You Can Fly: Survey Results Are Being Tabulated
Flight Training excellence awards announced soon
The 2017 Flight Training Experience Survey closed in late August and 6,881 responses were received. Tabulation to determine the winners of the awards for excellence in flight training is underway; recipients will be notified in late September and recognized at Redbird Migration, to be held October 16 through 18 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The survey is based on AOPA research into the optimal flight training experience and focuses on four factors: educational quality, customer focus, community, and information sharing.
Designed to measure the overall performance of flight training providers through the eyes of their clients, the survey uses a customer service feedback approach, giving participants an opportunity to candidly share their training experience. This includes anyone who has undertaken flight training within the past 12 months, from a budding student pilot preparing for his or her first solo, to commercial pilots brushing up on visual flight rules.
Survey participants can provide customer service feedback on one flight school and one flight instructor per survey. In 2016, this resulted in reviews of 789 flight schools and 1,515 flight instructors.
Scores are ranked using statistical measures that allow smaller schools to remain competitive while accounting for the greater weight of evidence provided by larger numbers of responses. Free-response answers are scored by a panel of industry experts who are unaware of the identity of the school or instructor being judged.
Award categories
For both the Best Flight School and Best Flight Instructor categories, a total of six awards will be presented, one each for the West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast regions, and an overall National Award winner.
This award is given to the flight school and flight instructor in each region that have received at least five submissions completed on their behalf through the Flight Training Experience Survey and have the top overall scores from survey results for the category.
To narrow it down to one winner in each region, the committee may also conduct a phone interview or visit with the top finalists. A national winner will be recognized out of each of the five regional award recipients.
The Flight Training Experience Award is granted to flight schools and flight instructors who received reviews from at least five students and received 80 percent of the maximum possible score from at least 50 percent of their customers.
The Flight Training Experience Survey and Awards are part of the AOPA You Can Fly program. You Can Fly is a comprehensive set of initiatives designed to get people flying and keep them flying. The Flight Training Experience Survey and Awards support that effort by recognizing flight schools and instructors that deliver exceptional training experiences.
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