(March 2011) — There’s a concept in the philosophy of science that inventions and theories occur when the time is right for their discovery. If that’s the case, then the time seems to be ripe for doing something to make a significant change in the general aviation paradigm.
The day prior to its Aviation Summit 2010 last fall in Long Beach, California, AOPA convened a group of some 100 aviation experts at what it called the AOPA Flight Training Summit. The gathering was organized to specifically address the problem of how to retain flight students once they’ve begun training. The pilot advocacy organization sponsored the summit in response to a reported student dropout rate that approaches 80 percent.
