Greg’s take on how to improve the student pilot dropout rate
“The PilotCast crew banters around ideas with respected author and CFI Greg Brown, to discover ways to bring the sense of adventure back into flight training.
“From building a sense of community for new students, to rethinking the flight training curriculum, CFI pay, and becoming a pep-talk-giver yourself, no topics are off limits in this exciting episode.”
Play or download Greg’s interview here (via playback bar at bottom of PilotCast page).
Many thanks to PilotCast‘s Tiffany, Kent, and Bill, for inviting me to join this worthy discussion!
©2011 Gregory N. Brown
For more guidance on this topic, see Greg’s book, The Savvy Flight Instructor 2nd Edition.
I’m a brand new pilot and I should say that I %100 agree with Greg in every aspect. It’s all about fun and enjoying the flight.
Thank you Greg for being such a wonderful person and encouraging all new pilots, you helped me with my early stages and it gave me a support feeling while I was still student pilot.
Regards,
Patrick
Thank you for those very kind words, Patrick. It’s meeting great people like you that makes this worth doing! BTW, I’ve added a blogroll link from this site to your terrific blog describing your road to becoming a pilot. Great stuff!
Just finished listening to this episode of the PilotCast and thought the topic was excellent. In order to give a supporting example I thought I would share my story.
I am a private pilot with about 80 hours. I fly intermittently for pleasure and have no desire to fly professionally. I am 34 years old and am blessed with a good income as an IT professional which allows me to fly as I please.
It took me 4 years to finish my private pilot and as I look back it was not due to lack of funds, lack of time or commitment. It was solely the poor instruction, flight schools and that lack of adventure. I wanted to fly for the adventure and enjoyment in a safe and professional manner. I do not want to claw out hours to become a commercial pilot. I wanted be respected as a customer and not treated as someone who is trying to join a poorly run fraternity.
As I look back I realize I could have taken my checkride much earlier and been just fine, but poor instructors held me back and discouraged me. The only reason I finally finished is pure determination and bullheadedness. My final instructor was actually quite poor, I just ignored most of what he said and flew the best I could. I was actually stunned when I passed my checkride with flying colors and given compliments by my examiner.
Now I look toward my IFR ticket with a more experienced eye. I am buying my own plane so I do not have to put up with poor quality aircraft at the flight school. I will interview flight instructors before going up with them and look to fellow pilots for insight into their reputation. Most importantly I will fly in a manner I enjoy and which is challenging to me, not what is dictated by a poorly written syllabus.
Please continue the conversation of educating the flying community on how to make better flight instruction and flight schools, it is desperately needed. No one expects flying instruction to be cheap, but they do deserve for the instruction to meet their needs and be rewarding.
Thanks and keep up the good work. On a final note, ordered the book off of Amazon, looking forward to reading and sharing your experiences with others.
Mike