wrote:
The ultimate answer to getting the quality level up in the GA pilot
community will in my opinion require a whole new look at the way flight
instruction is conducted.
...

Dudley Henriques


That is a requirement. But there is something else: GA has become so
expensive that it takes an extraordinary commitment to attain the
higher skill levels and quality that you are writing about. I read
somewhere recently that survival and skill depend for the greatest
part on experience. I believe that is true -- and it builds on itself.
These days it is financially very difficult if not impossible to get
the kind of flight experience required to attain and maintain the high
skill and confidence just within 30/60 -- let alone beyond it. At
least for the average person who is not a professional pilot of some
sort.

I would like to fly once every two to three days, weather permitting,
but at $80 an hour MINIMUM it is just not possible as a renter -- even
with a very high paying job. And most aircraft cost more like $100 for
that one hour.

The only way to get the chance for the experience you guys are talking
about (other than being a professional) is to build a plane or
possilby share a used plane with another couple of pilots. That would
be doable. Rental is just simply out in many parts of the country.

Price is THE obstacle to higher quality in GA from my perspective --
especially because many pilots just aren't up to the commitment to
homebuild. Because even if you find a really good instructor, after
the aerobatics course you still have to fly ... and fly a lot.

I hope to push through to a higher level by building something simple
first, and then later an aerobatic bipe. In the meantime my club has
an 152 Aerobat for rent and I've got Kershner on my desk top. I sneak
in the payments under the old lady's nose.

I am in complete agreement and sympathy with what you have said here.
There is no doubt that the cost involved in general aviation,
specifically for non professional pilots has increased to almost
unbearable levels.
I always, when talking on these issues in public, have to recognize the
cost factor.
Fortunately for the GA pilot, the price for the increased quality I'm
speaking of doesn't have to be all that high. Considering a good
instructor/student pairing, a pilot could easily be upgraded to a much
higher comfort zone in 5 hours of highly concentrated dual in the right
airplane.

5 more hours of dual seems a low enough price to pay to gain this higher
comfort zone.
I can't count the amount of pilots I have taken through a 5 hour upgrade
that included upset recovery, advanced stall and spin training, and
basic aerobatics.

You don't have to do this in an S2 Pitts. The instructor is the key, NOT
the high priced airplane. This upgrading can easily be done in an
Aerobat, or if you have a few dollars more, a Decathlon or Citabria.

The bottom line is your comfort zone and where you feel you are as a
pilot vs where you would like to be. You might not need such an upgrade.
You're right. There is some added cost involved, but the gain in skill,
confidence, and experience could be priceless.

In my opinion, an average VFR pilot investing in this added 5 hours of
highly specialized dual with a carefully chosen instructor could easily
experience the most important investment they will ever make in aviation.


--
Dudley Henriques