Pilot Population

North Dakota Aviation: Front Door to Growth

September 25, 2011 by Scott Spangler

Lately there hasn’t been much good news about aviation, general or otherwise. Then I went to North Dakota for a story on a one-tech avionics shop halfway between Fargo and Bismarck. A flight school was setting up in the next hangar, an indicator of better times at the airport, said Greg Earnest at Jamestown Avionics, because new pilots mean more airplanes. In passing, he mentioned the state’s Flight Training Assistance Program, which defrays the cost of bringing a CFI to airports where none live.

Say what?

Greg aimed me at the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission. Its website was as open, friendly, helpful, and positive as the people I’d so far met in Jamestown. “The state aviation system is an attractive front door to our state’s economic growth,” reads the first sentence of the commission’s philosophy. Here’s the rest of it: “To ensure this growth, the system needs continual enhancement with state-of-the-art technology. With this goal, continued flexibility and responsiveness by the Aeronautics Commission will fulfill the needs of the aviation community.”

Which brings us back to the flight training program. Keeping track of FAA pilot statistics, the commission decided to do something about the declining pilot population in the state—down 22 percent, from 4,095 to 3,207 over the past 30 years. Its analysis revealed a disproportional decline between rural and urban areas, in part attributed to the dearth of CFIs at rural areas. North Dakota law says that the commission shall cooperate with towns to develop and coordinate aviation activities, this includes educational grants, i.e. the Flight Training Assistance Program.

2010 Updates Pilot Population Highs & Lows

March 9, 2011 by Scott Spangler

Using FAA data provided by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s annual Statistical Databook, I’ve built a spreadsheet of pilot population data back to 1964. Updating it for 2010 revealed a new highpoint in pilot certification: 96,473 active flight instructor certificates.

The number of CFIs has been trending consistently upward since its 1968 nadir of 30,361. Their numbers grew by 1,610 between 2009 and 2010. What’s really interesting, however, is that in 2009, instructors outnumbered active student certificates by 22,583.

The FAA issued just 72,280 student certificates in 2009, the lowest number since 1964. Despite the economy, student numbers rebounded remarkably (46,839 is a good bounce) in 2010, topping out at 119,119, which led to an overall increase in the pilot population.

In 2010, the number of active private pilots shrunk by 9,599, to 202,020. Given all the reasons for letting a certificate go inactive, there’s no accurate formula for predicting how student numbers affect sport, recreational, and private pilot figures. But the past offers some hints.

New GI Bill has Wings…Maybe

January 22, 2011 by Scott Spangler

Earlier this month President Barack Obama signed the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010 into law. For the first time since Vietnam, it will cover flight training under non-degree educational programs.

Depending on the veteran’s eligibility, the new law authorizes up to $10,000 a year for flight training. But just because such payments are authorized doesn’t mean the allocated funds exist. Congress has to pass an appropriate bill for that, and it’s still working on the 2011 budget, which was due last October.

If Congress appropriates the money, it will be interesting to see how many vets pursue flight training. After World War II, learning to fly under the GI Bill led to the GA boom, which saw the number of airplanes delivered every year climb into the tens of thousands. But that boom peaked in the 1970s, when the Greatest Generation turned 50 and started looking at retirement.

Far fewer served during Vietnam, and given the unpopularity of that conflict, our GI Bill benefits were nowhere near those who served during World War II, or today. Still, regardless of the era, vets have to make a choice between recreation and a career.

Women & Aviation: Still No Real Change

January 2, 2011 by Scott Spangler

As part of the conversation on the AOPA survey on why students drop out of aviation, we got an e-mail from Dr. Penny Rafferty Hamilton, Ph.D. She had recently completed a two-year research project that led to Teaching Women to Fly, which shares the results.

And they are depressing.

What makes them such a downer is not just the scarcity of female pilots, who are just 6 percent of the pilot population. It’s that their numbers have not grown, despite 20 years of trying by Women in Aviation International and other groups and individuals.

Like the dropout rate, this static, single-digit aviation participation by roughly half the population is another indictment against the industry’s rep of being innovative and forward looking, forward thinking, and forward acting. It is further evidence that aviation tradition is impeding its progress.

CPC Training Sets Customer Service Baseline

December 14, 2010 by Scott Spangler

Customer service, as the AOPA student retention survey recently reaffirmed, plays an important role in the student pilot dropout rate. As anyone who has called or visited more than one flight school can attest, the quality of customer service—good, bad, or mediocre—depends on the school’s owner.

Over the past couple of decades I’ve visited more than a few of the 270 Cessna Pilot Centers and found their service predictably positive. This didn’t happen by accident, says CPC Manager Julie Filucci. Cessna launched its flight school network in 1973. Since then it has assessed the practices of its more successful affiliates and shared the accumulated knowledge through various training programs.

A critical component is “delivering a customer experience commensurate” with the other services Cessna provides, she continues. “As the primary point of contact with students,” to CPC customers, “flight instructors are the face of Cessna.” To ensure that CFIs put their best face forward, they each receive training that sets a how-to baseline and establishes “the core customer experience.”

Understanding how flight schools compete, Filucci’s predecessors focused on “a few key areas that we knew were differentiators.” Early on, the training was face-to-face, but it is now delivered by a 15-minute video, Checklist for Success.

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