President's Perspective: Sharing the Joy

Welcome to the Flight Training Web site, published by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. (You probably know us better as AOPA.) When you look around the airport parking lot, perhaps at your flight school, you can't help but find our distinctive wings decal on the back windows of many cars. Our more than 345,000 members, representing more than 55 percent of this nation's pilots, are proud of their 60-year-old organization. Many acknowledge that general aviation as we know it would be available to fewer people if not for the work of AOPA. Members also exclusively receive AOPA Pilot magazine, the largest circulation aviation magazine in the world.

As we embark on continuing the fine tradition of publishing Flight Training magazine, you might ask why AOPA now has two magazines. The answer is simple. While AOPA Pilot carries a great deal of material useful to new pilots and CFIs, we felt the unique concerns of flight training deserved more extensive treatment than AOPA Pilot could provide. Over the many years of AOPA's existence, members have ranged from new student pilots with the ink still wet on their first logbook entry, all the way to airline transport pilots with thousands of hours in the left seat. One size just doesn't fit all, and, when you are learning to fly, a magazine devoted 100 percent to you and your flight instructor makes good sense.

Regular readers will see virtually no change in Flight Training. It's a fantastic magazine, and we aim to continue its record of steady, careful improvement. We will always be open to your suggestions, and we promise to maintain the highest standards, both as dedicated pilots and as publications professionals.

I want to stress that point: All of us at AOPA are pilots first and foremost. While our publications staff is highly professional (witness the outstanding quality of AOPA Pilot), their skill level as pilots covers all certificate levels. Several AOPA staff members are students, some just obtained their private ratings in the last few months, and others are flight instructors.

Like many AOPA employees, I have been a pilot for more years than I would like to admit. But the one thing that any pilot will tell you is that they never forget their student experiences. I still remember the 'N' number of that Cessna 150 I 'banged' onto the runway as a student practicing touch and goes. No pilot ever forgets the name of his or her first flight instructor; the one who let him take the controls and made him think he was flying, even though the instructor's hand was within an inch of the yoke, and his feet were resting lightly on the rudder pedals. None of us at AOPA has ever lost the memories of our first solo flight. And after more than three decades, I can still name the airports where I landed to fulfill my solo cross-country requirement. Hence, you will find that the new people publishing Flight Training magazine are as motivated and challenged by this new assignment as you are by your training.

For many of you, just mastering that flare or handling the slightest crosswind on landing seems like a monumental task. Our goal at AOPA is to assist you through this process. We believe that a magazine designed exclusively for you best serves this purpose. But, behind that magazine is an organization that will continue to serve you throughout your aviation endeavors. Whether you are headed for a career in aviation, or are just learning to fly for the fun of it, like I did, the wealth of AOPA's flight training knowledge will be available to you in this magazine.

Right now, it's primary training, but soon you will be taking for granted those things which seem so awkward at the student stage. AOPA is here to follow you down that path, and provide not only education, but information and advocacy to keep flying safe, affordable, and fun. Check out our Web site (www.aopa.org) to get a closer look at the just some of the informational backing your magazine now has. Hopefully, you will come to know why more than two-thirds of this nation's flight instructors are members of AOPA, and our student members are three times more likely to obtain their private pilot certificates.

Flight Training will continue to offer the insight and counsel of experienced pilot-authors to help both instructors and pilots-in-training as they progress toward their goals in aviation. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is proud to be able to better serve the student and flight instructor community, and whichever of our magazines you read, perhaps both, there is one philosophy that is common to all levels of flying: A good pilot is always learning.