The morning federal agencies update panel at the conference began with a briefing from Johannes Knudsen, Senior Advisor with the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).

During his briefing, it was indicated that the TSA expects to update some of the 14 CFR 1552 regulations over the next year to help streamline and improve some of the current regulations. In a rare case, the note was made that it was actually expected that the regulations would get shorter! TSA offers fantastic support to the flight training community for those who provide training to non-U.S. citizens who require additional approval for training.

One of the main work points that the TSA is currently attempting to make changes on that would directly affect flight training providers involved in the provision of training where Security Threat Assessments (STAs). The desired change that is working through a coordination and update effort would change the approval for training of an individual who requires an STA from an “event-based” requirement to a “time-based” requirement. The layman’s way of saying this is to change the approval of training to cover a period of time in which all training might be provided from the current state where each individual training goal (such as the private pilot, an instrument rating, or a multi-engine rating) requires a separate STA. There is no doubt that this could increase efficiency and reduce the bureaucratic process by which training is provided for non-U.S. citizens. This is an effort that FSANA wholeheartedly supports as the TSA works to try to make this change.

Related to the volume of training for non-U.S. citizens, the TSA did see some reduction in requests for STAs during the period of time most greatly affected by COVID restrictions but is seeing these numbers return quickly. In fact, it was noted that a daily request number record was set just this past week. FSANA believes this is an indicator that the market for the provision of training to non-U.S. clients is returning and likely to grow.

The morning briefing continued with information from Brian Throop, Deputy Vice President of Air Traffic Service for the FAA ATCT.

While it may not seem immediately pertinent, the service of the ATO organization is critical to the success and safety of flight training operations. Brian noted that the ATO was affected much like every other organization in the United States by COVID and that they have worked hard to respond, making many changes to reduce any reductions in service that might be caused. He noted that in the worst of periods of effects of COVID on the ATO, nearly 13% of controllers (of which there are more than 10,000) had been out at one point either with or quarantined for potential exposure to COVID. Most of us in the aviation industry saw or heard of “ATC Zero” moments when a facility was closed due to exposure potential and needed to be cleaned. Enhanced and highly effective ongoing cleaning procedures have been implemented as the ATO has modified its practices and as of today, it has resulted in less than 300 individuals being affected by such quarantine requirements.

These changes have allowed the ATO to have significantly less affected service reductions and continue to provide the highest level of service possible for the entire airspace system. Brian also highlighted the fact that recent bipartisan legislation that has been approved included large budget allowances that will be dedicated to approximately 105 new and/or upgraded control tower facilities over the next decade. The bulk of these will be in smaller and mid-sized facilities, places that are many times heavily utilized by general aviation and flight training operations. These improvements will certainly improve the facilities that many flight training operations interact with on a regular basis.

Relating to that, he noted that we are currently seeing approximately 98% of total traffic volume as was seen prior to COVID. While international traffic has not fully returned, it currently is running at about 80% of the previous volume, general aviation traffic is actually exceeding previous numbers. At this time, the ATO is seeing general aviation traffic represent 104-106% of traffic volume previously seen. At FSANA, we know that a part of this increase in volume is a robust and active flight training community.

The last part of the federal agencies briefing included representatives from the FAA discussing upcoming changes to regulations and policies that may affect the flight training community.

Everette Rochon, Manager of the FAA’s Training Certification Group highlighted that the group is working on efforts to improve authority relating to LODA requirements for flight training (primarily affecting experimental) in some aircraft, some potential efforts to update the requirements for CFI renewal, and some additional standardization and modernization of the FAR 141 requirements. While specifics were not offered on the exact changes, FSANA will be following up with these potential changes to offer input that will best improve efficiency, quality, and safety in flight training.

A regular contributor to FSANA conferences, Trey McClure, manager of the FAAs Designee Standardization branch offered insight and data about the robustness of the designee programs. A data point important to flight training providers, the ability to have enough DPEs to conduct practical tests and DPEs who have the capacity to provide enough testing events remain a concern of many fight training providers. Timely provision of testing efforts continues to be something that FSANA works closely with the FAA regarding.

FSANA greatly appreciates the openness of these FAA representatives to talk frankly with and take input from the flight training community as we work together to keep the flight training programs compliant, growing and completing certification of their clients.

Lee Woodward, CEO of Skyborne Aviation Group Limited took the time over the lunch session to address the FSANA conference attendees discussing specifically some of the differences in training from the U.S. market to the international market, some of the strong opportunities available to the training community, and the overall career paths available in aviation.

With experience having learned to fly on a scholarship in the United Kingdom through his service as a pilot at British Airways, and through his ownership of multiple flight training endeavors that now include a recent acquisition in Vero Beach, FL, his experience spans multiple sectors and various markets.

