Pilot Population

GA’s Future Depends on Recalibrated Desires

February 25, 2013 by Scott Spangler

As Baby Boomers march into retirement in increasing numbers, there’s an opportunity for general aviation and its surviving participants to recalibrate their desires and define the future of personal flight. It all hinges on flying clubs, which better use expensive resources by sharing the costs and providing emotional support.

Grounf effect — Ground Effect’s founders (L-R), Louis Bowers, Marc Epner, Todd McClamroch, & Al Waterloo

A new group, Ground Effect Advisors, is promoting flying clubs with a scholarship and a website resource, StartAFlyingClub.com. What separates this group and its efforts to ensure GA’s future is its focus. Accepting the fact that trying to rebuild GA one pilot at at time doesn’t work, as many programs in the past have proven, GEA is taking a new tack by exploiting the multifaceted potential of flying clubs. Its success will depend on the motivation and tenacity of the people who start and support each of them across the nation.

Baby Boomers, who still dominate the pilot population, bemoan the demise of the general aviation they grew up with, but we must all accept that 21st century economic and societal realities no longer support the 2oth century Me Generation stereotype of one pilot-one airplane. Really, few of us today can afford our own winged financial hemophiliac, let alone the hourly expense of feeding it 50 hours (or less) of gas and oil every year.

Pining for the past won’t change the future; it will only cut it short. Flying will continue to become more expensive, just as it has since the 1980s, when middle class income and buying power started to erode. And nothing is going to magically inspire the Boomers’ kids and grandkids to start flying. While many think it’s cool, it takes way too much time and effort.

How Will Flying Clubs Welcome New Pilots?

December 26, 2012 by Scott Spangler

There’s no denying that flying clubs make aviation affordable by sharing the fixed costs of airplane operation among a number of people. Active pilots are the obvious benefactors, as are lapsed pilots looking for a way to resume flying. In focusing on their immediate needs, members of many clubs have, without realizing it, created a closed society. Without new members to propagate the pilot species, their number will dwindle with time, adding to the survivor’s financial responsibilities.

This observation is brought to you by Tim Lemke, president of the Winnebago Flying Club, in a conversation we had after his presentation at a recent AM Oshkosh, a monthly chamber of commerce networking breakfast. Before his 10-minute talk on the benefits of flying for fun and personal transportation he set up a small display and neatly stacked flyers that itemized the benefits of club membership, which includes learning to fly. A flight instructor, Tim is the perfect presenter, and he never turns down an opportunity to promote the club and flying.

Not relying on face-to-face opportunities, the club has also been extending its reach with social media to invite prospective pilots and others to its monthly meetings, which always include an appropriate presentation. In December it was a refresher on winter flying, and the information also shows newcomers that they won’t need to hibernate if they learn to fly. Honestly, the club’s efforts to recruit new members, either lapsed pilots or those who want to become a pilot, is to sustain its existence, which also helps aviation as a whole.

Building Community is the Secret of Flight School’s Success

December 3, 2012 by Scott Spangler

The day after Thanksgiving, Sporty’s Academy shared news of a week that any flight school would love to have, four first solos, two new private pilots, two new commercial pilots, and a new flight instructor. The cooperation of Mother Nature made it possible, said Eric Radtke, academy president and chief flight instructor.

Radtke summarized the secret to Sporty’s success in the release’s second paragraph: “The fact that so many of our customers and staff were able to participate in the cutting of the shirt tails and other celebrations made it that much more special and created a wonderful sense of community.” The italics are mine.

Community, Radtke continues, has consistently provided three-quarters of of the school’s new customers since it opened in 1987. They come from personal, word-of-mouth referrals Sporty’s earned by delivering a good product to their customers. First-class flight training is, obviously, a big part of the product, but another critical component is building community by eagerly and honestly welcoming the newcomers into aviation society.

At the Movies, I Can Only Surrender So Much

November 12, 2012 by Scott Spangler

When a single trip to the bargain matinee equals my monthly Netflix subscription, for most movies my frugality partners with patience and we add the title to our queue. On a 1997 date night, my wife and I saw Air Force One, and she didn’t really enjoy dinner afterwards because I was still ranting about its impossibilities.

Since then, she’s gotten pretty good at gauging my interest in seeing movies either about aviation or that employ it in the story line. A fan of Denzel Washington, she had hopes for his new film, Flight. And then the trailer showed a MD-something-or-other flying inverted at low level and its and its blended right wingtip slicing through the statue on top of some dome. She looked at me, didn’t say a word, and then reached for her laptop.

When it comes to movies, I get it. Unrealistic, often impossible action makes the film more exciting, to those who don’t know any better. Perhaps I’m overly anal, I can only surrender only so much of my disbelief. And I wonder what affect such impossible action has on people with a real interest in flight? And how do they compare to old movies that portrayed flying more honestly and realistically?

Good Next Step: Advancing Pilot Community

September 24, 2012 by Scott Spangler

Certainly more details about its new Center to Advance the Pilot Community will be broadcast during October’s AOPA Aviation Summit in Palm Springs, but that doesn’t satisfy my need to know now. Ah, curiosity is an impatient task master, so I sat down with my buddy Google.

Having worked with him during my tenure at EAA, Adam Smith is an excellent choice to lead the new program. Attuned to pilots of every interest, he’s passionate and knowledgeable about not only aviation, but ferreting out the tangible and intangible things that lift their wings.

But the announcements of Adam’s appointment didn’t tell me a lot about how the new entity was going to Advance the Pilot Community. That I found further down Google’s list, in the position description of the now expired help wanted ad. By adding new initiatives to those already in place, the center stands a better chance of success than any previous effort I can think of thanks to its multifaceted approach.

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