At last, the truth...

"RST Engineering" wrote:
Jay, as a flight instructor with something approaching five hundred
students, I'd appreciate it if you would modify your statement to that we
NEED to get every possible QUALIFIED body into the cockpit, ...

I've gently counseled about a dozen (including some with certificates) that
this might not be the avocation for them.

Jim, that's exactly what I was saying earlier in this thread from having
worked at the flight school (I'm not a CFI, but was there to observe
just the same)...about there being a (good) reason for some who "drop
out" of flying, either before or after the rating.

I've gently counseled about a dozen (including some with certificates)
that this might not be the avocation for them.

Can you give us some examples?

Were these vision problems? Hand-eye coordination lacking? Bad attitudes?

What was the cause of their failure?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Why do people stop flying?
I was just reading my acro-group postings and was reminded about why
many people drop out of flying completely... friends crashing and dying!
It is mostly associated with people with less than five years in the
sport. Their thoughts being that, "Wow! So-and-so has all these hours
and years of experience in aerobatics, yet, they still crashed! What
chance do I have?"
I personally know of one pilot, a young guy with small kids, who's
mentor crashed and burned. The never flew his Pitts again. I cannot
prove it, but I think his wife gave him an ultimatum. Although she had
her PPL, she never seemed really comfortable around the acro crowd.
Those that have been around longer know the causes (99.9% pilot error)
and are confident enough in their own abilites to not repeat the cause.

Another thing about the five years and out in acro flying.
Some people get into the sport for the thrill.
They have the time and money to get the training and buy the highest
performance acro mount of their choice. Did I mention that many of them
are low time (couple hundred hours)? They have gotten their PPL,
Instrument and Commercial and are looking around for their next aviation
challenge.
Acro is something that you either have a natural ability for, or you
spend many hours and years developing the talent. The ones that drop
after five years have plateaued out at Intermediate or Advanced. They
want to show that they have big ones, that they can compete in
Unlimited! That's why they bought the biggest, badest acro mount to
begin with, right?
They blew through Sportsman the first year, didn't always win, place or
show, but thought they flew well enough.
Second and maybe third year, they did okay in Intermediate. Again,
doesn't matter how well they did, they have an airplane that is capable
of flying the higher catagory maneuvers, so why not move up?
Advanced is where it starts to really get tough. Two or three years at
Advanced and they are not progressing or just botching every other
maneuver. It's getting embarassing! Time to get out. So they just
disappear, on to something that will give them their next big high or
ego boost.
By the way, if you haven't learned it yet, ego will kill you in aviation!

"john smith" wrote in message
...
By the way, if you haven't learned it yet, ego will kill you in aviation!

,
I know a few that have not gotten a grasp on that one yet. I guess the
same goes for pilots as it does for mechs! No one knows everything about
airplanes, Nobody! There are plenty of people that think they do on both
sides of that (pilots and mechs) . In 22 years I have sure seen the egos!
And alot of them, could it be that some of our attitudes make people not
continue with their pilot training? My wife came down to the airport with me
one day and MAN she just did not like the , as she put it..."holier than
thou" attitude given off by one of the fellows hanging around the flight
school.
Totally turned her off ! How many students have run into this type of
aviation personality, let's face it guys their are ALOT of them,...and said
what a bunch of jerkwads and never gone back? Does the self proclaimed " God
of the sky" egos play a role in drop outs?

Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech

The point is there is a HUGE drop-out rate. It means that there are a number
of people who thought "I'd like to learn to fly," Flew at least a few
flights and then quit. What is AOPA, EAA, FAA and GA in general doing to
figure out what the reasons for the drop-out rate?

Just because there has always been a drop-out rate and it has stayed pretty
steady doesn't mean there is nothing that could be done to reduce it. Sure
some and maybe most of the reasons are things that the flying community
can't fix but I'd be willing to bet that 10% of the problem could be
addressed by the community and as I said in my original post 10% is a lot of
new pilots every year.

wrote in message
...
"Gig 601XL Builder" wrote:
[snip]
If you use these numbers you would get a pretty good
feel for the number of people who start and then don't
get their license. If only 10% of the drop-outs were
retained that would be more than 3600 more private
pilots.

Maybe I'm missing the point ... ???

There will *always* be a drop-out rate. The only way to say that
aviation has a high(er) drop-out rate is to compare it to other
activities with at least *some* expense, risk-factor, high mental demand
and time commitment similarities, where you train to fill requirements
and test for a license. Then compare those current numbers to two, five
or ten years ago to see if those other activities currently are
experiencing a higher drop-out rate, too. How high is the drop-out rate
for student sky-divers? What percentage of med school students actually
become doctors? The state of the economy could play a part in drop-out
trends, too.

Everyone here understands that learning to fly is a huge endeavor that
takes money, commitment, time, energy, and the support of whoever you
live with. It also requires access to a CFI that you work well with that
is available when you are, and reliable, well-maintained equipment. The
absence of any *ONE* of those elements is enough to make it impossible
to complete the training ... or even to continue after the rating is
achieved (except the presence of the CFI). That said, not everyone who
*has* all those elements sees it through to completion, either. Without
meaning to sound arrogant, I'm not sure there is, or should be, a way to
fix that.