Centerline

To get current and confident again, it takes about an hour of instruction for every year away from flying.

As we seek to grow the pilot population, there’s a fair degree of discussion about how our industry can bring new pilots into aviation. This is perfectly appropriate, as we will always need a good supply of new blood to replace those who leave flying.

But there’s an adage in business that it’s much easier to keep a customer you’ve already got, than it is to acquire a new one. This is especially true in aviation where the barrier to entry is high, and only one in five students complete pilot training.

Once a pilot has been created, we want him or her to enjoy as long an aviation lifespan as possible. But this is not something we can take for granted. Qualified pilots drop out of active flying all the time. How many times have you met an old acquaintance and cheerfully asked, “are you still flying?” only for them to stare at their shoes and mumble something about needing to get current again.

We did some basic database analysis last year and discovered more than 500,000 lapsed pilots in the United States under the age of 75. That’s an awful lot of customers we have allowed to slip out the backdoor.

This got us wondering about our chances of reactivating these people. Obviously, some pilots will never return to the sky, but if even a small proportion of 500,000 came back, it would aid our quest to grow the pilot population.

So earlier this year AOPA commissioned a national survey of several hundred lapsed pilots. We learned a lot about why people leave aviation, and our prospects for bringing them back. One piece of information really jumped out: Not a single person had completely given up on flying. More than half of those surveyed fully expects to return to aviation, the rest think they might come back, but absolutely no one said, It’s over, I’m done.

This reinforced the idea that “once a pilot, always a pilot,” but also confirmed we should be more proactive in reactivating lapsed pilots. We know they want to come back, so how to extend the invitation?

It turned out that at least one flight school was already way ahead of us. Aviation Adventures in Virginia has won multiple national awards for excellence in flight training, and deservedly so. They’ve got a superb culture and numerous good programs, but one called “Rusty Pilots” really caught my attention.

It’s a Saturday morning seminar designed to help lapsed pilots brush up their aviation knowledge, in a supportive group atmosphere. In addition to standard refresher course topics, there is a special emphasis on areas of recent change—things such as local airspace changes, plastic certificates, changes to aircraft registration and medical rules, and technology developments such as the iPad.

Lapsed pilots tend to overestimate the difficulty of getting their flying skills up to scratch. Aviation Adventures has developed a rule of thumb that, to get current and confident again, it takes about an hour of flight instruction for every year away from flying.

When I met Bob Hepp, the owner of Aviation Adventures, he provided two attention-grabbing pieces of information. First, every one of his Rusty Pilots seminars held since 2011 has sold out to its capacity of 30. Second, every one of those participants signed up to start flying again. Hmmm, interesting!

Part of my job here at AOPA is to look around at what people are doing in the aviation community, and share good ideas when I see them. What Bob Hepp and his team have developed with Rusty Pilots is better than good. It’s an excellent program, with potential to help aviation on a national basis.

AOPA will be working to make this happen. Check the website (www.rustypilots.org) for more information about how you could host, or attend, a Rusty Pilots seminar in your local area in 2014.

To get current and confident again, it takes about an hour of instruction for every year away from flying.

As we seek to grow the pilot population, there’s a fair degree of discussion about how our industry can bring new pilots into aviation. This is perfectly appropriate, as we will always need a good supply of new blood to replace those who leave flying.

But there’s an adage in business that it’s much easier to keep a customer you’ve already got, than it is to acquire a new one. This is especially true in aviation where the barrier to entry is high, and only one in five students complete pilot training.

Once a pilot has been created, we want him or her to enjoy as long an aviation lifespan as possible. But this is not something we can take for granted. Qualified pilots drop out of active flying all the time. How many times have you met an old acquaintance and cheerfully asked, “are you still flying?” only for them to stare at their shoes and mumble something about needing to get current again.

We did some basic database analysis last year and discovered more than 500,000 lapsed pilots in the United States under the age of 75. That’s an awful lot of customers we have allowed to slip out the backdoor.

This got us wondering about our chances of reactivating these people. Obviously, some pilots will never return to the sky, but if even a small proportion of 500,000 came back, it would aid our quest to grow the pilot population.

So earlier this year AOPA commissioned a national survey of several hundred lapsed pilots. We learned a lot about why people leave aviation, and our prospects for bringing them back. One piece of information really jumped out: Not a single person had completely given up on flying. More than half of those surveyed fully expects to return to aviation, the rest think they might come back, but absolutely no one said, It’s over, I’m done.

This reinforced the idea that “once a pilot, always a pilot,” but also confirmed we should be more proactive in reactivating lapsed pilots. We know they want to come back, so how to extend the invitation?

It turned out that at least one flight school was already way ahead of us. Aviation Adventures in Virginia has won multiple national awards for excellence in flight training, and deservedly so. They’ve got a superb culture and numerous good programs, but one called “Rusty Pilots” really caught my attention.

It’s a Saturday morning seminar designed to help lapsed pilots brush up their aviation knowledge, in a supportive group atmosphere. In addition to standard refresher course topics, there is a special emphasis on areas of recent change—things such as local airspace changes, plastic certificates, changes to aircraft registration and medical rules, and technology developments such as the iPad.

Lapsed pilots tend to overestimate the difficulty of getting their flying skills up to scratch. Aviation Adventures has developed a rule of thumb that, to get current and confident again, it takes about an hour of flight instruction for every year away from flying.

When I met Bob Hepp, the owner of Aviation Adventures, he provided two attention-grabbing pieces of information. First, every one of his Rusty Pilots seminars held since 2011 has sold out to its capacity of 30. Second, every one of those participants signed up to start flying again. Hmmm, interesting!

Part of my job here at AOPA is to look around at what people are doing in the aviation community, and share good ideas when I see them. What Bob Hepp and his team have developed with Rusty Pilots is better than good. It’s an excellent program, with potential to help aviation on a national basis.

AOPA will be working to make this happen. Check the website (www.rustypilots.org) for more information about how you could host, or attend, a Rusty Pilots seminar in your local area in 2014.