FSANA President & CEO Robert Rockmaker traveled to Dallas, Texas, to participate and engage with future aviation youth participants at the American Airlines CR Smith Museum aviation career day.

Over 300 young people shared the love we all have for the aviation world. They explored a myriad of aviation career pathways during their visit to the career day festivities hosted by American Airlines at the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum.

During the event, Rockmaker had the opportunity to speak with Robert Isom, president & CEO of American Airlines (left). The AA leader thanked FSANA for its leadership and focus in the flight training space.

If you know of any outstanding contributors to the aviation community as a CFI, a FAASTeam Representative or an Aviation Technician, the deadline for nominations for this year is 5pm November 30th, 2022.

The General Aviation Awards Program is a cooperative effort between many sponsoring organizations from the aviation industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

For more than 50 years, the program has recognized aviation professionals in flight instruction, aviation maintenance, avionics, and flight safety for their important contributions to the general aviation community.

Nominations for this year must be submitted no later than November 30, 2022.

FSANA is pleased to announce the arrival of a new benefit for our members called AeroWebinars. A schedule of upcoming webinars will be sent to FSANA members monthly.

FSANA Annual Partners are being invited to present 15- to 30-minute long webinars with time dedicated at the end of each webinar for questions from attendees.

Topics will include:

We look forward to the first of these webinars coming soon.

FSANA will be contacting its Annual Partners in the next few days, inviting them to participate in the AeroWebinar program.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) recent release highlights new data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that once again demonstrates that the United States is producing a record number of certificated airline pilots this year, with more pilots in the market today than there are jobs available.

According to the FAA, 9,397 new commercial Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificates have been issued in the last 12 months, exceeding airline analyst forecasts and airline pilot demand. In addition, the U.S. has roughly 10 percent more flight instructors than before the pandemic, which will allow for increased pilot production in the future.

“This is good news that everyone in our industry should be celebrating,” said Captain Joe DePete, ALPA president. “The decision to invest in America’s aviation workforce, made in the darkest days of the pandemic, continues to pay off with record pilot production numbers. Unfortunately, special interest groups in Washington, D.C., continue to spread misinformation about the pilot ecosystem in an effort to weaken air safety standards and shortchange frontline workers. The truth is, airlines are making money hand over fist, flying fewer hours, and have more pilots than before the pandemic.”

Plan now for the 14th Annual International Flight School Operators Conference. The 2023 conference is returning to the Rosen Plaza in Orlando, Florida, on March 1-3, 2023.

Registration includes:

FSANA is pleased to again have the conference return to the Rosen Plaza in Orlando, FL for 2023. Rooms can now be booked at a special conference discount.

For FSANA dates February 28 and March 1-3, 2023, reserve rooms by Monday, February 6 for a special rate of $189.00 single/double plus tax. Daily resort fee is waived. After this date rates may be higher or rooms may not be available.

On Tuesday February 28, 2023, FSANA is offering a first-of-its-kind 1-day seminar the day before the start of the FSANA annual conference and trade show in Orlando.

The seminar is providing an opportunity for participants to gain insight into the key points of the accreditation standards, process, and procedures. The accreditation project is planned to be completed by March 2024. Pre-accreditation is planned to open March 1, 2023 or sooner. Schools that are pre-accredited will be among the first to be eligible to enroll students who have borrowed money from the U.S. Department of Education Title IV program and/or received Pell grants.

The accreditation program will help level the playing field for all U.S. citizens who want to become career pilots since they will have access to Federal loan monies according to

Bob Rockmaker, FSANA president & CEO.

Flight schools with the intention of becoming accredited are encouraged to attend this one-day event.

FSANA has opened registration for flight training supply chain providers to participate in the 2023 FSANA Conference and Trade Show scheduled for Orlando, Florida, March 1-3, 2023.

The supply chain plays a key part in the flight training process and attendees gain valuable insights and knowledge transfer from the many suppliers that exhibit and join panels. to learn and discuss the latest in the world of flight training.

In a year of unprecedented announcements, Piedmont Airlines is making another bold move: $100,000 up front to pilots who can sit in the left seat of the flight deck and $75,000 to pilots who are close to upgrading to captain. This limited opportunity will help propel Piedmont’s projected growth in 2023. Pilots must accept a conditional job offer by the end of the year to qualify.

“Passengers are back, and the demand for travel is high, but our industry hasn’t settled into steady state yet,” said Eric Morgan, Piedmont CEO. “Piedmont has the opportunity to grow even as many other airlines are shrinking. We are in a unique position to say to pilots ‘come to Piedmont, help us expand our fleet and our routes, and here’s a big check to spend while you do it.’”

