It comes as no surprise to anyone involved in the aviation industry that cost is a factor when it comes to bringing new blood into our ranks.
Learning to fly isn’t cheap. It doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive either, but let’s face it, flight time is generally perceived as being out of reach for the average Joe or Jill on the street.
The key word there is “perceived.” What we believe to be true isn’t always what actually is true, and there are few industries more misunderstood than aviation.
Then again, there is arguably no social group more maligned or misunderstood than the younger generation we’re hoping to attract.
You have to love the delicious contradiction of this conundrum.
The people we want to bring into aviation think flying is out of reach because of cost.
At the same time many of us who are in the position to shepherd them through the maze that separates them from a future in aviation think so poorly of those young folks we throw up our hands and quit before we even start.
There’s something interesting going on here. Thankfully, it’s something we can fix easily and cheaply if we care to.
You and I can have an effect. That’s pretty much all we could ever hope for anyway. So let’s take a whack at it.
Working with kids has never been easy, but it is essential. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting older. Every year there’s a little less hair on my head, a little more gray in my beard, and a few more wrinkles in a face that was once taut and supple. I sometimes forget things, too.
The kids I work with, and yes, they’re kids, they’re not really young adults, even if they have reached an age when the law says they qualify for that term. They’re kids. Often shy, rarely well informed, and generally so ignorant of the basics of life they don’t understand how to even set achievable goals for themselves, let alone plot out a method for accomplishing them.
That’s not true of all young people, of course. There are undoubtedly a minority of future powerhouses of industry and commerce hiding behind the glowing screen of their telephones.
But for a generation that was largely raised to have sky-high self-confidence without actually doing anything to earn it, there are inherent challenges when introducing goals that can only be reached through significant effort and occasional sacrifice.
Couple those obstacles with the equally common issue of kids who grow up in families where exotic concepts like setting professional goals and establishing a workable financial plan are as foreign as the moons of Neptune, and you’ve got a condition custom built to create a pilot shortage.
By the way, you know there is a pilot shortage, right? There is. It’s real. It’s here.
Fortunately, the solution to these issues is inexpensive, it requires no special tools or equipment, and it can be accomplished by almost anyone. It is this: Mentoring.
You, dear reader, know more about the cost of flying and have more creative ideas about financing than most kids today can even imagine. And you can share that knowledge one-on-one to great effect.
Similarly, you and a whole slew of other pilots can provide real insight into how this new wave of potential general aviation participants can get involved, stay involved, and succeed in this industry.
For a kid who has never made a choice more profound than whether they’d rather take English Comp in the morning or the afternoon, it can be a real challenge to pick a flight school, select a CFI to work with, decide which books or online courses to use, and allot the time required to get some real value from that training dollar.
You can help with that. Even if you’re a low-time private pilot who doesn’t feel as if you’re particularly knowledgable, you are. On the great sliding scale of life, you are. You’re at least one step ahead, and that’s enough to get started.
Each of us who works or plays in general aviation has an awareness of the certification process that newbies haven’t gathered yet. We can share that knowledge, making them more aware and making ourselves feel useful in the process.
Most of us who spend time at the airport have a handle on how to finance flight training, or the purchase of an aircraft, and the ancillary costs associated with flight — like hangars and maintenance and insurance. We can shed light on those mysterious items for the folks coming in the door behind us.
Yes, there is a pilot shortage and a looming lack of qualified mechanics, too. But there is also a fairly large pool of people standing outside the airport fence who would like to get in and get involved — they just don’t know how to do it. We can help with that. You can help with that. And it can be done in three simple steps.
- Meet with someone who is thinking aviation might be in their future.
- Answer their questions while sharing your own experiences.
- Repeat.
Now that doesn’t seem so hard, does it? Imagine if just 10% of us actually did that. That would equate to tens of thousands of pilots taking a personal interest in the success of tens of thousands of student pilots — and a whole new future would be the result.
Could I interest you in a cup of coffee with a Millennial? All things considered, that might be a very, very good idea.
Hi Scott; I. SEE your dose of REALITY was a little to much for the “idealist” to handle?
I have been working with “kids” on two fronts. First, as a Type 1 diabetic. Two, to introduce them to aviation. It is a gas to do both because as a T1 they see a person who is a pilot and is flying. And as for the second the kids ask the best questions. It only takes you and your time to do this and let me ask a question. Has aviation been good to you….how about being good to aviation!
https://www.facebook.com/wingmastersaviationllc
I have a 14 year old grandson who started his first true flight training 1 week after his birthday. Old grandpa is supporting this interest and the instructor is giving lessons in my plane with my fuel and I couldn’t be more excited.
I have been regularly flying children of all ages for several years and if any of them approach me as they mature about flying I would do the same for them.
Consider yourself a Superhero, Robert. I do!
It *can* be done . . .
You need to rent an older C150, fly off a rural grass strip, and find an instructor who isn’t trying to build hours for an airline job. I’ve guided numerous people this way, most of them are able to get their ASEL licenses for this side of $5,000. I had one who did it for $3,000 – and that was retail at a grass strip in California, which is not generally noted for low cost of living.
