A sea of smiling faces, a few perhaps showing a little trepidation as they settle in for a morning of learning. For many, though, the reimmersion into aviation starts the previous day when they don orange T-shirts and pitch in to set up tables and chairs, post signs, string fencing, or park airplanes or cars. Although their backgrounds, ages, and experience levels are all different, they have two things in common: They’re happy to be here and, for any number of reasons, aviation has escaped them over the years. Well, maybe one more thing: Those are mostly gray heads out there. But that can mean a lot of untapped wisdom, knowledge, and experience.
A chilly breeze is blowing across the airport at Salinas, California, as we scurry around setting up the exhibit hall booths on this Friday, the day before the AOPA Fly-In back in May. As we’re lugging tables to the booths, Paul tells me he’s here for the AOPA Rusty Pilots program tomorrow, but happy to volunteer today as he loves getting back out to the airport. It’s been more than a decade since he last flew an airplane—and he had barely managed to stay current for several years before that, as career and family issues pressed on his time and finances. It’s a story we hear often, and one that affects most of us at one time or another.
When in college and immediately afterward, I barely managed to stay current as I lived on a college budget and then struggled to find my first job. Morning drive-time anchor at a radio station sounds a lot more glamorous and well-paying than it really is. Ditto for being a beat reporter at a small daily newspaper, my second job.
But now in retirement and with the kids on their own, Paul has the time and the money to come back to aviation. He’s here to rekindle those embers that never went cold over the years. “It’s like a part of me was missing,” he says as we move on to setting up chairs, two to a booth. “I’m not sure what I’m getting into, though. A lot has changed.”
“Like riding a bike,” I try to reassure him. “You’ll be back up to speed in no time.”
Paul’s story is one I would hear repeated over and over again at the rest of the AOPA Fly-Ins this year. I helped with check-in at several of the Rusty Pilot events later in the year, and the Pauls of the world showed up in droves. AOPA research shows there are nearly 500,000 people under age 75 currently not flying who have at least soloed, and most already have a pilot certificate. We need to grow the pilot population, and AOPA and other organizations have many programs to entice youth into aviation—but it sure is rewarding to see those who have already cleared the private pilot certificate hurdle find their way back to the cockpit.
AOPA kicked off the Rusty Pilot program in 2014 to reengage this ready audience. Local flight schools or AOPA flight instructors host the free programs, usually with about 100 in attendance. When we partner with a local flight school, it stands at the ready to set up appointments with the Rusty Pilot graduates so they can take the next step of scheduling a flight review. (The Rusty Pilot program’s three-hour ground school satisfies the ground portion of the FAA requirement.)
But more important, the Rusty Pilot curriculum helps pilots understand what’s changed since they last flew. For some, the idea of a plastic pilot certificate is all new. For others, a GPS or an iPad in the cockpit is a foreign concept. The program addresses all those issues while hitting the basics of what’s required in the panel for day and night VFR flight, for example, and the nuances of flying in Class B versus Class C airspace.
Over the past two years, AOPA has conducted 148 Rusty Pilot programs for more than 5,300 individuals. Through multiple follow-up surveys we’ve found that some 27 percent of participants go on to return to flight—meaning more than 1,400 pilots are flying today who weren’t before we started. It’s a small start, but for the pilots who make the leap, their lives are changed forever.
I ran into Paul later in the day that Saturday in Salinas. He was all smiles and showed me his logbook endorsement, noting his completion of the ground school portion of the flight review. “I’m going to schedule a flight right away. I’m so glad I did it.”
I’m so glad you did, too. Welcome back, Paul.
Learn more about the Rusty Pilots program or sign up to host an event.
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Tom Haines earned his pilot certificate at 17, and like many others struggled to fund his aviation dreams during college.
