Young Eagles Successes Give Rise To New EAA Program... "Old Buzzards"

04.01.06 'Special' Edition: Building on well over a decade of success with their innovative Young eagles program, EAA has decided to start yet another initiative designed to bring thousands of new pilots into the world of aviation.

"Young Eagles has been a wonderful program," noted EAA President Tom Poberezny. "We've achieved phenomenal successes and brought the joy of aviation to well over a million young people all over the world. That's a great result."

While the successes of the program are clear, the actual payoff for the aviation community is often delayed for several decades as the erstwhile Young Eagle matures to an age and financial position that would allow them to pursue aviation, if they so desire.

"We wanted to target a more immediate and financially empowered demographic," explained EAA's Dick Knapinski.

Knapinski continued, "With the advent of the Sport Pilot regs and the lack of a specific requirement for a medical certificate for new pilots coming into the fold, we hit upon a truly outstanding way to grow our ranks from a demographic that can take advantage of the new regs right now and would be bringing some significant financial power to seek their dreams of leaning to fly and buy their own airplanes... in other words, folks either in or near retirement age. They've got the money, they've got the time, and so many of them have the dream... and with the lessened medical requirements of the Sport Pilot program, there's little to keep them out of the sky so long as they can still hold a driver's license. The payoff for the industry is a whole new crop of possible aviators who can partake in the dream... right now!"

Tying into the successful identity of the Young Eagles program, EAA has christened the new program, "Old Buzzards."

"It's not like we don't have a sense of humor," explained Poberezny when ANN first reacted to the name... who said that the Old Buzzards will closely parallel the Young Eagles program in empowering EAA members and chapter s all over the country to seek out elder aero-hopefuls and give them their first flying lesson. We fully expect to see a major jump in training and sales activity within months of the start of this program."

FMI: www.eaa.org/oldbuzzards