Flight Training - November 2013 - 8

CENTERLINE

By Adam Smith

RUSTY PILOTS

BRINGING LAPSED PILOTS BACK TO THE SKY

s we seek to grow the pilot population, there’s a fair degree
of discussion about how our industry can bring new pilots
into aviation. This is perfectly appropriate, as we will
always need a good supply of new blood to replace those
who leave flying.
But there’s an adage in business that
it’s much easier to keep a customer you’ve
already got, than it is to acquire a new one.
This is especially true in aviation where
the barrier to entry is high, and only one
in five students complete pilot training.
Once a pilot has been created, we want
him or her to enjoy as long an aviation
lifespan as possible. But this is not something we can take for granted. Qualified
pilots drop out of active flying all the time.
How many times have you met an old
acquaintance and cheerfully asked, “are

multiple national awards for excellence in
flight training, and deservedly so. They’ve
got a superb culture and numerous good
programs, but one called “Rusty Pilots”
really caught my attention.
It’s a Saturday morning seminar
Obviously, some pilots will never return to designed to help lapsed pilots brush up
the sky, but if even a small proportion of
their aviation knowledge, in a supportive
500,000 came back, it would aid our quest group atmosphere. In addition to standard
to grow the pilot population.
refresher course topics, there is a special
So earlier this year AOPA commisemphasis on areas of recent change—
sioned a national survey of several
things such as local airspace changes,
hundred lapsed pilots. We learned a lot
plastic certificates, changes to aircraft regabout why people leave aviation, and our
istration and medical rules, and technology
prospects for bringing them back. One
developments such as the iPad.
piece of information really jumped out:
Lapsed pilots tend to overestimate the
Not a single person had completely given difficulty of getting their flying skills up to
up on flying. More than half of those surscratch. Aviation Adventures has develveyed fully expects to return to aviation,
oped a rule of thumb that, to get current
and confident again, it takes about an hour
of flight instruction for every year away
from flying.
When I met Bob Hepp, the owner of
Aviation Adventures, he provided two
attention-grabbing pieces of information.
First, every one of his Rusty Pilots seminars held since 2011 has sold out to its
capacity of 30. Second, every one of those
participants signed up to start flying again.
Hmmm, interesting!
Part of my job here at AOPA is to look
around at what people are doing in the
aviation community, and share good ideas
when I see them. What Bob Hepp and his
team have developed with Rusty Pilots
is better than good. It’s an excellent program, with potential to help aviation on a
the rest think they might come back, but
national basis.
absolutely no one said, It’s over, I’m done.
AOPA will be working to make this hapThis reinforced the idea that “once a
pen. Check the website (www.rustypilots.
pilot, always a pilot,” but also confirmed
org) for more information about how you
we should be more proactive in reaccould host, or attend, a Rusty Pilots semitivating lapsed pilots. We know they
nar in your local area in 2014.
want to come back, so how to extend the
invitation?
Email Senior Vice President Adam Smith at adam.
It turned out that at least one flight
smith@aopa.org.
school was already way ahead of us.
Learn about the Center to Advance the Pilot
Aviation Adventures in Virginia has won
Community (www.aopa.org/CAPComm).com

TO GET CURRENT AND CONFIDENT AGAIN,
IT TAKES ABOUT AN HOUR OF INSTRUCTION
FOR EVERY YEAR AWAY FROM FLYING.
you still flying?” only for them to stare at
their shoes and mumble something about
needing to get current again.
We did some basic database analysis last year and discovered more than
500,000 lapsed pilots in the United States
under the age of 75. That’s an awful lot of
customers we have allowed to slip out the
backdoor.
This got us wondering about our
chances of reactivating these people.

FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

http://www.rustypilots.org http://www.rustypilots.org http://www.aopa.org/CAPComm http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Flight Training - November 2013

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