Flight Training System Is "Desperately Out Of Date"

By ANN Contributer Bob Miller, CFII, ATP

Long time readers of Over the Airwaves know that I have been beating the drums loudly for years about general aviation's dirty little secret that AOPA, EAA and a host of other industry organizations have been trying hide under the carpet.

Bob Miller

Guess what. This dirty little secret is now out in the open for everybody in our industry to see - even our big membership organizations that have been pandering to their membership rather addressing the one problem that is literally (and I mean literally) killing general aviation.
 
The good news is, this is about to change! Thanks to the efforts of my friend, Doug Stewart and his colleagues in the recently formed Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE), the people and organizations that really count heard, first hand, from some of the top flight educators in the world that the one reason why general aviation is in a downward spiral is because of our unrelenting fatal accident rate.
 
In addition, they heard that the number one reason why we cannot seem to fix this problem is because of inherent weaknesses within our flight training industry. In other words, our 65 year old way of teaching people to fly is desperately out of date. Unless resolved in the near future, general aviation, as we know it today, could become extinct. Yes, my reader friends, GA's dirty little secret is out and the sooner our big membership organizations acknowledge this, the sooner we can begin to fix it.
 
SAFE hits the mark
 
Last week an intrepid group of experienced flight instructors comprising the recently formed SAFE organization convened a national "invitation only" symposium in Atlanta, GA to find ways to protect the future of general aviation.

Participants in this gathering included some of the biggest players in general aviation including senior and master flight instructors, designated pilot examiners, aircraft manufacturers, equipment suppliers, university-based flight schools, and the highest levels of the FAA.
 
This was, in fact, the official start to a multi-year process of broad reform that has not been attempted since the Civilian Pilot Training Program more than seventy years ago.
 
I was privileged to attend this symposium, but not without a great deal of reluctance on my part. Having attended nearly every similar AOPA and EAA conclave ever hosted over the past several decades, I had frankly grown weary of the habitual flag waving, self-adulation, and open denial that general aviation is an inherently hazardous activity. I simply refused to attend another expo where participants were coddled to like delegates to a national political convention.
 
But Doug Stewart, SAFE chair, publicly shamed me into attending. He said, in effect, I needed to get off of my self-constructed pedestal and become part of the solution rather than firing rounds over the bows of other organizations that were actually doing something about the problem.
 
"Well," I said to myself, "that's a challenge I cannot refuse." So I boarded my T-210 and winged my way to Atlanta for what I still believed to be a royal waste of time - secretly hoping that the basis of my initial reluctance would have been proven correct.
 
I was wrong!
 
Upon arrival to the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport Crown Plaza, it quickly became apparent to me that this would be a working rather than a celebratory session. The pre-symposium printed materials outlined over 16 hours of upcoming panel discussions and break-out study groups.

I was assigned to the study group examining flight training standards along with a notable group of other aviation educators including senior members of the FAA (ASF-600).
 
Then the gloves came off. Participants in my study group drove quickly to the heart of our chronic fatal accident rate. We examined everything from initial flight instructor qualification to recertification. Other study groups examined safety, industry growth, doctrine, and curriculum. The interaction between participants was electric. Ideas and solutions flowed from these groups at warp speed. I could scarcely keep up with what I was hearing.
 
All the while this was going on, I wondered where the chiefs of our other major industry leaders including AOPA, EAA, the Air Safety Foundation (ASF), and the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) were. As prime stakeholders in the future of general aviation and the recipients of literally millions of dollars of membership revenues that were paying their $400,000 to $1.5 million salaries and benefits packages, they should have been here to participate in this landmark process.
 
Well, the FAA administrator, Randy Babbitt along with the heads of AFS-800 and AFS-600, CEOs of aviation insurers, major industry suppliers, and the aviation media were there. They apparently had enough control over their lives to spend a couple of days drilling deep into the most serious challenges facing general aviation. Also joining us in this symposium were representatives from 46 flight schools, 42 aviation/trade associations, 20 university aviation programs, fourteen courseware providers, eleven OEMs, and five insurance companies.
 
Time to re-direct our membership dues and donations
 
Clearly times are changing. The old guard led by AOPA, EAA, ASF, and NAFI, have clearly failed to recognize the seriousness of our unrelenting fatal accident rate and the damage it is doing to the future of general aviation. These legacy organizations are comprised of good people, but they've grown fat, their overheads are huge, and their ideas have, frankly, grown stale.

Thus, our continued support of the status quo with our membership fees and donations is doing little other than perpetuating the past.
 
Instead, let's take these precious dollars and actively and openly support SAFE. In turn, SAFE will use these dollars to continue working with those individuals and organizations that can make a difference. Let's give SAFE the resources that, in turn, will go into translating identified solutions into new aviation circulars (ACs), aviation handbooks, revised practical test standards (PTSs) and, where required, revised and streamlined regulations.
 
SAFE has proven itself to be the organization to support because it is the only GA entity that has no vested interests other than improved safety and reforming flight training. There are no huge executive salaries or massive overheads to support. Instead, SAFE is truly a representative group of pilots comprised of some of the best flight training minds on the globe who, unlike our big membership organizations, are NOT living in the past or supporting the status quo.
 
In summary, I was initially wrong in doubting the efficacy of SAFE and the role it could play in bringing about reform. I admitted my error in thinking and immediately picked up the ball and began playing with them.
 
It's time our big legacy membership organizations either join the effort - or face an ever-declining role in the future of general aviation.

FMI: www.safepilots.org