The $100,000 bonus replaces the current pilot retention bonuses that expire at the end of the year. Instead of paying multiple bonuses over a five-year period, Piedmont will now pay $100,000 up front to qualified pilots.

Every generation seems to think the next generation doesn’t work as hard, isn’t as talented, or doesn’t have the same motivation that their generation did when they were younger. I don’t think that has been any different in aviation training historically.

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’t, or don’t 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.

Take this to heart, please. It means that nearly half of our pilot applicants are failing their first attempts at a private pilot certificate.

This is bad. I don’t know how to say it any other way.

I am not going to say that it is entirely the fault of the students. It isn’t just that somehow the younger generation is inept or that they aren’t 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.

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.

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 “need to fill jobs with a warm body that can at least do the job” even if they aren’t candidates that really meet our highest of expectations. This has resulted in what I affectionately refer to as “warm body hiring.”

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.

As a DPE, I can’t help but feel like too many flight training operations have transitioned from a process of “training to meet and/or exceed a standard and happen to meet experience requirements along the way,” to a “train to meet experience requirements, and hope they happen to meet training standards.” This is a subtle difference in language, but it is a significant difference in fundamental approach to training.

Talking with many DPEs around the country, the sentiment seems to be that many times instructors are “throwing a student at a practical test and hoping they will pass.” The logic is if they don’t, 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.

There is a significant pull being felt from the airline environment on the CFIs to “get their time as fast as possible” 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.

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’t really ready doesn’t help us all in the long run.

Getting a pilot certificate or rating comes with a great deal of responsibility. It isn’t just a “test until you happen to get it right and pass” 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.

Learning to be a pilot and then building the additional skills and experience to become a professional pilot isn’t something that is just a checkbox. It shouldn’t be something that you just get if you have spent enough on training or “happened to fly all the required experience events.” 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.

To put it bluntly, pilot certificates and ratings aren’t participation trophies.

The FAA has recently released the draft final rule primarily regarding the implementation of medical requirements for commercial balloon operators, but along with this rulemaking effort, a couple of changes were included that will help pilots seeking instrument training or currency experience.

In the past, CFI-Is or safety pilots were not able to serve as a safety pilot if they were personally qualifying for their medical using Basic Med. A regulatory oversight in the original development of the Basic Med process, no provision was originally allowed to deviate from the requirement of having a third-class or higher medical certificate when flying with a pilot and acting as a safety pilot (which counts as a required crew member). The draft document that is expected to be finally published shortly will update that and allow for those crew members to provide instruction or safety pilot services if they are complying with medical requirements using Basic Med.

This change will allow for greater flexibility in the flight training process for instrument training or for pilots seeking to leverage safety pilots who are flying on Basic Med.

Elite Flight Academy announced the winner of its first Student Pilot Scholarship: Eli Lamar, a junior at East Davidson High School. Valued at $15,000, the scholarship provides a path towards a private pilot certificate, covering up to 75 hours of training plus materials.

“I was surprised and very happy to learn that I was awarded this scholarship!” Eli said. “Since my childhood, I’ve always been interested in aviation. My goal is to eventually have a career as a commercial pilot.”

As part of his application for the scholarship, Eli wrote an essay about how his dad took him to many air shows and fly-ins – an early catalyst for his fascination with aviation. He also flew in a WACO biplane on the Outer Banks from Dare County Airport. During the excursion, he flew over the Wright Brothers National Memorial, Bodie Island Lighthouse, and the beach, which he described as a “memorable and exhilarating experience.”

In his essay, Eli also discussed how a career in aviation would be “life-changing.” He viewed the scholarship as a way to “propel my education in the field of aviation as well as take every moment as a learning experience to gain as much knowledge about flight as possible.”

The scholarship includes 50 hours of flight training, 20 hours of ground training, and five hours of simulator training – all of which will take place at Elite Flight Academy’s location at Davidson County Airport. In addition, all training materials such as books, videos, headset, etc., are included.

“We are honored to provide this scholarship to Eli,” said Roy Morgan, partner at Elite Flight Academy. “This is our way of giving back to the community, which has been so welcoming to us. We’re excited to continue serving in this way and helping our friends and neighbors fulfill their aviation dreams.”

“The response to our pilot training program has been amazing, with a steady flow of students already heading to the airlines,” said Corey Johnson, Operations manager. “It’s clear that Eli has a great heart and a zeal for aviation, and we’re thrilled to help him reach his goals!”

In addition to the scholarship, Elite Flight Academy is awarding two runners-up with a package that includes training books, five hours of simulator time, and a discount on flight training.

Elite Flight Academy was established in 2022 and provides affordable flight instruction from FAA-certified instructors and offers state-of-the-art equipment. Its flight training facility is located at Davidson County Airport in Lexington, NC. More information is available at www.eliteflightacademy.com.