Thirty years ago, after wasting an inordinate amount of time and money at a series of local flight schools, I moved more than 1,000 miles away in my quest to become a professional pilot. In less time than I had already invested in getting my private pilot certificate, and for an amount of money that was fairly accurately quoted, I earned a series of certificates and ratings that put me on the road to where I am today.
Yay me.
A co-worker of mine recently added a rating in a similar manner. Although there are flight training providers near him, he chose to travel half-way across the country to work with a specific provider that has an excellent reputation for helping their customers achieve his exact goal. And they did.
Yay him.
When one is preparing to part with a significant quantity of cash in an effort to obtain a thing — and it doesn’t really matter what that thing is — the smart consumer will seek out high quality in products and services. An area where, I’m sorry to say, flight training doesn’t excel.
Industry wide the numbers are disturbing. While the market has grown across the globe, and with the advantage of hopeful foreign flight students flocking to American providers to earn their credentials, as many as 80% of flight students don’t achieve their goal. They quit. They leave the airport, go home, and don’t come back.
That’s not just a scenario that describes a crushed dream. It’s a scenario that describes providers offering erratic levels of customer service. Erratic enough that few flight schools even conduct exit interviews with students to find out what they found enjoyable about their training, what they found challenging, and why they terminated their training without achieving their original goal.
Every time a student walks away from the training facility dissatisfied — and with an 80% drop-out rate we have to acknowledge that happens more often than not — the provider is losing a customer forever. Not for the day, or the short-term, or until next Spring. They’ve lost that customer for good. It is very likely aviation has lost a potentially valuable asset too.
If aviation is really going to fulfill its promise, if the industry is going to train the crews that are needed to fill the seats that will pilot the aircraft of today and tomorrow, if we ever hope to serve our customers as they need to be treated in order to be successful, we’ve got to make a change.
We’ve got to learn a thing or two about how to run our flight training programs better. Because just as we tell our students that getting better is their goal, they’re telling us in a fairly emphatic way that flight training providers have to learn that same lesson.
Better is better.
If aviation is really going to fulfill its promise, if the industry is going to train the crews that are needed to fill the seats that will pilot the aircraft of today and tomorrow, we’ve got to make a change.”
Regardless of the endeavor, it’s unlikely that any of us will become the premier provider of any product or service by accident or random chance. If we want to be good, we’re going to have to work at it.
In recent years I’ve spent a great deal of time working on this specific issue, as well as several closely associated problems. Of course, I don’t work alone. Not by a long shot. There are four other ambassadors associated with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s You Can Fly initiative, as well as a slew of folks back at headquarters who work just as hard to find solutions to vexing problems. All talented folks. All dedicated to a similar goal.
I’m happy to say we’re making real progress. These are invigorating times.
We began our efforts with the now famous AOPA Rusty Pilot program, which has helped bring more than 6,000 pilots back to active status. That’s a big number, but it’s a first step, not the end game.
This September I’ll be part of a team that will present a first of its kind Customer Service Exellence Course at AOPA HQ in Frederick, Maryland. It’s my hope, and the hope of many others, that this will be a big first step in pushing that embarrassingly bad 80% drop-out rate down to a far less debilitating number.
This isn’t a finger-wagging, “you’re doing it wrong,” kind of a course. Not by a long shot. Scolding isn’t going to get anyone anywhere. Rather, it’s a step by step program that allows providers to see and understand methods of improving customer service in ways that are pertinent to their particular operation.
Believe me when I tell you, we’ve really got something. This could be a game-changer.
When a student walks away from a flight school, not only do they give up on their dream to fly, they take thousands of dollars off the flight school’s countertop, never to return it. Imagine what it could mean to even a small flight school to retain as few as two students a year. Two students who would have quit, but instead persevere and succeed. Two students who pay for their full fight training experience, not just the first dozen hours or so.
The student wins, the flight school wins, and aviation wins. Because better is better. Always.
If you want to know more, write me. I’ll fill you in. Or call AOPA’s main phone number and ask to talk to someone about the new Customer Service Excellence Course developed by the You Can Fly Academy. And, of course you can always just walk up and ask a You Can Fly team member during the upcoming fly-in scheduled for May 10-11, 2019, at KFDK.
