If you’re the outdoor type, you may have used a field guide to help you navigate the natural world. If you’re a traveler, perhaps you’ve used a guidebook to help you get the most from your visit to a new place. The idea behind these books is simple: Provide all the information needed for a successful outing in one place.
A good guidebook is organized in a way that’s logical and easy to follow, covers a broad range of topics, and gives you the tools you need to achieve your goals, such as illustrations of wildlife or important phrases in a foreign language.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was such a thing for creating a successful flight training experience? What if there was some kind of a training aid that could help minimize the frustrations of the process while maximizing the chances of flying away with a pilot certificate?
Those are questions we’ve been asking ourselves at AOPA.
Let me take you back a couple of years to some other questions we asked ourselves—why are so many student pilots dropping out without completing their training, and what can we do about it?
Those questions launched us on a path that has involved in-depth research, extensive discussions with the training community, and careful consideration of both what we’ve learned about creating an optimal flight training experience and how to share that information with everyone who can benefit from those findings.
That second question led us to IDEO, a unique design company based in Santa Clara, California. IDEO and AOPA worked together to consider our research, speak with pilots and students, and examine flight training from the perspectives of the student, the flight instructor, and the flight school. They took time to understand how the needs of these groups intersect and how they are different.
The results of this effort are three of the most innovative and exciting books about learning to fly that I’ve ever seen. They are truly field guides to flight training, with the information and tools you need to optimize your training experience.
One of the most important factors in creating a successful training experience is ensuring that the student, instructor, and school are working from the same flight plan. Part of the beauty of these books is that they integrate the roles of all three parties to the training process with one book for students, one for instructors, and one for training organizations.
All the books are interrelated, and all contain the best thinking available on what contributes to successful flight training. But they aren’t meant to sit on a shelf for occasional reference; they are designed to be used as workbooks during the training process. They are quite literally guides, taking student, instructor, and flight school through the optimum training experience.
We have tested our guides with the help of more than 100 students, instructors, and schools, and they are in production now. If you plan to be at AirVenture in Oshkosh, come by the AOPA tent to get a preview of the guides and tell us what you think. You can also get a sneak peek online (www.aopa.org/ftinitiative).
We’ll keep you posted about when and how you can get your guide. Check AOPA Online and ePilot for the latest news.
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