{"id":3507,"date":"2022-11-16T08:10:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T13:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/?p=3507"},"modified":"2022-11-10T08:11:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T13:11:00","slug":"pilot-certificates-are-not-participation-trophies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/?p=3507","title":{"rendered":"Pilot Certificates are Not Participation Trophies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Every generation seems to think the next generation doesn\u2019t work as hard, isn\u2019t as talented, or doesn\u2019t have the same motivation that their generation did when they were younger. I don\u2019t think that has been any different in aviation training historically.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are certainly things that younger pilots know and do better than generations before. There are probably skills and knowledge that older generations of pilots had or developed that new generations don\u2019t, or don\u2019t even need. But one thing that I can say is that from a metrics standpoint, it certainly seems that we are headed the wrong way in pilot skill and knowledge right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

A statistic was recently shared with us
\nthat indicates that in the past approximately
\n6-months, it appears first-time pass rates on
\nprivate pilot airplane single-engine land
\npractical tests are hovering somewhere
\nin the 50-60% range.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Take this to heart, please. It means that nearly half of our pilot applicants are failing their first attempts at a private pilot certificate.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is bad. I don\u2019t know how to say it any other way.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am not going to say that it is entirely the fault of the students. It isn\u2019t just that somehow the younger generation sucks or that they aren\u2019t capable. I am also not saying that no training providers care. There are some very dedicated and professional leaders at many training programs working hard to counteract these trends. But they are fighting an uphill battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hold us as an entire industry responsible. We need to hold the standards for our training and not send them to attempt practical tests until they are truly ready.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some factors have come together in our industry that have resulted in VERY active hiring, high turnover of CFIs at flight training providers, and a lack of selective hiring when we \u201cneed to fill jobs with a warm body that can at least do the job\u201d even if they aren\u2019t candidates that really meet our highest of expectations. This has resulted in what I affectionately refer to as \u201cwarm body hiring.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I have no doubt that the current trend is having a negative impacts currently and will continue to do so in the future. One example is that if we look at reduced pass rates, we need more retests. In 2021 we did a little over 21,000 private pilot certificates in this country. If half of these fail on a first attempt, we need 11,000 more retests. This takes valuable DPE resources away from testing applicants who might actually be prepared and pass on a first try. This is but one administrative complication of what is happening. It says nothing about the potential that comes from a lack of base skill development for safety in the long run in our aviation industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a DPE, I can\u2019t help but feel like too many flight training operations have transitioned from a process of \u201ctraining to meet and\/or exceed a standard and happen to meet experience requirements along the way,\u201d to a \u201ctrain to meet experience requirements, and hope they happen to meet training standards.\u201d This is a subtle difference in language, but it is a significant difference in fundamental approach to training.<\/span><\/p>\n

Talking with many DPEs around the country, the sentiment seems to be that many times insructors are \u201cthrowing a student at a practical test and hoping they will pass.\u201d The logic is if they don\u2019t, they can just retrain a few items and get them the certificate anyway. For so many reasons this seems to be the wrong thing to do in my mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is significant pull being felt from the airline environment on the CFIs to \u201cget their time as fast as possible\u201d so they can come work for them. This is creating an ethos in the CFI cadre who is providing the bulk of the training in this country that getting hours is more important than providing the students best training service. As those students become CFIs anxious to get to the airlines, the cycle will continue. Most of us who are actively engaged with daily training operations have seen this. We feel it. We are concerned.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pushing lots of pilots through our training systems to meet airline hiring needs can be great as long as it is done without degrading safety and with a focus on true learning. Cutting corners or rushing people through who aren\u2019t really ready doesn\u2019t help us all in the long run.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting a pilot certificate or rating comes with a great deal of responsibility. It isn\u2019t just a \u201ctest until you happen to get it right and pass\u201d learning experience. We need our pilots to have built base skills, knowledge, and risk management awareness. Our system depends on these base skills being built in a way that they will support future learning and service in the aviation transportation industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning to be a pilot and then building the additional skills and experience to become a professional pilot isn\u2019t something that is just a checkbox. It shouldn\u2019t be something that you just get if you have spent enough on training or \u201chappened to fly all the required experience events.\u201d\u00a0 We need our pilots to really meet and exceed the standards in full that the FAA and the aviation industry have set forth and collaborated on for each and every certificate and rating level along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

To put it bluntly, pilot certificates and ratings aren\u2019t participation trophies.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every generation seems to think the next generation doesn\u2019t work as hard, isn\u2019t as talented, or doesn\u2019t have the same motivation that their generation did when they were younger. I don\u2019t think that has been any different in aviation training … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3509,"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3507\/revisions\/3509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonblair.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}