Help with survey for Master's thesis

[esjacoby77]

Building an RV-7, while also trying to complete your Master's degree, guarantees that both will take longer than they should. In order to finish the degree, and hopefully start spending more time building, I would like to ask for your help.

As part of the final requirements for my Master of Science in Management degree at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, I am conducting research that will attempt to identify factors that have influenced the decline of the GA pilot population. It is my hope that identifying these factors will help reverse the on-going decline in the number of new pilots certified annually.

The survey should only take 5-10 minutes to complete and it will allow me to collect a portion of the data necessary for my research. In order to participate, you must be at least 18 years old, and be a FAA certified pilot or have serious interest in becoming a pilot. Please be assured that your responses will be completely anonymous.

The survey can be accessed at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TZW7DL8

Thank you for your participation and please feel free to share the survey link with others.

[Frank Giger]

Done, but I think you're missing why the decline in new pilots is happening and hitting on why current pilots are flying less.

My theory has nothing to do with aviation so much as the maturity of the Interstate Highway System.

For big absolutely-have-to-be-there long range travel, commercial air is so fast, dependable and inexpensive that it wins over the Interstate.

But for mid range travel of 200 miles, the Interstate beats the GA aircraft. It's fast, works day and night in almost all but the worst weather, and is inexpensive.

If one was a kid in the 1950's or 1960's, chances are one got to see the Interstate system get built, but it wasn't ingrained into you. Mom and Dad still thought in terms of state highways and county roads. The uncle with an aircraft could always beat the car pre-Interstate. When was the highpoint of GA pilot populations? When those kids grew up and the economics grew with them, but their perception of driving was long trips on what we now think of as secondary roads.

Commercial air has made flying the opposite of sexy or fun, and the public perception of a privately owned aircraft is a Gulfstream V owned by either a corporation or some super wealthy guy. The only time average GA aircraft ever get talked about in the public sphere is when they crash.

When a GA aircraft is in a movie or a TV show, it's invariably some poorly maintained hangar queen that manages to carry our heroes to safety despite all odds....but just as likely to engine-out as an added plot twist.

[dusterpilot]

I believe the 3 main factors leading to reduced flying and the reduced number of people interested or entering into an aviation career are:

#1--Cost: I took my first flight lesson with a $5 discover flying coupon and $5 earned by mowing two lawns. Additional flying lessons (rental aircraft and instructor fees) cost the equivalent of 6 lawn mowings. As a teenager, I could easily pay for one flight lesson each week with money leftover. The cost of learning to fly is unreachable by most young people. Existing pilots fly less because of the high cost. Flying a GA aircraft is rarely an economical alternative to airline travel or travel by private auto, primarily because of the high cost of avgas.

#2--Lack of a viable career path: An individual with a commercial pilots license could make money and build flying time in a variety of ways that are no longer legal today due to greatly increased FAA regulation restricting commercial operations. Once hired by an airline, the pay was great, working hours and conditions were exceptional, and you were treated as a professional, respected by all. Now, a pilot must accumulate a huge debt to qualify for an entry-level airline pilot position that pays less than the pay for pizza delivery boys. When you finally reach an adequate pay level, you're still harassed by TSA on a daily basis as an untrustworthy individual, always subjected to inspection and suspicion, and you must work for years before you can pay off your education and training loans.

#3--Lack of access and awareness: Today's youth have very limited access to airports and aviation in general. EAA and other organizations are doing great things in their youth programs, but very few kids are aware of them unless they know someone in aviation. Sky King and the Whirly Birds are not on daily TV and it's nearly impossible for kids to ride their bike to the airport and talk to pilots and mechanics or touch airplanes.

Bottom line, the cost is too great for the pitiful rewards and FAA regulations hinder aviation's growth.

[Jim Clark]

+1 to Duster Pilots remarks.

