AOPA Aviation Safety Seminars...

IK04

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I recently attended an AOPA FAAst team seminar and I was genuinely surprised by the demographics of the attendees.

Back in stone age, when I was learning to fly and working through all my ratings, these seminars were attended by a wide cross section of the aviation community and attending was a great way to learn from an experienced audience.

Back then, the room was full of steely eyed missile men, military heroes and eager pups- and everyone had something to contribute to the conversations, mostly due to the massive amount of flying that was going on in those days...

Not so any more...

When polled, of the 100 or so people in the room, there were maybe fifteen Commercial pilots, four or five ATPs, and the biggest shocker was I was one of only three Instructors in the room!
The rest of the crowd were either student pilots, one or two Private pilots and a whole bunch of non-pilots.

Needless to say, the discussions were among the same six or seven people. The presenter knew most of them by name, so they must attend every seminar when they come to the area twice per year (or more often).

It's great to see people who are new to aviation attending these events, but without the graybeards, the exchange of experience, opinion and war stories just didn't happen.

The crowd looked more like the line for customer service at WalMart than a room full of the future leaders of the General Aviation world.

The one positive outcome for me was I got a cool, super bright pink pencil and a lime green ruler, as well as a calendar full of horrific refrigerator art. It wasn't a total loss...

Have any of you attended one of these seminars lately and had a similar experience?
 
The only time I have ever been with a gaggle of pilots where the median age is under 60 is at a Young Eagles event. Most of our EAA meetings probably have a median age of 75. I’d love to know how they got the young people and non-pilots interested.
 
What was the nature of the seminar?

All the ones I’ve been to are attended mostly by the older guys, almost all pilots or retired pilots. I mean old like @Sac Arrow ‘s age and up.
 
I have found the same thing. I’ve been attending a number of local seminars over the last few months since it seems like the local chapter of the WPA seems to be trying to get new members. The meeting room is usually overflowing. However, very few under 60, and when you begin to talk to some of those attending you find out very few that currently own a plane, either in whole or in part, and very few that actively fly. Then the speaker comes on and begins and suddenly, there are lots of “questions” which are not questions at all but some antidote about an event 20 years or so ago. So time marches on, the speaker never really is able to get through her/his presentation and the evening is over. While I agree one can learn a lot about aviation from listening from those with must more experience, most of these seminars are point specific, e.g., runway safety or radar services at a specific airport, or new arrival and departure procedures. Unfortunately, never get to hear the information the speaker has come to present. Suffice to say, I can find a better way to spend my time.
 
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