Day one yesterday of the International Flight School Operators Conference kicked off in Orlando, Fl at the Rosen Plaza Hotel with the largest number of exhibitors and registered attendees ever. The 14th annual conference again is bringing together agencies, flight training providers, and businesses involved in the process of flight training.

"A uniquely valuable opportunity for flight training providers to come together and meet with industry stakeholders," FSANA CEO Bob Rockmaker continued, "this conference has become the most prominent opportunity to share ideas, best practices, and resources in the flight training business community."

The first session focused on a briefing from federal agencies and was then followed by breakout sessions in which attendees had an opportunity to select topics that were most related to their interests or operations. Covering topics that ranged from handling emergencies in flight training operations to working with contracts and agreements, what is happening with FAA 141 program management and operations, how to manage growth, working with airport sponsors and management, and what current conditions in the aircraft insurance markets are that affect flight training operations.

These breakout sessions are a critical part of each year's conference's ability to provide a variety of topics that help the conference best serve to share information with attendees.

A specific discussion of concerns related to ADA compliance brought the entire group back together in the afternoon after some lunch briefings. While this is something that many flight training providers might not initially think about considering, FSANA panel speakers shared some experiences that highlighted otherwise.

In one example, a discussion described a case where a flight training provider was asked to provide training for a deaf pilot. Additional discussion focused on how and if flight training providers should query regarding customer medical limitations or potential limitations. This is a very careful balance that may depend on what type of operation a flight training provider is running.

This topic is something that FSANA will be working on to provide more information and resources to flight training providers. While these may not be the normal concerns of everyday flight training operations, these are concerns that any flight training provider may encounter in their operations.

The remainder of the first day of the conference was dedicated to flight school workshops and offered a chance for attendees to have an open dialogue on virtually any topic. Attendees had an opportunity to share information, commiserate, and raise concerns that are happening both nationally and locally. This sharing of information is regularly listed as one of the most valuable parts of the conference every year and this year in no way disappointed those who participated.

With day one wrapped up, the conference looked forward to day two where much more information is scheduled to be covered ranging from a keynote address from the NTSB, airline updates, and discussions of the state of student equipment financing.

On Tuesday, February 28th the Flight School Association of North America (FSANA) announced the founding of a new business entity, the International Aerospace Accrediting Commission

IACC is an accrediting organization created for the flight training and aerospace industry. It has created a program which will enhance the overall quality in the flight training space by establishing a set of standards that schools must follow without deviations. Accredited schools will also be able to enroll students who have borrowed money under the U.S. Department of Education Title IV loan program.

"This accreditation program will enhance the overall quality and delivery in the career flight training system," according to Bob Rockmaker, FSANA president & CEO. "Schools will seek accreditation in order to become best-in-class providers. Schools will also have the option to enroll students who have borrowed funds from the U.S. Department of Education assuming they meet all of the accrediting standards."

A part of this process includes that an Accredited school must conduct a skills assessment/pilot screening (appropriate to the program of study) to ensure students have the ability to benefit from the training. Such assessment should generally include, but need not be limited to, the following: basic mental abilities including information processing, spatial abilities and reasoning; composite mental abilities including psychomotor skills and multitasking; operational abilities including situation awareness and workload management; and relevant personality traits and social-interpersonal skills.

A part of this effort included the first day-long accreditation seminar for attendees who may be pursuing accreditation. Accrediting organizations typically operate two accreditation seminars during the calendar year. This first seminar fulfills the requirement which is included in the updated accreditation standards which were rolled out on February 28, 2023.

The flight training industry is dependent on and works with many different federal agencies, especially different divisions of the FAA ranging from training and testing sectors to airport management and even those sectors that manage airspace. The entire system is part of the process of completing flight training for those seeking certificates and ratings. With that consideration, FSANA again asked representatives from some of these agencies and divisions to update conference attendees on some of the factors that may affect flight training provision.

The session kicked off with some briefing from Everette Rochon, Manager of the Training and Certification Group, Aviation Safety at the FAA. In his time, he discussed the agency's focus on an effort to modernize FAA Part 141 regulations, efforts to incorporate updates for eVTOL and electric-powered aircraft, potential changes to the renewal requirements for CFIs, and publication of final (recently published draft) ACS/PTS documents for the flight training industry all as a part of the 2023 regulatory changes landscape.

Katie Sample, the Front Line Manager from the FAA’s Designee Standardization Branch shared information about the number of Designated Pilot Examiners (DPEs) in our system, how our volume of testing is being related to demand from the training providers, and the focus of this branch on making sure that there are enough examiners available to meet testing demand. A factor in meeting this demand is having DPEs who are able to do enough tests, actively provide the service, and manage the number of “wasted” practical test slots. One major point that was noted in the room and from the panel was that it is critical that flight training providers ensure that an applicant is not missing requirements or documentation when they show up for a practical test.

