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ATP Flight School (www.allatps.com) has the solution to the problems aspiring airline pilots will face beginning in three years when they will be required to have 1,500 hours to get a job. ATP and Mountain State University have teamed to offer a college degree and flight training at any of ATP’s 22 nationwide locations. ATP's program offers students a competitive advantage because instead of roughly 250 hours of experience they might receive by graduation at a standard university, they expect graduates to have approximately 1,500 hours by the time they finish the degree program at ATP. The program is available as both a bachelor’s and an associate’s degree. Students are generally awarded an associate’s degree and a have earned CFI certificates by 16 months, allowing them to instruct while finishing the bachelor’s degree. The bachelor’s degree costs approximately $90,000 for the degree and flight training.

New England Ninety-Nines offer scholarships

The Eastern New England Chapter of The Ninety-Nines is offering four scholarships in 2011. The Ginny Ursin Honorary Scholarship and the Karla Carroll Memorial Scholarship, open to men and women, are for $1,500 each. The William Bridge Scholarship for $1,000 is open to women with at least a private pilot certificate. The New England Section of The Ninety-Nines also offers a $1,000 scholarship in memory of pilot Shirley Mahn. All scholarships require applicants to be either residents of the six New England states or studying in New England. For criteria and applications, send an e-mail ([email protected]) or a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope to Olga Mitchell, 10 Glory Lane, East Falmouth, MA 02536. Must be postmarked no later than January 31.

Major flight training summit convened

AOPA brings industry together to solve tough issues

Lack of educational quality, customer focus, community, and information sharing are the four key reasons student pilots drop out of flight training. That’s the conclusion of Mark Benson, chairman of world-renowned market research firm APCO Insight. Benson's comments were part of the AOPA Flight Training Summit November 10 in Long Beach, California.

The figures are startling—student pilots drop out of training at a rate that approaches 80 percent. AOPA, in close coordination with the flight training industry, is working on solutions to stop the major outflow of students, and hopefully increase the pilot population as a result.

The research results kicked off the summit, which was sponsored by Flight Training magazine. More than 100 industry stakeholders came together in an effort to stop the alarming student dropout rate.

“This is the starting point of something that will affect all of us for years to come,” said AOPA President Craig Fuller. “I believe we can make a difference to the future of general aviation, but only by working together.”

Benson’s research results were based on more than 1,000 respondents. Using a combination of focus groups and a phone survey of pilots, both current and lapsed student pilots, and flight instructors, Benson found that the flight training industry has obvious areas for growth.

Despite the industry’s shortcomings—and there were many—the experience of flight remains an inherently positive one which can overcome many of the negative aspects. “That finding alone is of huge importance because it gives us something we can build on,” said Fuller.

Conventional wisdom has been that time and cost are the driving factors in a student pilot’s decision to continue or drop flight training. But the four broad themes of the results paint a different picture in which educational quality has the biggest impact.

Factors directly related to educational quality include: effective instruction; organized lessons; flight school policies that support and maximize instructor effectiveness; providing additional resources; and test preparation.

Also, there is a clear desire for a sense of community, of belonging to a special group with unique skills.