Student Drop-Out Rates...why?

In another thread, we have been hashing out whether some pilots in training
quit flying because of a hair-raising event, such as a brush with disaster,
or getting lost.

Few ex-students seem to admit that this was a reason for quitting, but the
drop-out rate seems to be far higher than it should be, and we all need to
do our level best to get more people into flight training. The World War II
and Korean War era pilots are dropping like flies, and formerly bustling
airports, especially in the vast reaches of the MidWest and Western states,
are turning into ghost fields.

We need more pilots, pronto, or we won't have anywhere to land in 20 years!
No municipality is going to pay to keep an airport open that is used by
fewer and fewer pilots every year -- and I can't blame them.

Off the top of my head I can think of three reasons (other than being scared
out of the cockpit) for the continuing drop-out conundrum:

1. CFI shuffling - You just get comfortable with an instructor, and off to
the regionals they go, leaving you to start all over with a new CFI...
2. Airport "snobbery" -- You walk into an FBO, prepared to spend thousands,
and you feel like an alien being on a strange world.
3. No Syllabus -- Too many CFIs work off the seat of their pants, without a
formal lesson plan. This drove me nuts, when I was getting my ticket.

You'll notice I've not mentioned the Number One reason people mention for
quitting: Money. We've beaten the relative cost of flying to death, and (for
the purposes of this thread) I will just leave it at this: Learning to fly
is about as expensive as a semester of college, and less expensive than
buying a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Let's leave "cost" out of this, for
now, as I think it's safe to say that there a millions of Americans who
could easily afford to learn to fly, if the urge were to strike.

That aside, can you name some other reasons for the abysmal drop-out rate of
student pilots? What can we do to make flying more accessible to those
who dream of piloting an aircraft?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
In another thread, we have been hashing out whether some pilots in training
quit flying because of a hair-raising event, such as a brush with disaster,
or getting lost.



Add job and family pressures that that list. I pretty much had to quit
flying back in 1986 due to a horrendous work/school schedule that
lasted for years. I finally got to where I could afford the time again
and the company set me up for a job transfer that kept me going in a
holding pattern for over a year.

Got married in 1997 and the wife wants us to be able to fly, but
combining taking care of her disability needs, corralling our 4 year
old, working up to 100 hour work weeks and lastly trying to get our
final aircraft project home, has put time way up on the rareity scale.
Fortunately when the last aircraft gets home, the need to work as much
overtime goes away and the luxury of a few free hours a week returns.

That aside, can you name some other reasons for the abysmal drop-out rate of
student pilots? What can we do to make flying more accessible to those
who dream of piloting an aircraft?

I'll think about it later on, but for now, ask the same question of any
other activity. For example, ham radio, motorcycling, boating, fishing,
hiking, parachuting, community theater, choir...

Granted, flying has a larger PE barrier than most, but there will
probably be a common thread. You can't do everything, and choices have
to be made.

Time is a big factor. This involves sheer quantity of time, and the
necessity for committing significant chunks of time in a world that
makes it difficult. Some activities require time from others as well.
Boating, for example, has a siginificant time impact on the rest of the
family (whether they come or not).

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Well I have had a few close calls that required some manuevering,
however the love of aviation is just so strong for me, it will never go
away.

I let my certificate lapse in the winter due to money constraints, but
flying will always be a part of my life.

I may never own my own plane and be destined to be a life long renter,
but at least I will be flying.

I've heard anecdotaly there are a disproportionate number of dropouts
immediately after soloing, and the suspicion is that for some, the main
goal to conquer is flying alone. Once they do that, they feel 'done',
even if it means that they never fly again, or don't ever get their
ticket.

Ben Hallert
PP-ASEL

Ben Hallert wrote:
I've heard anecdotaly there are a disproportionate number of dropouts
immediately after soloing, and the suspicion is that for some, the main
goal to conquer is flying alone. Once they do that, they feel 'done',
even if it means that they never fly again, or don't ever get their
ticket.

I place the blame squarely upon that one Andy Griffith Show episode.