There’s hope. There’s help. There’s a new, better day out there just over the horizon. Let’s go make it happen, shall we?
Here’s one main reason for the high drop-out rate: General aviation wants to sell more airplanes. In order to do this, GA needs more pilots. In order to make more pilots, GA needs to convince and otherwise persuade the population at large that becoming a pilot is not that difficult and that practically anyone can do it.
Could you imagine what would happen if the American Medical Association tried this approach with making more doctors?! Harvard University, at one time in the not so distant past, eliminated their entrance exams for law school, and permitted anyone to enroll. Their idea was simply, “We’ll gladly take your money and watch you flunk out before the second semester.” Which is what happened.
The original point of my first comment was exactly this: Part 141, Part 61, independent CFI or college level instruction, NOT EVERYONE CAN BE A PILOT. It is a unique skill set that requires an above average intelligence, natural intuitiveness, critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, spatial awareness, math, physics, discipline, a demanding physical ability for eye hand coordination, plenty of common sense (which is not so common), and the ability to master one’s nervous system to overcome panic and remain calm under pressure.
Try selling Pipers, Cessnas and Cirrus airplanes with that disclaimer!
Don’t blame the schools or colleges. The private schools are tasked with producing a profit for their owners and will take any student who can fog a mirror and pay; and the public schools and colleges cannot turn anyone away. All the ingredients for a high drop-out rate given all the hype that “Anyone can become a pilot.”
Art … and even if you HAD all those uncommon traits and skillsets, there’s another issue. Who the heck can afford OR justify $200K for an entry level new airplane filled with all the bells and whistles that the younger generation demand? A few always do but the preponderance of the population cannot. Good used reasonable airplanes are getting expensive and hard to find.
If you move up one rung on the ladder for an airplane that is moderately capable, the new Piper 100i is nearly $300K with tax. And a new fully capable C182 … fuhgetaboutit. Electric airplanes are never going to make a dent anytime soon. They MIGHT help some during flight training but not to entice people to take up aviation either as a vocation or avocation.
In the heyday of GA in the 1970’s, there were hoardes of former military pilots looking to fly, other military with VA benefits available to them for training, tax benefits from buying an airplane as an investment, a different mentality of the society and more reasonable costs of entry as a result. My 1975 C172M Skyhawk II cost just over $20K new. Contrast that with the cost of one today … even in the shadow of liability reform legislation in the 90’s. At a military aero club in 1971, the C150 I flew cost me $9/hr wet and the instructor was $5/hr. After I got my private, I used VA benefits to get a bevy of additional ratings. Total cost to me … about $2K. Nuff said.
THIS is why when you go to airshows and other aviation events, the participants look like they’ve all been given a pass at the retirement center. ONLY the pull of high paying jobs in the airlines are pulling younger folks into aviation. Were it not for that … GA wouldn’t be on life support, it’d be in the morgue. Reality is reality … no matter how you paint it.
Larry, I could not agree more.
Too many schools (of all kinds) regard students simply as meat for the grinder. Colleges and universities take pride in saying one third of the people who sign on will not make it. What kind of a business will be successful when it is run like this? Would you fly on an airline that boasts that one third of its flights end in a crash? How about seeing a surgeon who proudly announces that one third of his patients will die?
According to this metric (a third of our students are not worthy and we expect them to fail), flight schools and flight training are doing very well indeed. What’s this “one third” nonsense, you guys are amateurs, WE get rid of four fifths of our students!
The schools have to be invested in their students’ success as much as the student is. Most schools are not, they keep the money win, lose or draw. They count on a never-ending stream of warm, cash-bearing bodies to stay in business (they don’t even care if the body isn’t warm, as long as it is bearing cash).
Suppose we did this – all the money goes into a third-party escrow account and the school gets paid ONLY when the student graduates? THEN you’ll see some customer retention efforts! And the school doesn’t give the checkrides, either, we aren’t promoting on attendance.
