AOPA ASI Blog: Leading Edge

The red-eye trip eastbound across the Atlantic in the back of a Boeing 767 is always a bit tiring. I’m always envious of those who can sleep in coach, which economics always dictates. All of my destinations seem to require an early evening departure, and then one flies on the wrong side of the clock straight through until morning. I suspect it has to do with utilization of the aircraft and economics. How come everything ultimately revolves around economics?

I was on my way to address AOPA Switzerland at their annual safety seminar in Zurich. You’ll hear more about the adventure in the magazine, but I am always reminded that with as many rules and restrictions we have in the U.S., it’s much more challenging elsewhere!

The United cabin crew was very good and helped pass the time while we experienced the miracle of long distance flight. My first flight across the pond was on a Pan Am Boeing 707 in the golden age of aviation. One actually dressed for the occasion, people were civil to each other, and legroom was included in the ticket price. The employees were treated like the professionals they were.

Have coffee or a glass of wine in your shirt sleeves while exceeding 580 knots over the ocean with an outside air temperature of minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s been less than 100 years since Charles Lindbergh first crossed the Atlantic solo in 1927 and that we now do it routinely hundreds of times a month is nothing less than stunning. The airplanes usually make it routine, but as you’ll read in an upcoming landmark accident, this is not a totally benign environment.

I said goodbye to the big Boeing in Zurich which would make the trek back again in about 4 hours. That’s something a seasick passenger in a square rigged ship a little over a century ago could only dream about.

It’s been said, “Never underestimate the public’s ability to be bored with miracles!”  As pilots, we are so fortunate to enjoy them regularly and from an insider’s perspective. Be sure to share aviation with someone this month! Think about how it’s changed your life. Would you do it again? I would!

Join the AOPA Foundation as we share aviation with others. A donation to the Foundation helps fund our initiative to get more folks involved with aviation and in the cockpit.

Seems like ditching in the Hudson River in wintertime has become all the rage. First to the polar bear swim was a US Airways Airbus, flown by Capt. Sullenberger, which suffered a twin engine bird-out.

Recently, GA pilot DeNiece De Priester was flying a new-to-her Cherokee Six down the Hudson corridor when the engine decided to take a powder and—well, there you are. If you’d like to hear her play-by-play, you can see it on AOPA Live. It’s pretty compelling information and her reaction is about to make my next point very clear. Watch the interview below.

A thorough pre-flight safety briefing really is essential. Most of the time it will be irrelevant, and for that once-in-a-lifetime event, we want to make sure it isn’t a last-in-a-lifetime event. Emergencies are funny things—you don’t have them until you’re having them, and they invariably occur at a most inconvenient time. In most cases, there isn’t time for a do-over on the brief.

The Air Safety Institute created a special pre-departure brief seat-pocket card which can be customized to your aircraft. We also created a short video. This was in response to an NTSB recommendation after the Senator Ted Stevens accident in Alaska. A more complete briefing might well have saved several lives. NTSB Board Chair Deborah Hersman was interviewed on AOPA Live last week to discuss the Air Safety Institute’s response.

If you’re a donor, we think you’ll be pleased with the quality of the effort and the NTSB’s response. If you’d like to become a donor, both AOPA Live and Air Safety Institute are funded by your tax-deductible donation. Will you join us? It’s for a very good cause!

I read the other day that we could be facing a shortage of lawyers, and for some, that day can’t come soon enough. The reasons cited were the high cost of law school, the scarcity of well-paying jobs, and the massive student debt loads. It sounds remarkably familiar to a problem facing the aviation industry. Newly college-educated pilots often have six-figure student loans to pay off, but starting salaries in many aviation jobs, not just the regional airlines, pay about as well as those in the rapidly-prepared food business. However, learning how the french fryer works is a bit less daunting than learning how a GPS navigator works or understanding the concept of angle of attack.

Higher education is undergoing a massive upheaval with the advent of MOOCs (who comes up with these acronyms?), Massively Open Online Courses, free to all, that are being offered by some of the top schools. The big lecture hall classes that many of us suffered through are being replaced with web studies that don’t require one to make that gruesome 0800 start. The Internet is smashing the old ways of learning the same way the printing press did centuries ago—much more education at a much lower cost to the masses. Of course, if you want credit then one has to pay but the knowledge portion is free. Also it should be noted that there is considerable intellectual capital and sometimes a lot of expense in fielding a “free” course – so it’s not unreasonable to expect some recompense.

How about a similar model for learning to fly? When the first ground schools were put onto filmstrips and videotape in the 1970s, that was the beginning. Today, students and new pilots have access to a wealth of well-researched and presented online materials. Almost 15 years ago, the Air Safety Institute launched its first online course. Since then the catalog has blossomed to over 30 offerings on various topics and in a variety of formats. While expensive to produce initially, the cost of delivery is a fraction of in-person delivery of the live seminars that ASI also offers. My initial projection was that we might match the annual live seminar attendance at about 43,000 per year. The numbers were an order of magnitude higher. The live safety seminars are still being offered, but the cost per head to deliver first class training to the masses clearly has shifted to the web.

Let’s face it, many CFIs are not especially good at teaching the academics of aviation. They may have just learned the basics themselves and are in a hurry to get into the aircraft. They also desperately need to build up flight time, assuming they are looking to fly something bigger. Perhaps it’s time to think about getting them out of classrooms and extensive one-on-one briefings, and into the cockpit for that apprenticeship experience they need. The large ground school classes and one-on-one training sessions so revered by those of us who learned that way are expensive and perhaps not universally effective. The cost of higher education, vocational training, and learning to fly can be cut significantly with well-executed MOOCs and modestly priced courses.

However, and this is an important point, not everything can or should be taught by the MOOC. There are some things that really do require some human give and take. Also, not everyone learns effectively via computer, so your mileage may vary. We still need great instructors to fill in the academic holes, and until there is complete envelope protection, the aircraft will still be teaching lessons the hard way without CFI intervention. What do you think?

The Air Safety Institute is able to bring our online curriculum to you through the generous donations of pilot donors. Our online products reach several hundred thousand pilots each year, but we aim to do better. And we can with your support. A donation to the AOPA Foundation helps to keep the courses reaching the general aviation community everywhere. Consider supporting the AOPA Foundation today.