“I’ve done everything I’ve been asked to do. I didn’t understand it, but I’ve done it. And I haven’t once asked what’s in it for me,” rants Ray Kinsella while standing in what was once a corn field on the Field of Dreams.
Shoeless Joe Jackson replies, “What are you saying, Ray?”
“I’m saying, what’s in it for me?” Ray blusters.
This is one of the great moments of lightness and humor in a classic novel and movie that initially appears to be about baseball, but in truth is about something else entirely — something far more emotionally relevant than America’s pastime.
It happens more often than you think. The thing that appears to be about one thing is actually about something else.
Case in point: I was perusing the Mission and Vision statements of the Experimental Aircraft Association recently. I do that sort of thing from time to time.
This most recent peek made it clear to me that a theme exists in that organization, one that might not be apparent to those who haven’t read the documentation.
There are plenty of positive, uplifting terms included in the text like “growing” and “promoting” and “inviting the public.” There is also a brief line that speaks to me in a clear, strong voice: “Inspiring new participants in aviation.”
Much of my time is spent in pursuit of this exact goal. That is true of many of my peers as well.
Many of us have recognized that getting into aviation isn’t an easy process. It should be, but it isn’t. More often than not, the barrier to entry is perceived to be financial, when it is, in fact, mostly about ignorance.
Thankfully, ignorance is a relatively easy problem to fix.
In much of America, it is somewhat difficult to get on to the grounds of an airport. Even small local airports are surrounded by steel fencing topped with barbed wire. Signs with bold type positioned every 100 feet warn intruders to stay out.
That doesn’t do anything to make the place more welcoming.
The lucky ones find a hole in the fence. An entry point.
Although a percentage of those folks never venture inside, perhaps concerned that this road into the airport grounds isn’t meant for them. So, they stay on the outside. Curious, interested, wishing for entry, but lacking the confidence and insight that would allow them to wander in for a look around.
Imagine the power of an open invitation in a situation like this.
Fortunately, nearly 1,000 independent EAA chapters exist today, each with its own variation on the mission and vision the EAA has published on its website.
Many of these chapters have taken it upon themselves to interpret the vision literally, making great efforts to bring young people into aviation through educational programs, mentoring opportunities, and networking that allows them to find a role in aviation that most appeals to them.
EAA’s Young Eagles program manager, David Leiting, describes the push for young people to get into aviation as the crown jewel of the EAA’s efforts.
This trend is one I can get on board with enthusiastically. The most obvious and, for many years, most ignored method of expanding the number of people involved in aviation is to focus on young people. High schoolers, for instance. They’re old enough to drive, or nearly so. They’re beginning to put some thought into their adult career and, in many cases, they have an inordinate amount of unstructured free time.
I sit on the board of directors at two high school flying clubs. Both are focused on the restoration of aircraft, maintenance, and creating opportunities for kids to fly. It’s Mike Rowe’s vision being put into practice. Open the door, welcome them in, and watch them become better, more capable people. It works.
Recently I spoke with a couple EAA members in Las Vegas who have a strong desire to establish a youth program in their chapter. That excites me. Because it only takes one motivated person to start. Two people can share the load. As the number of mentors grows, the likelihood of success is enhanced.
EAA Chapter 534 in Leesburg, Florida, has made great strides toward running a successful youth program. They have multiple build projects under way.
EAA Chapter 1240 in Sebring, Florida, has such a strong program the countywide school system adopted the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) aviation STEM curriculum for all its high schools. It has also partnered with the chapter to allow the students to make use of the chapter hangar two days a week to build kit aircraft.
In each case the chapter gains new members. The students learn by doing. Pilots and mechanics are created in the process. This isn’t a dream, it’s the reality of the situation. Getting kids involved solves far more problems that it creates.
I can’t think of a more appropriate dovetailing of the EAA mission and vision with the undeniable need to educate and train the next generation of Americans headed for the job market.
Of course, not everyone so enthusiastically embraces the idea of kids in the hangar or in the airplane. There is a bit of the Ray Kinsella rant out there from rabble rousers who prefer to foment dissent. Their battle cry is familiar: What’s in it for me?
That saddens me.
I just ran into a small group who were vocal on this point. They want to focus their organization’s efforts on older folks and limit access to kids. This, in a place where the growth and prosperity of the organization is a direct result of the success of the youth program.
Maybe I’m an old, cranky, mean-spirited dude, but if your reason for getting into an aviation organization of any type is rooted in the desire to keep others out, I’m pretty sure you’re doing life wrong.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed.”
That’s a sentence worth committing to heart. It’s also worth doing something to ensure those privileges remain in the public sphere.
Be a gateway to a brighter future for others, not a barrier to opportunity. That’s not a good look for anyone.
