eLearning solution for the aviation sector

[AndreiBlanaru]

Hello everybody,

As this is my first post, it's nice to meet you all

My name is Andrei, and I am a Product Manager for a learning solution dedicated to the aviation sector.
I've found this forum while doing research for a product I am helping my company bring to market.

In my initial research I saw that there is a shortage of pilots on the market and an even bigger one coming in the next few years. As I understand, the barrier to entry is very high, along with the ageing existing workforce and the introduction of new air planes to meet CO2 emissions and new technologies being adopted.

I am not looking to promote my product here or anything like that, I would like to get an expert opinion on the subject and was wondering if any of you where willing to answer a few questions that would help me develop a better product and hopefully solve part of the problem on the way.

I'm looking to find out how did you get start onto this career path and beyond:

- What steps did you take to research and apply for training or a flight school?
- How did you manage to build up flight time?
- Where did you get your Rating from?
- Did you apply for any funding?
- How do you go about renewing and re-validating your certificates and ratings?
- What challenges are you having at this time in your current phase of your career?
- What do you wish you could do online that you can’t do today?
- If courses were available online would you buy them?
- What where the hardest things you came across in your career from a training and qualifications point of view? How would you change that?

If any of you would care to talk about the subject and answer some of the questions above, that would honestly help out and is truly appreciated.

Thank you for any help.

 

[kath]

I see that no one has jumped in on this. Possibly because it's not entirely clear what you're looking for. Are you interested in the kind of training most pilots get when they just start out? Or what's necessary later on to fly big airliners? Or what? I'll take a stab... I'm not a career pilot, I just fly for recreation and occasionally teach. So I'll take your questions from that perspective...

1) There was only one airport near me that I could get to without a car, and they had one flight school. There is no "application process" for training, if you are a US citizen, you just make an appointment and show up. If you're not a US citizen, you get a TSA background check first.
2) At first, by renting. A typical airplane rents by the hour, so money translates directly into time. Later, through having a plane in the family and going on fun trips (again: through the application of money).
3) "Rating" can mean a lot of things, there are many different kinds of them... I got both my Private and Instrument training at a Part 141 school in Bedford, MA.
4) No.
5) I call up a flight instructor and say, "Hey, can we go do a Flight Review?" and they say "Sure, when's good? How 'bout Saturday?"
6) N/A since I don't have a piloting career
7) Nothing that I can think of, there are lots of online resources and apps for pilots
8) They already are, and it depends on the nature of the course
9) Landings and Lazy 8's. Just takes practice.

Good luck,

 

[AndreiBlanaru]

I see that no one has jumped in on this. Possibly because it's not entirely clear what you're looking for. Are you interested in the kind of training most pilots get when they just start out? Or what's necessary later on to fly big airliners? Or what? I'll take a stab... I'm not a career pilot, I just fly for recreation and occasionally teach. So I'll take your questions from that perspective...

1) There was only one airport near me that I could get to without a car, and they had one flight school. There is no "application process" for training, if you are a US citizen, you just make an appointment and show up. If you're not a US citizen, you get a TSA background check first.
2) At first, by renting. A typical airplane rents by the hour, so money translates directly into time. Later, through having a plane in the family and going on fun trips (again: through the application of money).
3) "Rating" can mean a lot of things, there are many different kinds of them... I got both my Private and Instrument training at a Part 141 school in Bedford, MA.
4) No.
5) I call up a flight instructor and say, "Hey, can we go do a Flight Review?" and they say "Sure, when's good? How 'bout Saturday?"
6) N/A since I don't have a piloting career
7) Nothing that I can think of, there are lots of online resources and apps for pilots
8) They already are, and it depends on the nature of the course
9) Landings and Lazy 8's. Just takes practice.

Good luck,

Hi Kath,

First off, thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences with me.

I've left it a bit open-ended because I wanted everybody to hopefully tell they're own story as no 2 experiences are quite the same and all I'm really looking for are pain points along the way -- starting from the first time you thought about getting your PPL to the point of maybe considering an Airline Pilot Career and going about getting your CPL, Multui-Engine Rating, Instrument Rating, Flight Time, etc.

I want to understand where can I fit in on people's journey from hero to zero to help them have a smoother time doing courses online, renting planes for flight time, contact flight instructor's for flight time. Anything really that would make your day easier, through an online platform at your finger tips, would be a win for me.

Again, thank you for the response and if you would be looking to have a 15 mins chat with me on zoom and talk a bit more in depth about the subject (again, I won't pitch or sell anything, I'm just looking for , that would be fantastic, if not, it's been really great you've put in the time to tell me your story.

Cheers

 

[AndreiBlanaru]

*bump*