Bridging the gap

From the number and quality of services available for members, to the power of our advocacy efforts across the state and federal levels, I have been impressed and gratified to lead this association. However, one thing stands out to me that needs addressing, and I pledge to do something about it: the gap in our membership rolls.

We have a core age group of loyal and active members who have been with us for decades and who are passionate about this association and general aviation. You devour this magazine each month and make good use of our resources, such as Pilot Protection Services for both medical and legal issues. You support and stand behind our advocacy efforts, sending messages to your congressional representatives. You come to fly-ins and my Pilot Town Hall meetings with questions, suggestions, and support, telling me gratifying stories about why you’ve been a loyal AOPA member for so many years. Often, you introduce me to young aviators who remind me of myself many years ago. But this is where we have a gap. The average AOPA member is 61 years old. I know we are still a vibrant and passionate age group; however, we must start attracting younger members if we want to secure the power of AOPA’s voice and ensure the vibrancy of GA for decades to come. And these individuals exist. The number of active pilots has been growing for many years, with the majority being under 30 years old. Over the past year, I’ve learned that far too few young people know about and understand the value of AOPA. I want to change that.

Bringing young aviators out to our events and sharing the joy of flight is a great first step. However, that’s often not enough. We need to be leaning in to help them in their efforts to make aviation a core part of their life. I remember being a new pilot and wanting to immerse myself in aviation. I hung around airports, I stopped at open hangars and asked questions, I helped aircraft owners work on their airplanes and was often lucky enough to get asked to go flying in exchange. In my effort to build hours, I did everything I could to get into an airplane—renting aircraft with friends to fly home from college, ferrying aircraft for others, towing gliders every summer, and even going along with businesspeople on one-way trips and airlining home just to get a few hours of flying experience. Today’s youth have a harder time finding these opportunities given the fences that often exist and constrain airport access. In addition, there are fewer FBOs available that rent a compelling spectrum of aircraft. As such, the far more prevalent track for building time is to be a flight instructor. However, when airline hiring slows, the flight-instructor path for building time slows as well. It also often lacks the fun and joy of other types of flying. I believe AOPA has a huge opportunity to help young folks see the many opportunities in aviation and to support them in their pursuit.

Because young people consume information differently, it’s clear that we need to adopt different ways to communicate than we’ve used in the past. We won’t ever lose our valuable and important magazine, but we can change some of the ways we present our content—feature stories on young people doing amazing things in aviation (see “Pilots: Ashley Brown”); up our digital game with compelling videos (view “The Business Jet of the Future?” on YouTube); and communicate more effectively on social media (@flywithAOPA on Facebook and Instagram).We must start attracting younger members if we want to secure the power of AOPA’s voice and ensure the vibrancy of GA.

There’s also so much more to aviation today than flying for the airlines (it was my goal once too, so I am not discounting how great that career is), and AOPA is embarking on a journey to ensure that young aviators become aware of the many career and recreational opportunities within the aviation ecosystem and to help them navigate that journey successfully.

As president, I am putting these changes at the top of my to-do list and on the shoulders of our communications teams. You can help by looking for ways to expose more young people to aviation. If you meet a young aviator, tell us about them. Tell them about us. If you’re going to punch holes in the sky, take someone new to aviation with you. And this: brag about the benefits of your association. Tell them about our many victories, such as BasicMed and the Pilot’s Bill of Rights, and about the many resources we provide for aspiring and active pilots. Everyone is welcome in the world of general aviation—any age is a great age to be an AOPA pilot.

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AOPA President and CEO Darren Pleasance is a CFII and has flown more than 8,000 hours in more than 80 different aircraft.