Last month I told you about the Flight Training Student Retention Initiative—a plan to understand why as many as 80 percent of student pilots drop out of training without earning a pilot certificate—and a plan to do something about it. The initial research results are in, and I want to share them with you.
Despite the shortcomings of the flight training process, people want to fly—and they enjoy doing it. We found that many people like flying enough to overlook the evident problems with the system.
Students want a quality educational experience, especially in terms of having effective instructors, good management and support of those instructors, organized lessons, and better test preparation.
Cost is a factor—but students are generally more concerned about getting good value for their investment than they are about the dollar amount they spend. They want to know that their flight school and instructors care about helping them get the most for their money by doing things such as recommending free or low-cost training resources, using simulators and other ground-based training, and ensuring that aircraft are well maintained and ready to go when students need them.
Students want to have enough information to make wise and informed decisions about their own education, including the success rates for their school and instructor, as well as realistic estimates of the time and money it will take to earn a certificate.
Students want to feel like they are part of something bigger—and often this is missing from the training experience, leaving students feeling isolated and unrecognized as they struggle with the challenges of learning to fly. There’s a sense of community within the GA world—we need to invite students in and offer them support and encouragement.
We gathered a group of more than 100 stakeholders from flight-training-related fields to spend an entire day considering how we can build on this research to create real-world, practical solutions to help more students finish their training. Participants broke into groups to discuss everything from the flight school business model to the training curriculum.
Several themes emerged, including the possibility of creating an accreditation process for flight schools and instructors, and options for reforming the curriculum. Also discussed was the importance of providing additional training and mentoring to help flight instructors meet higher standards. Participants suggested that flight schools should make a greater commitment to maintaining contact with students throughout the training process and beyond, and should do more to recognize students’ many achievements. Participants recommended finding better ways to integrate less costly tools into the training process, such as offering simple, less costly aircraft for the early stages of training and simulator-based lessons.
This gathering is the beginning of a national conversation about flight training. We’ll be conducting similar gatherings at locations around the country to build on the recommendations of this first group and to see what other good ideas emerge.
Ideas are just the start—all of us in the GA community need to work together to turn those ideas into action. The challenge now is to keep the momentum going and ensure that we’re making learning to fly the rewarding and enjoyable experience it ought to be.
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