of you read this, Summit 2010 will be a happy memory. Don’t worry if you missed it; you can get up to date by watching the November 11 keynote address on AOPA Live. You can be sure this is an issue you’ll hear more about in the coming months.
In the meantime, if you’re a student pilot, hang in there. Earning that certificate is worth the effort and commitment required. It comes with a well-deserved sense of achievement and opens new horizons for travel and recreation. If you’re a flight instructor, keep teaching and motivating your students to the best of your ability. And if you’re a certificated pilot, congratulations on being among the 20 percent who complete training. To you I offer this challenge: Offer encouragement to a student pilot at your airport. That support may make the difference in whether or not they finish training and fulfill their own aviation dreams.
Related Articles
