GAMA and other Alphabet Groups Are Not the Answer…

I had a short email exchange with a big wig at one of the alphabet aviation groups the other day. This particular group has been holding meetings and doing studies for some time on how to “save general aviaton.” Their slant has been to make aviaton more palatable for the high income spender. In other words, they should buy airplanes instead of boats and vacation homes.  I was pretty pumped up after soloing a teenage student of mine through the Kentucky Institute of Aerospace Education. It is described below. Go to http://www.kiae.org to get more info. Here is my rant to the guy from the alphabet group:

There are hundreds and maybe thousands of young people hungry to fly that are willing to work hard for it. I think this is the answer, but I don’t think GAMA or AOPA would go in for this sort of thing. All instruction is donated and all our aircraft are built by the kids. No sales for GAMA or even membership dues for AOPA or EAA – yet…

The kids in our program also work with NASA and various universities. Our program is the only one extant in the country. We are state-wide and currently have twelve high schools on board with many already building their own aircraft. By next fall, we will have twenty four schools in Kentucky in our fold.

 These kids are the answer to GAMA’s AOPA’s and EAA’s question — not selling 400k airplanes to old lawyers. Here is my post on face book:

 Congratulations to my student Jacob on his first solo today! He is the first out of our high school program to solo as well. Check out KIAE.org. (kentucky institute of aerospace education) I donate my time there to teach these great kids. All kids who do the work all four years graduate with enough training to possibly qualify them for an A&P license and a Private Pilot Certificate.

You Cessna and Cirrus and Pipers and GAMAs… want to promote aviation? Want it to have a future? This is how you do it.

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Yeah, I know the industry and GAMA and the rest would not be interested in this. With an average of twenty students per school and twenty four schools we will have a minimum of 480 students in Kentucky next year alone so I’m not sure we are operating in a microcosm. We are just using a different model. The pro-bono work I’ve done with these students has given me referrals for enough full-price paying students to create more than enough revenue for me to live on if I wanted to.

We don’t exactly give away our instruction either. These kids work four full years in the hangar, building aircraft, learning welding, engine overhaul, etc and take a heavy classroom load before they are allowed to fly airplanes they themselves built “for free”. This is by no means a charity. Also, we are tied-in with various universities who are eager to get our students — and their tuition money — into their programs.

We have just looked at it backwards from you and GAMA. We see students as students — not profit centers. Once they become pilots at age 17 or 18 they will become customers for you guys for life. Also, as they get older, we hope they donate large sums of tax-deductible money to our organization to help out the next crop of students. Our model keeps us well-funded and growing while commercial flight schools chase the remaining fifty year old plus CPAs and people who are bored with golf.

 CFIs at commercial schools don’t get treated as serfs because nobody respects them; they get paid so little because they work in a flawed system. My kids work for every hour they fly and I fly for free because I am paying back gentlemen who helped me almost four decades ago and made my airline career possible. Next year, with the funding in the pipeline, we plan to hire a director of flight ops (maybe me, but probably not) and hire instructors. By next year, we will have the money to pay our operations guy and pay our CFIs well above what the “industry” boys are paying. Our instructors (in all honesty, we will begin with one) will draw a salary, so their pay isn’t dependent on how many hours they can milk out of a student.

Think of it — our system could possibly be graduating over 2,000 brand-new licensed private pilot / A&P mechanics nation-wide a year. They will graduate with full academic credentials to attend any kind of college they want – not just aviation schools. All the KIAE work is extra and isn’t on the high school class list. Imagine all the lawyers, doctors, CPAs and the like who will first think of themselves as pilots because of their high school experience.

 The student who soloed today is a great example. He just got his Eagle Scout last summer, will finish up his A&P by May, his Private Pilot rating by June and will attend North Dakota on a full ride next fall. He intends to be a Coast Guard Helicopter Pilot.

My student’s dad wants to and can afford to buy an airplane if he catches the flying bug. His son will no doubt own quite a few aircraft during his career — there is your payoff for GAMA and the boys. Everybody has been talking about the problem, (and talking and talking) but I personally think we are finally doing something about it by getting kids back across that locked airport fence and onto the ramp where they belong.

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