This is something that FSANA and many others also identify as something that could immediately help the throughput of practical tests while many other areas are also addressed. A solution will likely not be one item, but a consideration of many factors that will take coordination between the flight training industry and the office Katie was representing in her section of the briefing.

Following this was Julean Thorpe from the TSA. A critical part of our aviation training landscape, the training of non-U.S. citizens remains a large portion of people getting trained in the United States. Julean highlighted the fact that their data is showing returns of foreign student authorization requests to levels that were seen pre-COVID. Of some additional interest, the TSA approval requests are showing increased requests for training approvals not just for private and commercial pilot certificates, but also for type ratings. These are indicators that non-U.S. citizens are seeking more than just base levels of training here in the United States, further demonstrating the critical component of training for the world that the providers in the United States provide.

A final contributor to this particular panel briefing was Christopher Wilbanks from the Air Traffic Organization (ATO) in the FAA. The aircraft that flight training providers operate do so in the national airspace system, and the ATO’s areas of responsibility are directly related to continued safe pilot training. His highlighting of current data points to high levels of air traffic in our system; returning to and expanding in many areas to maximum traffic levels seen in many years. As this happens, he shared some tips on how flight training providers work with local air traffic facilities to dedicate practice areas (in some cases as seen on sectional charts labeled as Alert Areas) to help increase awareness of high-density training areas.

FSANA greatly appreciates the agencies and their staff for their participation in this panel and with the organization as a whole. Working together with the agencies, the association, and the flight training providers helps us all conduct our activities with greater efficiency and safety mindsets.

The day before the yearly flight school operators conference includes committee meetings of FSANA staff, members, and industry representatives on some specific topics. Namely, the FSANA Safety Committee, the Training Aircraft Committee, and the Airman Testing Committee met to discuss hot topics, concerns, and planning considerations for the flight training community for the future.

In an industry where aircraft are critical to the ability to provide training, the topic of aircraft availability was of interest to all who attended. Supply chain challenges for the delivery of new aircraft remain a potential challenge for those seeking new aircraft purchases. Most were reporting delivery dates for new orders ranging from a year to two or slightly beyond an order date.

The topic of MOSAIC and its application to the LSA market was of some significance in this discussion. FAA has agreed to complete a new regulation by Dec. 31, 2023, widely known as MOSAIC (Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification). One of the major pieces of this change is that LSA aircraft will likely no longer be limited to 1320 lbs gross weight but be allowed to be certificated to higher weights as demonstrated in their ability by the manufacturers. This may allow many LSA that were traditionally considered to be prohibitive for use in the flight training market to become more useable. This is a topic FSANA is watching closely and will provide updates on as soon as more information is available.

Related to aircraft is the availability of parts and consumables for legacy aircraft. Most participants were still reporting some challenges in supply chains for parts such as engines, engine parts, and cylinders, and even items such as oil filters and tires. All of these are required to keep training aircraft operating in our system.

A safety committee meeting shared some best practices between operators, discussions of limitations that training providers might place on their customers (such as not allowing videoing or texting while in flight or receiving training), and dispatch oversight practices. Sharing these policies and practices is a way for training providers to share the "this is what happened and/or how I mitigated those risks" in my operation. The sharing of safety practices and procedures helps make every flight training provider and our overall national airspace system safer.

Some discussion on this also highlighted the fact that the FAA is working to encourage, and even require, more operations to implement Safety Management Systems (SMS). This is highlighted in a recent notice, "Proposed Safety Management System Rule Would Help Operators and Manufacturers Detect Safety Issues Early" that the FAA made. As SMS systems become more common outside just the airline operational environment, there is much that flight training providers can learn and implement in their own operations. FSANS expects that some degree of SMS programs will eventually need to be in place at least for all FAR 141-approved flight training providers. Getting ahead of understanding this potential is a good plan for any flight training provider.

Last, but certainly not without focus for the day, the Airman Testing Committee focused in on some hot topics in the flight training community.

A continuing concern for flight training providers was again the ability to source practical tests from DPEs for customers. The committee meetings saw reports of continued challenges in this sector relating to backlogs. A variety of reasons were discussed, and some potential solutions which might help better maximize the utilization of DPE resources to reduce these backlogs. While a general recognition of the need for more throughput was indicated, it was understood that this might not just mean more DPEs, it might mean different DPEs who were able to provide more service, working in the flight training community to improve pass rates to relieve the burden of retests, and/or ensuring testing slots are not "wasted" with non-qualifiable applicants to name a few mitigations that may help reduce backlogs.