Sharing this experience, he highlighted the fact that the U.S. training market remains best positioned and best equipped with infrastructure to provide flight training not only for the U.S. market but for the entire world. While some locations around the world are attempting to bring training operations back home for domestic training capacity, many of the locations in developing nations face infrastructure limitations, airspace restrictions, and a lack of funding mechanisms available to pay for training. A robust infrastructure for all of these factors continue to make the U.S. the most effective, and efficient location for most training needs. In some cases, domestic training operations in developing countries were damaged or degraded so significantly over the past two years due to the effects of COVID that they may not even be able to return domestically. The continued contracting of training efforts to U.S.-based flight training providers is likely to continue and expand.

Continuing, he noted that career path, while a slight burble was experienced due to airline use reductions from COVID effects, is a very strong career path around the world. Aviation travel is continuing to grow and the utilization of air carrier service has a long way to grow in the developing world. A small percentage of global pilot training infrastructure is in developing countries but the majority of the population lives there. This means there is a large growth path for flight operations in these countries and they will need pilots.

Speaking generally, his indications based on his varied experience indicate that the U.S. flight training market is the strongest in the world and positioned best to provide the training needs.

FSANA thanks Mr. Woodward for taking the time to share his experience and insights with conference attendees. Varied perspectives such as this help all flight training providers better understand the market and respond to the needs of customers.

A few years ago, FSANA beta tested an initial effort at accreditation certification for flight training providers outside of the collegiate environment. This effort was purposefully built to gain experience, develop processes, and establish practices that would further be leveraged in a continued effort that would allow such an accreditation program for flight training providers to become eligible to leverage educational funding for customers of flight training providers. FSANA considers this one of the greatest efforts the association has made to improve the ability of flight training providers to expand their customer base.

Flight training operations that complete accreditation are intended to be able to leverage future access to federal funds for students seeking training. Accreditation is the first step in that process and the mechanism by which FSANA is working to allow funding sources to become available for customers of flight training providers.

Funding for training has long been a hurdle for many of those seeking careers in aviation. While funding is available in many more traditional collegiate flight training operations, it has long been unavailable to those seeking training in the for-profit, academy style, and independent business operations that provide flight training. FSANA seeks to change that.

Working hard over the past few years, FSANA is now in the final stages of collating its submission package that documents how the accreditation for flight training providers will work, what standards will be met, what policies, procedures, and oversight will be maintained, and how standards will be enforced. This application will be made to the U.S. Secretary of Education who will review the package and determine if providers that meet the accreditation standards will then be eligible to leverage federal funding resources for customers seeking career-focused training.

"The effort to develop a pathway for independent flight training providers to provide federal funding resources to their customers that have never been available before to those seeking career-focused flight training will allow individuals who might not have had a way to fund their training a new outlet," said FSANA President and CEO, Bob Rockmaker.

As an industry, we know that the professional pilot career path certainly meets the criteria of "gainful employment." As this industry works to fill shortages of aviation workforce professionals, new efforts like this are critical to our ability to serve the staffing needs of the future.

Accreditation may not be for everyone. There are pros, cons, and challenges. We know that going through the effort to become an accredited provider of training will take work, documentary rigor, and time and expense. It means a business will have more oversight. But it also means that those entities that complete such an effort will have greater standing in the eyes of customers having met a higher level of standards. It will mean access to resources such as private student loans and/or federal student aid that this not eligible to be leveraged by non-accredited entities.

The next steps for FSANA in this effort will include establishing the accrediting commission, publishing the standards, and accrediting the first batch of training providers. Then a petition will be made to the U.S. Department of Education that will review and provide recommendations for modifications, denial, or approval. We know this is a challenging process, but FSANA is committed to making this effort a reality for flight training providers throughout the United States.

FSANA will be providing much more information on this in the upcoming months. The FSANA Board of Directors is excited to be at the point where this effort is able to be made public and the time when this resource will be available to accredited flight training providers.

In the interim, if you would like to learn a little more about this effort, visit https://www.fsana.com/accreditation.php.

In the pre-conference activities, FSANA began this year's International Flight School Operators Conference with focused committee meetings on targeted aviation training topics.

Bringing together representatives from manufacturers, flight training providers, and associations, the committee meetings represented an opportunity to help guide discussions and concerns related to the provision of flight training as a business. These committee meetings bring together representatives at each conference to focus discussions specifically relevant to the flight training industry.

