Contemporary Flight Training, Pilot Schools, & Flight Instruction -- A New Wind Is Blowing
by Bill D. Bell, Ph.D.
(Kansas City, MO (USA))
Contemporary Flight Training, Pilot Schools, & Flight Instruction -- A New Wind Is Blowing
I’ve been involved in flight education and professional pilot training for over twenty-five years.
During this time, I’ve observed thousands of eager, well-motivated individuals begin the pursuit of a professional aviation career only to end up frustrated and deeply in debt.
The sum total of their accomplishment has been the collection of a handful of “generic” flight ratings.
Over 90% of these folks were unable to secure a professional pilot position because they lacked the needed knowledge, understanding, and skills required of the professional pilot.
You only have to look at contemporary flight training to understand the reasons for their failure and disappointment.
In the last thirty years, even the Federal Aviation Administration has added to the “problem.”
Releasing to the general public their question pool for all ratings and certifications, the FAA has fostered the development of an entire test prep industry purporting to “aid” pilots with their education and flight training.
And so, for about twenty U.S. dollars any would-be pilot can purchase all of the various questions and answers to be found on any “written” (i.e., computer) exam given by the FAA.
This takes me back to my high school days.
Not even there were we given all of the questions and answers for the various tests we took.
If we had, I’m sure someone would have labeled that cheating rather than education.
When later serving as an assistant professor in the largest college-based aviation program in the U.S., I observed the classroom experience to be oriented primarily toward “passing the test” rather than building a knowledge base to ensure pilot flexibility and, thereby, aviation safety.
What about flight instructors?
Surely these people are “taking up the slack” and giving folks the knowledge, understanding, and flight skills necessary to successfully accomplish their professional goals. Or are they?
Keep in mind that there are no standardized teaching techniques specified for use by flight instructors in the U.S.
Show me 100 CFIs, for instance, and I’ll show you dozens of different ways to “teach” the same flight maneuver.
With emphasis placed on the minimal performance of the “Practical Test Standards” rather than standardized or approved teaching techniques, the concern for QUALITY of pilot performance is rarely seen.
In fact, the word quality doesn’t even appear in the FARs.(Federal Aviation Regulations)
Neither is it found in discussions related to the Practical Test Standards!
But, aren’t flight instructors trained professionals who are skilled at bringing about quality performance from their students?
Trained?
Perhaps, but rarely educated to do so.
I doubt that many of you reading these thoughts would seriously consider undergoing brain surgery from a neurosurgeon who had simply read a book, took a test, and discussed the “theory” of brain surgery with their peers.
To receive a Certified Flight Instructor Certificate today, a commercial pilot has only to take a couple of test prep exams, fly the private and commercial maneuvers from the right seat, discuss the “theory” of flight training with an FAA representative, and take a short check ride with the same individual.
No CFI candidate is required to have a single hour of supervised practice teaching in a real-time classroom with real students or in a real airplane with real students!
So how professional or effective can someone be who has absolutely no REAL experience in the art of teaching or flight training prior to dealing with a professional pilot candidate?
Looks kind of ridiculous to me.
So what does all this mean to the thousands of folks considering flight training and hoping to obtain well-paid, professional aviation careers?
Simply this.
As long as the field of aviation education and flight training (or flight schools in general) remains as presently structured--even with the “technological cleverness” of online courses and DVD presentations by “universities” whose physical doors you will never see--the chances of achieving a successful aviation career are GRIM!
If your only choice remains the quick-and-dirty (and overly priced) route proposed by the “pilot mills” and “license factories” that dot our coasts and hinterlands, then you only have about a 5% chance of successfully attaining your goals.
But even their “successful” career pilots find themselves about $80,000 in debt while earning an average income of $18 - $25,000.
Sounds like a lose-lose situation, doesn’t it?
So, how can YOU win this game?
To do so, you have to learn to say the word “NO!”
And you’ll have to develop a new appreciation for the word “CHANGE!”
The contemporary situation I’ve described above has been with us now for about sixty years.
You don’t think it’s going to change over night, do you?
Let me tell you a little bit about what we at the ATU Village are doing to help YOU in YOUR quest for quality, affordable flight training.
Tribal elders frequently remark, “It takes a village to educate a child.” This is just as true today when it comes to restructuring the aviation training community.
Rather than relying upon any given individual (or agency) to improve a much-degraded field, a host of like-minded professionals are needed.
What’s required are serious, dedicated people who will say “no” to the slipshod education and flight training approach used today.
These folks can found everywhere--both in professional aviation and without.
These range from the frustrated (but dedicated) flight instructor to the airline pilot “forced” to accept an inadequately trained First Officer.
And don’t forget the serious flight student who values not only their safety but their potential career success as well.
After all, “average pilots” pose a greater threat to aviation safety than do those professionally educated and trained.
Don’t believe this?
If you reference the NTSB statistics on the subject, you’ll note that we haven’t seen a significant change in the accident picture for either general or professional aviation in the last 20 years!
ATU was designed to be a focal point for quality education and training in the aviation community—throughout the world!
By joining ATU, you speed along the “winds of change.”
If you’re a flight instructor, we can help you upgrade your teaching and flight training skills.
We can provide you with dozens of students who will come to you with more knowledge and understanding than most pilots presently flying.
We can provide you with tools, online and personal support (24/7), financial incentives, and business opportunities to enable you to establish your own training venue if you wish—and all with a QUALITY focus in mind.
IT’S TIME TO JOIN THE VILLAGE!
If you’re a student considering a career in professional aviation, we will provide you with a real flight education in REAL TIME and at a cost unmatched by any other training facility on the planet!
We can monitor your flight training at all stages of your work—even through your Airline Transport Pilot Rating, if you like.
We can track in real time every flight lesson and cross country flight you make regardless of where you live (we can even monitor your altitude variations as you fly).
We can determine problems or difficulties you may be having and help you and your flight instructor correct these quickly.
We can provide you with financial incentives and business opportunities to enable you to easily pay for your flight training without taking out a huge loan.
You can call us 24/7 for information, assistance, and support!
IT’S TIME TO JOIN THE VILLAGE!
ATU is an institution of like-minded, aviation professionals who will not accept marginal performance at any level in this dynamic field.
We are an institution that makes student success possible even when time and money are difficult to manage.
Try to find a commitment like that in the “pilot mills” and “license factories” of our day!
Rather than try to buy or borrow your way to success in such settings, we offer you everything you will need to EARN your success at a pace consistent with your energy, motivation, and goals.
IT’S TIME TO JOIN THE VILLAGE!
In Thomas Wolfe’s novel, You Can’t Go Home Again, progress or “change” was likened to the meanderings a drunken beggar on horseback.
In closing, let me quote his words as I feel he speaks eloquently to ATU’s (and hopefully, your) mission to positively restructure contemporary flight training, pilot schools, and flight instruction.
“And great Goethe, accepting the inevitable truth that human growth does not proceed in a straight line to its goal, had compared the development and progress of mankind to the reelings of a drunken beggar on horseback.
What was important, perhaps, was not that the beggar was drunk and reeling, but that he was mounted on his horse, and, however unsteadily, was going somewhere.”
