March 10
Many of us have long remarked that a family in aviation makes it two generations, and the third winds up as art students.
But there’s a whole new layer of complexities for the next generation of pilots. There are no entry level jobs to speak of, other than instructing. Night freight? Gone, because nobody flies canceled checks anymore. Corporate/charter? Those jobs are often taken by retired airline guys who have too many ex-wives, boats, airplanes, and other terrible choices to support with their 401k alone. The pool of applicants with 15,000+ hours makes applying with a wet commercial ticket to most flying jobs a joke.
Heck, you can’t even pump gas at the local FBO to build a network, as self serve pumps have wiped out that great aviation entry-level job.
Solutions? I got none. Just a bit of awareness that we are our own worst enemies at times. We keep sawing the bottom rungs off the ladder of progression as aviators and at the same time, we cry all the time about a shortage of pilots.
March 10
Captain Garrison,
After a 40 year career in aviation I made a personal commitment to devote as much time as possible to promote aviation. Sharing the love of flight is a wonderful experience for myself as well as the individuals that ride in my airplane. The manager of our home airport was surprised to find that every employee at the FBO had gone for a ride in my Cessna. Nearly all of them have an interest in aviation so I continue to “push the button” and feed the fire…
Yukonav8r
March 10
Don’t forget all of the TSA nonsense as well. How many big airports still have an observation area? At my home big airport the “ in the terminal” observation area was closed long ago and there is no outdoor observation area. Most of the small GA airports I have visited are almost ghost towns with little to no activity.
1 reply
March 10
I fly with a number of FOs who say they got their start with a Young Eagle flight and I remain committed to doing as many as possible. But the airport is the domain of old men in cargo shorts and just a fraction actually fly. Their airplane might be out of annual for many years or they fear the expense or lack of mechanics if something breaks so they keep it on the ground. But we need airports where a kid can ride a mini bike or do something else that might attract their friends and it doesn’t have to be related to airplanes at all. It needs to be social so that their friends all progress together when the flying bug hits. They won’t fall in love with a clapped out 172 on the ramp, they’ll fall in love with the place that gave them freedom unavailable anywhere else.
March 10
One other factor is that for many of today’s 20 year olds, flying 12 times a year is normal. (They will lecture you on green issues, while ignoring the two litres of Jet A a second, per engine each flight uses… but there you go.)
Many fly from airports where they never see the outside of an aeroplane, and for them the flight has all the magic of a crowded sub-way ride – window blinds down to make looking at the screen easier.
Difficult to get any enthusiasm from the experience.
March 10
▶ pilotmww
With regards to the security theater: AVweb had an article in 2019 that pointed this out. It showed how a prison was more welcoming than the local airport.
AVweb : You’re Not Welcome Here.
March 10
Having been hanging around airports since 1963 and working full time in aviation since 1966, I was once the kid hanging on the fence dreaming about a life in aviation. I have been so lucky that in my time in aviation I have introduced to so many wonderful people throughout the World with my flying. Friendships that still are good as gold today. I have not seen a group of people who help you as much as my fellow aviators have helped me. Now we forward to todays problems. No fence to hang on anymore, no fellow pilots hanging out at the airport lounge, you can not walk along the T hangars without escort, and the list goes on. Entry level jobs, like it has been said, they have been replaced by automation. Pay is another factor. You have a mountain of debt, but not enough income to live on and pay back your debt. Then add to the fact you must deal with the “new FAA” and rulings passed down. Both of my kids, grew up at the airport as I did, but they too took so much for granted. Just hop in a plane, fly for about and hour and we had several major baseball and football teams to enjoy. An 1.5 hour flight, and we had some of the best ski conditions in the mid west. All we had to do was head to the airport and hop in a plane. I have had the pleasure of seeing about 2/3 of the world in my flying time, but my kids did not get the bug. I look back at this and I see myself in their shoes, hanging around my Dad’s auto shop as well as my Uncle’s auto shop. The last thing I wanted to do was make a living working on cars. Aviation has been great for me, and I wish others could enjoy the aviation life like I have had the pleasure of doing. Sad, but those days are gone.
March 10
Paradigm shift.
All younger people today were **born **into modern technology - with all the speed, ease and collapsing of time and space that entails, and aren’t afforded the luxury of memories of good-old-days of physical effort and its unique personal reward.
There will always be outliers, but my view is that individual fulfillment results have profoundly changed from effort to entertainment, in nearly all aspects of life. Consider the usual suspects in aviation demanded of one to succeed and it’s a non-starter entertainment and a tech-assisted ease of effort for income wins nearly every time.
March 10
Great article, Kevin and point well taken.
As a Boomer I sometimes wonder if the reason our progeny may be more risk averse than us is because we generally gave our kids less freedom growing up than what our parents trusted us with - and why was that?
March 10
Long ago I ended up on a local bus that got me from LHR to LGW, eventually.
Two boys were on it, excitedly talking about what they saw while plane-spotting at Heathrow. Perhaps they became pilots.
I have the impression that viewing areas are being eliminated, for space and security.
Joining air cadets or such groups would be good I expect. There is a troop at YYJ.
March 11
Keep sharing the excitement of flying, and some kids will get the bug. Thanks for the article, and the great platform.
March 11
I hate to admit it, but, I think you’re right Kevin. I’ve seen this behavior acted out in other scenarios. The more of anything that is given, especially free advice regardless of how helpful and true it may be, the more people push it away. The more that is given, the more the push back. Very strange indeed, however, it is what it is.
March 11
I grew up in a small mountain town where the local airport had a pilot shack that sported a few rickety chairs, a worn out couch with cushions that didn’t, and a real life pot belly stove with the obligatory, always full coffee pot on top.
