Flight Training System Is "Desperately Out Of Date"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of teaching people to fly is desperately out of date.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.