I've heard anecdotaly there are a disproportionate number of dropouts
immediately after soloing, and the suspicion is that for some, the main
goal to conquer is flying alone. Once they do that, they feel 'done',
even if it means that they never fly again, or don't ever get their
ticket.

That's odd, to me -- the solo flight was never the be-all and end-all. I
remember that flight as if it were yesterday (who doesn't?), and all I could
think of was that the prelude was finally over. *NOW* I could really start
learning to fly.

Perhaps that's something the CFI must learn to teach?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I've seen that happen locally time after time. We've got a rather weak
support system for new students at our airport. We have no full time flight
school, but rather part time CFI's that devote every free moment of their
time to help people learn to fly.

The CFI's lease a couple planes, nothing fancy, and do their best to keep
them flying, we have no FBO.
Scheduling is done online, no FBO services to help the student, only the CFI
and when the CFI is at his/her full time job, the student is left to fend
for himself. The only support available for him is through telephone calls
to the CFI. What I have seen is that prior to solo, the student has a
terrific support system. Every flight is with a CFI, typically there are
other students and pilots around during these times to encourage them. The
student is typically also going to ground school and feels comfortable in
the presence of other novices. After solo, the student feels "lost" or
alone. The student experiences the "cold shoulder" of the experienced
pilots, IF he even sees any other pilots at all, often our airport is
deserted. Everything becomes less predictable, the support fades away, and
it is no longer fun. Other things become more fun and soon their love of
aviation is replaced by something that they may not love as much, but have
more fun doing.

Jim

Jay Honeck wrote:

I've heard anecdotaly there are a disproportionate number of dropouts
immediately after soloing, and the suspicion is that for some, the main
goal to conquer is flying alone. Once they do that, they feel 'done',
even if it means that they never fly again, or don't ever get their
ticket.

That's odd, to me -- the solo flight was never the be-all and end-all. I
remember that flight as if it were yesterday (who doesn't?), and all I
could
think of was that the prelude was finally over. *NOW* I could really
start learning to fly.

Perhaps that's something the CFI must learn to teach?


Hi Jay,

may seem odd to you but you can't measure other people's
responses/reactions by your desires.

I think one reason some people quite is boredom.

Perhaps they had this incredible romantic, awesome, free-as-a-bird notion of
what flying was like, and when faced with the reality, the romance etc
didn't measure up to *their* fantasy.

Or maybe what they dreamt of was aerobatic jet jockeying, and the work to
get there seemed too long once they began.

--
Saville

Replicas of 15th-19th century nautical navigational instruments:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/backstaffhome.html

Restoration of my 82 year old Herreshoff S-Boat sailboat:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/SBOATrestore.htm

Steambending FAQ with photos:

http://home.comcast.net/~saville/Steambend.htm

I don't have any evidence to support this, but I bet there is some
disillusionment involved for many dropouts. They may have been prepared for
the cost, and the learning curve, but for any number of reasons, flying just
isn't what they thought it would be.

In our world today we have enough rules and regulations just in everyday
living to push borderline people over the edge. The amount of responsability,
liability and vulnerability we feel in just driving to work today is daunting.
To complete a pilot certificate and maintain it, one has to volontarily dish
oneself a heaping portion of extra rules, regulations and responsibilities.
For one who imagined flying to be a "free as a bird" sensation, this may be a
hard reality check.

Others, who may have imagined it would be "practical" to use private aviation
in personal or business transportation have to face the fact that there are
few cases where this is realistic. Airplane manufacturers have always used the
argument of how much time you'll save, whilst enjoying the experience and
spending little more than the cost of other transportation, but with the state
of roads and low cost air transportation today there are few cases where this
argument is valid.

People fly for many different reasons - and people take up flying with as many
hopes and expectations. I'll bet more than e few students, after 20 sweaty
hours in a C-152 begin to realize how many years and dollars separate them
from the publicity image of the guy in designer suits climbing leisurely into
his private KingAir at the end of a business day for the relaxing flight home,
and they decide it isn't worth it.

G Faris