Even snot-nosed kids like me were welcome to sit around the fire and participate in the inevitable “there I was at 20,000 feet” tall tales. I learned as much about flying in those bull sessions, as I did in formal training. And many of those tips saved my bacon numerous times in a more than 60 year aviation career.
That’s the kind of nurturing environment that we’re missing and need to get back to.
1 reply
March 11
▶ Papamac
Cafes at small airports like Langley BC may provide some listening.
A bonus at Langley has been a good small aviation museum, but it plans to move as it cannot expand. (I don’t know whether the barrier is airport owner or price of land of neighbouring businesses to eliminate. It is owned by Langley Township, which is akin to a Regional District in BC or a County in WA state, thus by a bureaucracy.)
1 reply
March 11
▶ RationalityKeith
I got my start as a WWII enthusiast flying the skies over Germany, rescuing damsels in distress, or downed pilots. I lived near an old airport that is long gone now, and the runway is now Isle 15 at SAMS. We used to play on that airport as kids and explored all the banks beside the runway for artifacts. The airport was closed when we were there, so no planes were coming or going. Was used as a US Mail drop and pickup. There was no fence, no guard, no gate.
Later after my military life which didn’t give me the flying experience I was seeking, glasses stopped that. I went to a local airport that was a class C operation. There are daily flights a main terminal a military C-130 unit and private aviation including a couple of flight schools. I would go out on the ramp at the general aviation side and just sit and watch planes coming and going. They had a couple of Bell 47’s that caught my interest but found out they were state surplus and not ready for sale and were in bad shape. I finally met an older gentleman that allowed me to ride with him one morning as he just flew because. I came from that incident to the flight school that was based there and made friends with them and soon began my flight training. My buddy I was working with had been in the Army as well and he was interested in flying so we both started. Both of us would just sit at the airport and after buying a portable radio with the frequencies we started learning more and more and after about a year we both had out private ratings in SEL.
After this I began flying to my in-laws in an outlying airport. Soon the flight school owner became the FBO for this airport and I began working for him. Did a lot of flying with him and learned from the folks that came here. After a couple of years this guy gave up the FBO and the county hired me as the manager, which I did for 6 years. We had an observation area just beside the ramp. If I saw anyone wondering around, I tried to make conversation and see if I could answer any questions they may have. Several did get into flight training because of this, and I have memories of these contacts.
I moved on due to political reasons from this job to another and with a growing family wasn’t able to continue flying.
I would visit the airport occasionally, but never really stopping for long. Several people there would be generous and allow me to take a ride, but no flying myself. After 911, I sort of stopped going there as they started fencing and gating the entrances to the airport and after a while it became locked down. This is a small county airport that mostly catered to the local industry there for it’s beginning. Now it’s still ran by the county, and I’m too old to make a stab at much of anything aviation related other than talking about it. Medical problems plaque me to where a medical won’t happen. But those days of watching people learn to fly, buy their own plane, go places and just enjoy flying. Everybody enjoyed flying. It was a great time, and like I say, the place is pretty well locked down, although they did build a new terminal building, it does have an observation area that allows spectators to view what’s going on at the airport, but is still locked down, and hardly any aircraft there. There is an aeromedical helicopter based there, which does draw curiosity, but the times I’ve been there, none of the crews are there unless they are departing or arriving and gaining access is still locked. When people see a fence, that generally means no trespassing, so interest is null and void.
1 reply
March 12
▶ Butch_Rogers
I enjoyed your writing. Yes, things have changed and I can’t say for the good. Yes, I am old too. I have seen a lot and I remember many good times like yours.
March 14
I’ve long felt that the EAA Young Eagles program – however well intentioned – is doing little more than offering ‘E-ticket rides’ to kids with no subsequent expectation or requirements involved. For over 30 years, pilots have provided hundreds of thousands of flights burning uncountable gallons of fuel in the hope that aviation might ‘stick’ with a few of them. Viewed from a cost / reward angle, I feel the program is a failure. The odds of a YE ride resulting in an aviation career are SO low that I don’t understand why it continues in its present format. In my own experience, only one girl subsequently became a flight attendant (10 years later when she couldn’t find employment using the education she earned). For this reason, I no longer participate in Rides Day events. MY time is more valuable to me than gambling it on kids who have to be coached into even saying, “Thanks.” SO, Kevin, your premise here is valid IMHO.
Before ya’ll ‘jump’ me, you should know that when a kid who finds out that I fly ASKS me if I’d take them for a ride, I always provide it if I can. Before the ride, I require a 30-45 minute coaching session on what makes an airplane fly and so on. It ends in a challenge to learn a few things before they get a second ride as a reward for some expectation I place upon them. In other words, active participation … again, as you espouse, Kevin. That’s the difference.
Even assuming a young ‘prospect’ develops an active interest in aviation, the extreme uphill climb these days is SO formidable that it’s surprising to me that anyone takes it all the way. Over 50 years ago, a near new $7,500 C150 cost me $9 / hr and an instructor $5/hr … how the heck can today’s inflated economy make the cost that low relative. In the end, the real barrier – beyond the FAA BS quotient – is cost.
As a member of two EAA Chapters – one being a very large group – I look around at meetings and it appears as if someone let the residents of an assisted living facility out for the evening. Finding a young person is a rare event. I hold little hope for GA once all of us with gray or no hair are gone. I think most of us here are very lucky to have been around during the heydays of GA; all we can do now is commiserate the future while we spin out wheels. Oh well, automated airliners will save the day.