Another hot topic was the changes that are taking place in the knowledge testing center process. With a sole-source provider of knowledge testing services, there were again concerns that some of these historically available sites will be going away as that provider makes changes to their pricing and compensation models. Concerns about the proximity of availability of tests for customers were a significant concern. Discussion regarding the challenges of a single provider under the FAA contracted process was continued and the committee is concerned that there needs to be more than one option for the future and that the FAA should consider alternative knowledge testing provision models or methodologies. This is something that FSANA along with other industry entities are currently working on and the feedback from the members' committee is critical to helping to drive.

A few other topics that were discussed related to the backlog of approvals for those seeking FAA 141 approval for training provision, some discussion of trends indicating a reduction in pass rates on airman testing, and even a seemingly small but important point from the TSA regarding whether a non-U.S. citizen student who has had a training request approval expire needs to conduct a new threat assessment for a practical test to be conducted. All of these topics will be discussed further and information will be shared with the FSANA membership.

These committees meet at each of the FSANA conferences and continue to then follow up on topics throughout the year. Each committee is developed to engage members with each other and the rest of the industry to make training safer, more efficient, provide resource awareness, and in some cases, try to avoid challenges as a group we can all see coming.

If you would like to be a participant in any of these committees in the future, please reach out to the FSANA staff.

The flight training industry knows that the training system has been putting out as much training and testing as humanly possible. Some might question if we are doing too much at the expense of safety for the result of numerical certification accomplishment increases to fill pilot shortages.

A pain point for many in the training industry has been sourcing practical tests from FAA Designated Pilot Examiners. Backlogs have been reported in most locations and they don’t seem to be clearing.

There are lots of things that play into this condition, but there can be no doubt that the amount of pilot training taking place is a major factor in that condition. And the number of pilot certification events that were accomplished in 2022 are higher than any other years in the past decade. Perhaps a record number ever?

The table here shows how many original and additional airman certificates were approved or disapproved by FAA Designated Pilot Examiners in each year, going back to 2011. Each of these events, approval or disapproval, correlates with a “checkride” a DPE conducted. We can see that in 2022 we did nearly double the number of tests that we were doing a decade ago.

Even when we compare how many tests were conducted during 2021, and 2020, we see significant increases in the number of certification events! A dip during 2020 and 2021 as the country felt the effects of COVID likely were only a speed bump in the climbing rates of certification that were taking place already in 2028 and 2019 as highly active airline hiring was ramping up only to be paused.

When economies opened back up and began to again grow, airline hiring ramped up and the pull for new pilots seems to be driving pilot training to new levels unseen recently, perhaps ever. I haven’t looked at data far back enough to if we ever hit airman certification levels this high in the past, but I do know that our training system is running at 110% reactor power right now.

You can see the graphical trend of this in the chart below. We keep just going up with that little burble in 2020 and 2021. Even that burble shows that the training industry at high levels even while many other sectors in the economy were slowed or shut down.

The stress point of availability to schedule a practical test continues in much of our training system.

This is directly related to the number of DPEs designated, how many tests those DPEs are able to provide personally, and how many tests the system is asking them to be able to provide.

The increase in certification events naturally is a big part of the matrix of availability. When we double the number of tests a system is expected to provide, we need to somehow increase the ability to provide for those tests. If we don’t, resource constriction is the result. And that is what we continue to have.

We can see the relationship in the table above that the number DPEs has to the number of tests and how many tests it would require on average for each DPE to conduct to meet the need. Some DPEs do lots of tests, and some do fewer depending on their personal availability if they have other primary employment, where they are physically located, and what demand exists.

I will add a note here, and it’s an important one, that it isn’t just about adding “more DPEs”, it’s about adding the “right DPEs”. While some DPEs in our system provides large numbers of tests each year, they are a minority. Many DPEs choose to provide the services as a side job to their primary employment in many professional aviation jobs. They might be airline pilots, fly for corporate operations, or any other variety of jobs. Few DPEs do this job as a full-time occupation.

In 2022 a little over 40% of our DPEs did less than 50 practical tests in the entire year. This means they averaged going less than one test per week. On the other side of that discussion, only just over 12% of our DPE pool did more than 200 practical tests in the year.

Our training industry needs to find a way to source more practical testing events if we are going to continue to grow our output. This doesn’t necessarily mean we have to add lots more DPEs. It might just mean that we need to add some more DPEs who have larger amounts of available time to provide their services. Adding 50 DPEs who can only do 50 tests in a year would only result in 2500 more testing events. Adding 25 DPEs who could do 200 events would generate an additional 5000 events with half the requirement for FAA management of individual designees. This is a complex matrix that many in the industry will be required to discuss to come up with the correct solution. This of course assumes that the demand for testing events continues at this level or grows. If it drops for any reason, the pressure point could ease even with the current testing provider availability.

This ratio of available DPEs to the number of tests given isn’t the only metric we should be using for our training industry on this point, but it does help us get a feel for availability to service the testing needs of our pilot training sector.