[Richard Warner]

I have been flying for 60 years both recreational and as an airline pilot. I also am an A&P with I.A., and in my opinion, the biggest hindrance to growth is that "wonderful" bureaucracy known as the FAA and their gestapo ways. A lot of the old time FAA guys are disgusted with how things are and I know several who are planning early retirement. As one of them said when we were talking about Field Approvals, "we used to be able to look at something and in most cases could approve something right there on the spot". Now, the FAA has a form that must be filled out requesting a Field Approval, make an appointment with an inspector. Show him what you want to do, submit all the paperwork, and then he has to research and maybe get permission from higher ups to approve it. Have you ever seen a bureaucracy that doesn't just love paperwork? There seems to be no common sense from FAA headquarters in Washington at all. And, by the way, I totally agree with Duster Pilot.

[Bob H]

I would agree with DusterPilot on #1 and #3 but not on #2 as I don't think the average GA pilot choses to fly based on a pilot's potential commercial career. There has to be an interest in airplanes and flying as a youth when dreams are formed and may come to life later. Most older pilots built model planes as a kid and never forgot the hope that you might someday become a pilot flying a real one. But I think that desire has been reduced by a different set of youth interests more aligned with electronic games/videos rather than physically creating a model and working with your hands. Couple that with high flying costs and young people just don't have the interest or resources to learn flying.
We fly about 250 Young Eagles every year in an effort to instill a desire to fly. In 5 yrs of doing this, I know of only 2 kids who moved on to take lessons and obtain a license. Wish it were a higher ratio.
Bob H

[Bill]

...

Bottom line, the cost is too great for the pitiful rewards and FAA regulations hinder aviation's growth.

I've been flying for over thirty years. If I were to fly today from here in Arizona to the little bitty airport in Wisconsin where I learned to fly in 1980, I can't see how FAA regulations, by themselves, have made it anymore difficult or expensive to make that flight than in 1980 in a GA aircraft. By the way, there's no fence around that airport. Its just as easy to get into today as it was 34 years ago and even looks the same with allowances for 34 years wear and tear. Its in an area with a population of 1.57 million, not out in the boonies somewhere. Subdivisions everywhere. But the number of airplanes based there is way down and the pilots have aged just as I have.

If you believe flying has "pitiful rewards," then you should take up another hobby. I'm building an experimental because I still love it and its just as much fun to fly as it always was.

[Jim Klick]

Ethan,
I have been flying since 1959. I earned the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award in 2011. As a humorous way
of describing flying, I tell people that it costs exactly the same now as it did then. It still takes all the money
you have.
i have a Commercial Certificate, with Multi-Engine, Instrument and LTA Ratings.
i fly for the pure pleasure of flying, not to make money or achieve fame.

I added all of the ratings to make me a better, safer pilot. I held a CFIA for a while, but did not enjoy the
the things that got between me and the student.

My take on the future of GA is that the retired airline pilots will fly the corporate jets, the Embry Riddles and
UND's will train airline pilots and UAV operators, and anyone wanting to fly for the sheer pleasure of it as a
hobby will be faced with costs and regulations such that only the extremely wealthy or those who live many
miles away from Class B airspace and fly LSA or that type airplanes will be able to.

Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but I think your Masters thesis should take into account all of the factors that
will become significant.

Jim Klick

[Skyhook]

I think I could only add one only needs to compare sectional charts of today and the 1970s for some graphic evidence as to how restrictive regulations have become.

Those of us who flew in the '60s really knew a lot more freedom. Freedom is a huge factor in aviation, IMHO.

[Bill]

I think I could only add one only needs to compare sectional charts of today and the 1970s for some graphic evidence as to how restrictive regulations have become.

Those of us who flew in the '60s really knew a lot more freedom. Freedom is a huge factor in aviation, IMHO.

In Wisconsin, the MOAs were about the same in the 70s as today. We had the Volk and Falls East and West MOAs and the Big Bear MOA just as we do today. There is even a bombing range, the Hardwood Range, that has been around since 1955. The only other MOA is the Minnow MOA, which I never worried about since I never, with a single engine, crossed Lake Michigan. So my flight planning of a route is the same today as it was in 1980. I remember avoiding those MOAs and bombing ranges as a student pilot just as I would today. So I'm as free today as I was then.

Here in Arizona, we have a lot, lot more MOAs, but who wants to run into an A-10, F-16, AV-8B, B-1, or Tornado, etc., especially if they're weapons free. One of the plaques on the wall of a local fighter squadron says, "Every other airplane is a target." Of course, we could ground all military aircraft, if you want.