In the meeting of the Training Aircraft Committee, a significant discussion point was the concerns about the ability to source aircraft and parts for either new or legacy aircraft. Representatives noted that the industry has been experiencing significant cost increases in aircraft acquisition (both new and used market options) due to shortages of available equipment, supply chain delays in major and minor components ranging from anything such as engines or even just tires, and delays in work needed to keep aircraft serviced and available for flight training operations. There is no doubt that significant delay in parts or aircraft for flight training providers has a negative effect on the ability for scaling of training service provision.

FSANA believes this is a critical concern as we scale and plan the flight training industry's ability to provide service to train the next generation of pilots needed worldwide. A common concern noted was that while some increases in prices have already been seen, it is expected that greater increases may be coming within the next year as the supply chain effects are more fully felt.

Taking some time to address continued attention to delays in the provision of practical tests due to lack of DPE availability and review of some of the current changes in airman knowledge testing kicked off the meeting of the Airman Testing Committee. With additional briefing from FAA representative Trey McClure, the group was also updated on work that the FAA is doing to attempt to respond to and implement some recommendations from the DPE ARAC that may help alleviate some of these challenges.

FSANA continues to work with an internal safety committee to focus on safety concerns in the flight training segment of general aviation. The safety committee discussed a recent presentation made by FSANA President, Bob Rockmaker, from the Redbird Migration that discussed a culture of focus on a goal of zero accidents in the training sector. The safety committee highlighted the importance of culture in flight training operations and a desire to share more safety content with FSANA members on a more frequent basis in FSANA publications. The safety committee intends to work to share more best practices and safety documentation between members to help improve safety information sharing and system development.

The committee meetings as a part of each year's conference offer an opportunity to help guide the focus of resources of FSANA to where they can best help improve the efficiency of training and safety throughout the aviation training sector.

Many flight training providers throughout the country have historically had a significant percentage of their business focused on training non-U.S. citizens for pilot certification and ratings to then return to their home countries where they complete additional training and enter into commercial service internationally.

Over the past two years while the effects of COVID have been felt through the aviation industry, many flight training providers focused on this market segment have also had to work with the challenges of restrictions for travel for international customers. Additionally, many international airlines have had reduced flight schedules and we know anecdotally from many providers that their student starts and with non-U.S. clients were reported to be down.

With the help of information provided by the TSA, we have some information we can share that identifies what the real effects have been.

The following charts were provided as numbers of "Security Threat Assessments" (STAs) that the TSA conducts when training is requested to be approved for a non-U.S. citizen. This is not measuring completions, just when it is requested, but it does give us a general gauge of how many requests are happening over a period of time.

In a broad sense, looking back to January of 2019 we do see a dropoff of STAs requested as the effects of COVID caused effects were felt worldwide. The below table is the total number of requests for all types of training ranging from initial certification to instrument ratings, multi-engine training, and initial and recurrent type rating training events. We can see from a month-by-month basis that the events dropped off significantly and then started to return over the past year.

Taking this data into a little more detail that is specifically focused on the primary training segments, we see that the STAs for Initial pilot certification, instrument ratings, and multi-engine ratings (the primary training that many flight training providers need to receive approval to get for initial pilot training pathways) did see a significant dropoff from 2019 through 2020, and 2021.

Of note also though is that 2019 was the most active year since the beginning of the program in 2004 as airline training and hiring hit peaks that had not been experienced for many years.

All indications are now showing that this trend is going to be increasing again soon. The TSA is seeing a significant increase in daily STA requests recently giving us an indication that the international student training market is starting to ramp up again. Flight training providers should be expecting growth in this business again.

FSANA greatly appreciates the TSA for sharing this information with us so we can share it with our members and the flight training community. We know this data helps many of the flight training providers understand our marketplace and make business decisions.

We will all be watching the continued rebound of the aviation sector and are hopeful that international markets will continue to increase to previous levels of customer base for our U.S.-based flight training providers. As any more information is made available, we will be sure to share it with you.

The flight training industry periodically encounters bad actors who take fiscal advantage of their customers. In some of the worst, fortunately rare, cases, this has resulted in those seeking flight training services putting on deposit large sums of money with an intended flight training provider who then fails to deliver the product. In the worst of cases, it has resulted in the customers inability to have their deposits returned.

Recently, FSANA has received some reports of some flight training providers requiring large training deposits prior to the delivery of training, and in some cases, reports that customers may not be receiving the product already paid for. In a couple of other cases, we are also receiving reports of students being unable to withdraw their deposited funds if they choose to discontinue training or change training providers.

FSANA encourages caution for any flight training providers who are seeking to require large deposits for future training events or for those who might be seeking flight training to give such deposits. While some flight training providers offer discounts for pre-training deposits, FSANA encourages anyone involved in either side of this type of transaction to have clear practices in place.