You can always get the same license flying a shiny new glass cockpit airplane with all the whistles and bells at a full service FBO on a major metropolitan airport, but it will cost you a LOT more.
Remember, WE know these things, but people who are just starting out won’t – and when they get quoted $15,000 and up for a pilot’s license, they’ll take up surfing instead.
I love your enthusiasm, but for an awful lot of us career pilots, we ask: why? I’m extremely lucky to be a military and major airline pilot, from a family of military and major airline pilots. I’ve had a great career, the pay (finally after 30+ years) is great, I’ve been to cool places, but it is getting tougher every year. None of us want our kids in this profession, none. I encounter the occasional professional pilot who has kids in training, but those kids really wanted it, it wasn’t something their pilot dad pushed them toward.
I can see helping kids get into recreational flying, but it really is a hobby that takes a lot of resources and increasingly so. People of modest means don’t fly for a hobby, so I’d only be helping relatively well off people into a fairly expensive hobby. Or I’d be giving free rides to kids, which is fun, but let’s just call it that.
If the idea is to inspire a new crop of kids for the commercial aviation industry, what are you thinking? The industry has become a grinder for young pilots, pushing them through pilot puppy mills, and paying them less than minimum wage, while working them 20+ days per month and every holiday. The trend for the past 20+ years has been less pay, more days away, less predictable schedules, more rules and automation, less actual flying. There is no mechanism for turning that trend around, the Railway Labor Act all but insures the airlines will continue to keep it this way. A pilot shortage will increase automation and hours for pilots. In the short term kids will get hiring bonuses while the airlines are short of pilots. That will almost certainly be gone by the time a kid goes through 6-8 years of training to get there, and a 40+ year career is dubious at best with the relentless march of automation technology. Kids know this.
Sorry to rain on your pleasant article about the wonders of flying for young people, but this is the reality many of us pilots are living with and telling young people about. Young people read the blogs and posts of military and airline pilots, and that is real for them. They read about automation in cars and drones and future airliners, and that is real for them, that is the world they need to plan for. If they show up for a ride, they might get excited about flying, but the next thing they will do is read all those posts and blogs and articles. Without the draw of a glamorous and lucrative career, all I can offer a kid is a very expensive and challenging hobby. So why?
Scott; I’m genuinely sorry to learn you’re so down on your chosen profession. Yours is a legitimate gripe. If you dislike what you do that can certainly make one’s working life fairly dismal. But I caution you to avoid the assumption that your dissatisfaction is universally felt, or that commercial aviation is the only professional route for a pilot to take – or even that being a professional pilot is the point. That’s not the case for many, many pilots.
Keep in mind, the title of this publication is: General Aviation News. General aviation is a huge industry unto itself, filled with student pilots, recreational pilots, businessmen and women who fly to and from appointments and sales calls, cross-country travelers, and angels with wings who willingly help others while bearing the cost for providing that help.
One of those pilots was a student of mine years ago. Today he flies mission trips into Central and South America, bringing his kids along and carving out a life in which he finds real satisfaction. Other former students are simply recreational pilots. Some went on to careers in the cockpit, and some fell by the wayside and gave up flying when life got in the way. None of that suggests learning to fly was a waste of their time. Far from it.
As this article states right up front, flying is expensive, but it doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. At the same time it can be life-affirming, awe-inspiring, and tremendously gratifying on a personal and professional level.
I’m glad your career has been something you value. I hope one day you will recognize that others feel similarly about their journey into and through the industry. Remember, we don’t all have the same goals you do. My own career in aviation has been remarkable. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It hasn’t always been lucrative, but it has never been a disappointment. Had it been, I would have found something else to fill my time with. Life is too short to spend it doing something we dislike just because we thought there was a big bag of money with our name on it, hanging out there in the ether somewhere.
I hope you find some joy in your life. I truly do.
Sorry if I come off negative about my job or aviation, I’m truly blessed to be where I am, as is my family. I’m flying the Dreamliner, international, love the plane the job and the pay. I’m a positive person, health nut, and have a super supportive wife I love. My brother is flying 737 domestic, and it is tough on him, I can see it wearing him down, and his family as well. His pay is good as a captain, but the toll is significant. The majority of professional pilots don’t have it as good as him, the career is tough. That is why I’m down on the profession, not because I don’t have a great job, but because so many pilots don’t, and won’t.
It would be hard for me to believe that new pilots aren’t influenced to learn to fly, especially young people, by the potential of turning the investment into a good career. We are still seeing older people learn to fly, almost 50% of Americans in flight schools are over 40, instructors call them “bucket list” students. It is the young people who have stopped coming, and I wonder if it is partly because there isn’t an attractive career for them to aspire to?
According to Table 12 of the FAA’s 2016 Active Civil Airmen Statistics – link – 101,349 of the estimated 128,501 people who hold a student certificate were age 16-39. My calculator tells me 78+% of student pilots – as of 2016 data – are younger than 40.