Dear Miami Mike,
My public college is in the business of providing opportunities. We have no unusual or stringent entrance requirements other than a high school diploma. However, our state and federal funding does depend on enrollment and completions. We are already compensated for graduating our students and receive much less when they don’t graduate. I just got back from giving a live FAAST seminar on “Loss of Control”. This of course is uncompensated. The real heroes at the public colleges are the tireless and rarely thanked professors and instructors who do really care about our students. We spend thousands of dollars each school year out of our own pockets (non-reimbursed) to help our students, and countless hours which are never compensated.
We are never proud to claim low success rates, just the opposite. But I believe your reply proved my point.
enough said.
A college professor in Miami
As Chief Ground Instructor of a very large college I am inundated with parents bringing in their high school seniors and college freshmen who think they might want to be an airline pilot because they’ve heard of the demand and good pay (for now). A question I frequently get is, “Do I have to know math?” Some of these prospects are on academic hold for having less than a 2.0 GPA. I am under pressure from above to “admit” these students and let them fail. The second component is the incompetence and apathy of the newly minted CFIs who are just building time. This is a serious recipe for poor results all around. I generally see a 50% washout rate from general prospects for Private Pilot, followed by an 80% dropout of that remaining 50%, leaving 10% succeeding as professional pilots. Some people just aren’t cut out to be aviators, period.
Valid points being made on this one. Just pondering if 80% of the younger national civvie instructor corps are more ‘me oriented’ (watch that Hobbs scroll to rack up time for ATP’ work) than getting that student professionally trained First. FAA failed to get a handle on instructor candidate triage and standardized training well over 70 years ago….thinking that this impacted on general aviation safety…negatively, and as stated not all CFI are the right stuff. Am clearly just sayin’ ?
I hope AOPA does a better job with the flight schools than they did with me as a registered student pilot in their student pilot progress program (2012).They accepted my membership, set me up on their student pilot program and then completely and absolutely dropped the ball. I was committed to becoming a pilot, so I did complete my training with a very good and enthusiastic instructor. Had my decision to move forward been based on AOPA follow through, I would have been one of the 80%. Take a good look in the mirror AOPA and everyone will win!!! By the way, I do appreciate all those areas in which you support GA.
I learned to fly over 40 years ago And retired as a commercial pilot at age 75,I have always thought that some people had no business flying.I taught several pilots advanced flying but refused to get an instructors rating as I thought I would have encouraged many students to find another vocation.I still know a few pilots that I will not fly with
Another facet of what Doug is saying is maybe these people found that flying is not for them. It can be expensive to learn and maintain flying skills and so they may find out that they are not that interested.
80% does seem high, but if there were to be a study conducted on why it is so high, we may not be surprised at the results.
Spot on, Roland. I will add that it might be the dropouts remain interested but simply cannot afford it. Gee, $10,000 for a private license, IF you can find a decent instructor. Then maintain the proficiency at $130 hr, or buy an airplane new for $300, 000 ( a Cub no less), or settle for a torn-up 50 y.o. plane that costs more to bring current than it will ever be worth. Unless your first name is Dr. or you own your own SUCCESSFUL business, you’re just S.O.L.
Our industry is in trouble due to costs, IMO, more than lack of interest.
The initiatives are wonderful. But I agree with Roland, Allan, and Doug. I think the 80% dropout rate is due to the natural appeal of flying which attracts many people but then they run into family, job, or other realities, like finding out it isn’t as simple as getting a driver’s license. The question is whether the flying dropout rate is worse than in other endeavors comparable in time and cost. I doubt it.
Not everyone can be a pilot. I learned that while working on my own private pilot. I had a friend that also was in training. He was struggling more than I was and was very disgruntled with the instructor and wanted to quit. I tried to help and encourage him. It worked to some extent. He did get his license but had so many difficulties. He finally did quit flying but after buying a plane and spending a large amount of money. It was hard on him mentally and physically. If I had stayed out of it he and his family would have been better off.
Some of the 80% of people that quit pilot training are a natural selection process. I don’t feel I’m a better person than my friend. I feel like he wasn’t meant to be a pilot. Through my own disappointment for my friend, I came to realize my own error. I think the instructors were very aware of this and were trying too let him down easy.
Well put. “We tend to excel at those endeavors for which we have a genuine passion.” The student too many times is the only one bringing the passion to the exchange.