At some point during your time as a pilot you will need some help. Not the “Mayday, mayday” kind of help, although that will be there if you need it. This is more the helping-hand kind of stuff, such as diagnosing an airplane problem or working through difficulties related to your training. Or maybe you’re looking for a job. Whatever the reason, it’s safe to say that someone will be there to help in a way that seems to go above and beyond today’s social norm.
You've probably seen it at your flight school or airport—by training to become a pilot you have joined a community. Not some zoning-commission-planned-suburban-sprawl of a community, but a group of people who work and play together as true friends with shared interests.
The knowledge required to fly an airplane naturally bonds pilots the way it would any group of people who have a shared experience, but there’s something about aviation that transcends the training. Perhaps it’s because it can be challenging, and pilots feel a need to pay it forward after they earn a certificate, but the stories of generosity between pilots who barely know each other are incredible. Take CFI Jesse Angell of Lincoln, Nebraska, who—upon reading on a web chat board that a student pilot in Texas wanted to go to a fly-in in Michigan—decided to get on his motorcycle and ride through the night to fly with him to the event. Maybe it was the free 30-plus hours of flight time, but whatever his motivation, Angell performed an extraordinary act of kindness when he volunteered to fly with David White for free. Their story, “Jesse and David’s Excellent Adventure,” is online.
This sense of community starts in flight training, and helps many students get through the process. In AOPA’s research into the ideal flight training experience, the community experience was an attribute that shone through as a key factor in a student’s success. We think the Flight Training Facebook page serves an important role in that community. But your flight school, instructor, and fellow students may help you feel like part of a community as well. In that case, AOPA wants to hear about it.
The association recently announced the AOPA Flight Training Excellence Awards, a program that seeks to recognize the flight schools and independent instructors that best exemplify the attributes identified in the research as contributing to the ideal flight training experience. Read more about the awards and why it’s so important for you to participate (including a cool free gift) in the story, “The Right Stuff?”.
Pilots are not unlike those who served in the military. When Marines find each other, you’ll hear calls of “oorah” and lots of talk about where they served and when. We don’t shout our greetings, but we do have a special language. We tell hangar stories of landings on difficult days and the best hamburgers within a flight of an hour or two. We argue about avionics and airplanes, and gush about Cubs and Stearmans. Although your mind is filled with regulations and E6B theory now, just wait for that first Saturday at the airport where you're part of the pilot pack sharing your latest adventure. And welcome to the neighborhood.
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