What Should You Do To Help The Declining Pilot Population
Check out their line of headsets, camera cables, and LED lighting today!
What Should You Do To Help The Declining Pilot Population
Editorial
There has been a lot published lately on the deterioration of our sport, but I haven’t seen much on what we should be doing to help. Setting aside the barriers, we all know that if you want to fly you will find a way.
Our contribution should be to help “set the hook.”
Certainly the alphabet groups like, EAA and AOPA have been engaged on the subject, but is that enough? We shouldn’t ignore the potential impact we can have at the grass-roots level.
Programs like Young Eagles and the burgeoning Eagles program from the EAA have created new pilots and there is great hope that Open Airplane and the AOPA Flying Club project will bear fruit, but will that be enough?
As a population, we have been in decline for decades. The days of thousands of military trained pilots and thousands more trained via the GI Bill are no longer going to keep us propped up. We must accept a certain amount of contraction based on this and other factors, it’s just a different world than it was 30 years ago.
The goal
Our work should be to share our passion and let that be infectious to those around us. If we do that, people will respond and our ranks will grow.
What can I do to help?
We need to ask ourselves a few questions.
What is our capacity to share our passion?
- If you are a pilot, take someone flying. If you are a student pilot or just interested, take someone to the airport, to an aviation museum, to an airshow. We all can contribute.
What is our sphere of influence?
- We need to recognize that we touch more people today than we ever did in the past. Social media provides a great way to demonstrate your infectious passion for flight and hopefully inspire another potential aviator. Also, we should not ignore our non-flying friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc. Any of these folks could accompany you and you could show them what this is all about. Maybe make a list of anyone you think could be a candidate. Don’t discriminate on the basis of money (There are lots of cheap ways to fly if you want it bad enough). Don’t forget people who have stopped flying, they could be an easy target.
We need to follow-up.
- If you see that spark in someone, follow-up with them. Keep them engaged. If appropriate, volunteer to be their mentor.
Finally, be an ambassador.
- Bring up flying in conversation (use tact, no one likes a braggart). You will be surprised how this can produces leads to someone who you might be able to bring into the fold. Talk about good things that come from flying; how it’s great for the community and how people can use airplanes to help one another.
Since the barriers are so great, we need to demonstrate that the benefits far overshadow those obstacles.
Personally I like set little goals for myself, here’s some examples below:
- Take non-pilot flying once a month
- Have non-pilot accompany me to a flying event at each opportunity
- Mention flying to someone at least once a week
- Post something about flying once a week in social media
I’m sure you have some great ideas that aren’t listed – we’d love to hear them, please feel free to post below.
VISIT OUR SPONSOR for Training DVD's, affordable headsets, cable adapters, headset parts, LED strobes and lights, and more! They cover ALL EXPENSES for iFLYblog.com to keep it coming FREE to you FOREVER!
Subscribe to the iFlyBLOG Mailing List to get the latest blog posts and news to your E-Mail instantly! PLUS TWO FREE eBooks!
Great blog post! Another alphabet group that is newer to this cause is iWOAW, or the Institute for Women Of Aviation Worldwide. Besides hosting studies on how to best grow the female pilot population, iWOAW hosts events during Women Of Aviation Week every March, encouraging pilots like us to share our passion with those new to aviation. It sounds like you may be the perfect type of person to host an event like that!
Victoria,
Thanks! I’ll check them out. Sounds like a great group to support! Let me know how I can help.
Brent
I don\’t think it\’s the lack of interest, it\’s the huge prices. The two biggest reasons for pilot shortages is the costs and the uncertainty of getting into a job as a pilot. I really want to fly, I can never do that as long as the prices remain very high. It\’s just a pipe dream. £6,000-8,000 for a private pilots license. Not to mention maintaining that license which is expensive. £70,000 to 90,000+ for a career in aviation for which there\’s no guarantee. It\’s vastly too much, as long as it remains so, it\’ll remain impossible for me and many like me.
Good point indeed!
For folks in Europe, I completely agree; that’s a crazy amount of money. In the US is roughly half as expensive. If I was in Europe I would probably be flying an ultralight. When I went to flight school in New Mexico, I was the only American, everyone else was from Europe because it was so much cheaper (and the weather was better).
Brent