General aviation, like so much of America, has become a grumpy “us-versus-them” attitude towards the rest of society. So, no wonder the general public doesn’t stand up for GA at all. Remember, it’s NOT just YOUR sky — it’s everyone’s. And, for a long time, there’s been precious little true benefit for most of the public from increasingly inward-focused general aviation (traditional industry P.R. hype and B.S. notwithstanding),
When was the last time you offered a stranger a ride? I do it a lot, but just get ridiculed and chastised for sharing. Darned few of my colleagues share my enthusiasm for… SHARING. So is it any wonder that the public doesn’t feel like protecting OUR way of life, but rather wants to use the sky for PUBLIC purposes, like airliners, military jets, and drones — and elbow us out of the way? Just as we have elbowed them aside?
It’s NOT just OUR tax dollars funding airports, airways, navaids (including satellites), necessary regulators (for PUBLIC safety), and even the education system and national R&D that makes aviation possible in the first place. The general public, one way or another, pays plenty into that system, at every level — federal, state and local.
Yet we too often think of general aviation as strictly “personal aviation,” for ourselves, and our own family and clique. Nothing sickens me more than hearing how most personal aviators got into flying… through family connections. How many times must we read about some aviator who got his start in flying because of “his [aviator] dad.”
Those are connections that the VAST majority of today’s youth have no access to, thanks to our selfish, self-absorbed, self-serving lifestyle, hoarding our inherited good fortune and opportunities to ourselves (and to our own family or social circle), while our wider community is filled with kids who — but for an accident of birth (usually into poverty) — are just as deserving of that free ride into the wild blue future, but left out.
Do you wonder why you can never get the community to speak up for general aviation, to protect our access to airspace, to preserve our airports, to embrace us? It’s because WE don’t embrace THEM. What goes around, comes around.
The next time you gripe about what the public has done to general aviation, maybe YOU should ask: “What’s in it for THEM?” The reality, for most, is simply not a darn thing, unless you reach out with a generous and humble spirit. Try giving them a real reason to be on your side.
It ain’t cheap, and it ain’t easy, and it requires real (often fruitless) committed effort. But that’s a fair price to pay, for keeping our lifestyle tolerated and supported by the public, with whom we must SHARE our/their treasured America, sky and all.
……………..
The situation is generally better at private airports compared to government-owned, where the priorities are often primarily preservation and expansion of government jobs and funneling overpriced airport “improvements” that do very little to lower the barrier of entry to new pilots or lower the cost to existing. Just this week I was in a Zoom call with an RV-7 builder/owner in southern Germany, where I used to live. He said US airspace is paradise for a pilot like him compared to his country, however the cost of hangars in the US is much higher than in Germany. But in Germany most sport aviators are in a club that owns it own airfield which often include hangars, maintenance operations, a restaurant and clubhouse, camp grounds, playgrounds for kids and even on occasion a swimming pool. Aviation families will spend part of their vacations on the airfield. Clubs offer many different activities to keep costs down. The older members teach the youngest how to build and fly model airplanes. Then the teenagers learn to fly gliders and ultralights before eventually moving up to larger piston aircraft. As members enter their senior years and fly less, they often become mentors to the youngest, as grandparents often do. I once belonged to such as club near Lakes Constance, Germany. It was a like an extended family and was very affordable. Many such airports also include a small cafe open on weekends, with outdoor dining areas so the public can watch the planes and often get their first experiences meeting pilots this way. Such club communities are rare in the US. I fault our usual bloated, over-regulated government for driving sport aviation away from government airports.
While discussing gates — what about the gatekeepers? I bring up the exorbitant fees being charged by DPEs …
I’ve been in GA for almost 50 years now. I will say that the beginning for me was quite inauspicious. I joined the local chapter of CAP and discovered that they were much more interested in marching around and pushing paper than flying airplanes – except for a small clique who actually got to fly the Cherokee. In a year, I accumulated exactly half an hour of yoke time. I figured that at that rate, I’d need probably 100 years to accumulate enough hours to take a checkride. I walked away from CAP, hopefully they are a tad more supportive these days.
I persisted in my aviation mania, and eventually bought my first airplane. The local FBO prohibited anyone from doing anything at “their” airport, including fueling their own aircraft (I had the autogas STC from EAA). They had the support of the city as well, because some of the local politicians had an interest in the FBO. A call to the FSDO changed their attitude very thoroughly (and made me quite unpopular with them, but I didn’t care).
A few years later, someone wanted to open a flight school at that airport, and the local FBO tried to prevent it, even though the new guy wasn’t even offering the same services they were. They called a meeting with the airport advisor board and their lawyer claimed they shouldn’t be allowed to open because “they might fail”.
I said “This is America, you have the right to fail, and you also have the right to succeed.” He got his city license, they kicked me off the airport advisory board.
I tried to build hangars at that airport for almost 20 years, they kept putting me off with excuses, wait for the next election, we’re not ready now, there’s nobody to process your application, blah blah blah. I finally left town and moved to a different airport.
If I was not a very persistent person, I would long ago have given up on aviation and taken up surfing instead.
Pogo got it right, we have met the enemy and they are us.
A church once had a group of people who complained about the children in church to the pastor the pastor replied I guess we should start preaching more funerals
This is a good article. Not many non airline airports can you walk around leisurely. I guess they think your going to steal an aircraft. Things have gotten locked up.