Practices relating to deposit amounts, withdrawal terms, refund terms, and where any deposits will be held are just a few of the topics that should be addressed before giving or taking large training deposits.

If you or any of your customers are experiencing any challenges or concerns in this sector, please share them with FSANA so we can better understand if there are any concerns that the industry needs to address.

Paragon Flight Training, an award-winning flight training academy based at Page Field in Fort Myers, Florida, announced delivery of the first of 10 Piper aircraft slated for delivery in 2022. The acquisition is part of the five-year fleet modernization component of the company’s long-term strategic plan, which includes the purchase of an additional 40 Piper aircraft over the next five years. This effort comes as the company ramps up efforts to train more pilots in response to the global pilot shortage while simultaneously becoming the dominant player in the U.S. domestic flight training market.

“It’s exciting to see our growth plans further unfold with the addition of this beautiful Piper aircraft – which we are confident is the training aircraft of the next generation,” said Paragon Flight President and owner, Christopher Schoensee. “It follows our groundbreaking in January for an expanded 9,000 square-foot learning center on Page Field and brings us one aircraft closer to our goal of tripling our current fleet with the additional purchase of up to 50 Piper aircraft by the end of 2027. Our partnership with Piper, beginning with this first aircraft purchase, represents a milestone in the history of Paragon Flight.”

The new training platform is the Piper P100i, a modernized version of Piper’s time-tested Archer training aircraft, a staple of the industry for more than 30 years. Paragon Flight Chief Flight Instructor Jeff Wolf and Paragon Flight Administrative Director Sarah Schoensee took delivery of the aircraft from Vero Beach, Florida-based Piper on January 31. John Calcagno, Piper Aircraft President & CEO, said it was a momentous occasion for both organizations.

“Piper Aircraft is proud to work with Paragon Flight as they expand their pilot training program," Calcagno said. "The addition of the Pilot 100i to the Paragon training curriculum will help enable them to provide a cost-effective training solution while working to cultivate a well-trained pilot pipeline for the airline industry.”

The company is in the process of a 28,000-combined-square-foot expansion slated for completion in June 2022.

A national thought leader in private aviation, Paragon Flight was founded in 2006 and offers commercial, military and recreational pilot training using both aircraft and advanced simulator technology in one of the industry’s leading learning environments. The company is active in the aviation industry, and Christopher Schoensee is a member of the board of directors of the Flight School Association of North America (FSANA). Paragon Flight has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and most recently received recognition from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA)’s Flight Training Experience Awards as a Distinguished Flight School, a title given to the highest-rated flight schools from the 2021-22 Flight Training Experience Survey. A total of 749 flight schools and 1,740 flight instructors were evaluated in the 2021 survey, and Paragon Flight landed in the top five percent of flight schools.

Committed to growing in Florida, Paragon Flight Training was inducted into the 2021 class of GrowFL 50 Companies to Watch. Honorees in this prestigious group are second-stage growth companies that have between six and 150 employees, $750,000–$100 million in revenue in 2020, and demonstrate a strong commitment to grow beyond the second-stage.

Learn more about Paragon Flight Training at ParagonFlight.com.

The TSA Alien Flight Student Program that manages the training documentation and tracking for non-U.S. citizens has recently undergone a name change. The program is now known as the Flight Training Security Program (FTSP). The good news is that it appears there has been little change to the workings of the program, just the name and location at which flight training providers will access their interactions.

The previous website at https://www.flightschoolcandidates.gov is no longer accessible. The new website address is: https://fts.tsa.dhs.gov

Flight training providers who are engaged with training students who need to be approved by these programs should become familiar with the changes and properly manage approvals of students for whom prior approvals are required.

Staying organized and connected has never been easier thanks to Sporty's new CFI Portal. Active CFIs will be able to track students' progress and have unlimited access to lesson plans, a flight instructor refresher course, a comprehensive FAA library, special offers, and Sporty's pilot training courses—all from the portal.

Visit the portal.

FSANA has been collecting DPE names who have expressed a willingness to travel to help flight training providers secure practical tests.

An up-to-date List of Travel-Willing DPEs with contact information is available on the FSANA website. If you are a flight training provider who is finding a challenge of scheduling DPEs in your local area, feel free to reach out to these individuals. They may be able to serve some of your local testing needs.

While this effort is being made in general, it is even more relevant as many DPEs self-selected to delay a return to providing practical tests during this period of COVID-19 uncertainties.

If you are a DPE who is not on this list but would like to be, please let FSANA know by emailing us at info@fsana.com with your name, city, state, email and phone number and we will add you.