Now That The SAFE Report Has Been Published, Let's Look At How It Started...

"General Aviation is facing decreased student starts, increased student attrition, a flat lined fatal accident rate, and stagnated growth...projections through 2025 regarding overall flight activity and aircraft sales are discouraging."

That was the premise of the Pilot Training Reform Symposium gathered by SAFE, the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators, in May 2011 in Atlanta. An ambitious agenda promised to produce industry and regulatory consensus on a culture change which might one day be recalled as what may be remembered as a watershed in general aviation.

The process was based on the idea that the future success of all general aviation stakeholders starts with highly qualified, confident, and professional instructors delivering an improved flight training product. Given the protracted gestation period of regulatory reform and its sometimes unintended consequences, the symposium was intended to define and approach GA's problems as an exercise in cultural change, not a rulemaking committee.

The outcome was a strategic multi-year plan jointly developed by all stakeholders, including the FAA. The symposium output is now available on a dedicated website, as iare the video proceedings of most of the symposium.

ANN's Jim Campbell was there for the event, and brought this report to viewers of Aero TV.

FMI: www.pilottrainingreform.org, www.safepilots.org, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews