Youth has the future in Aviation?

At the Oostwold Airshow 2019, where I was present as a sponsor, I came across a long line of children, who were patiently waiting to get a signed poster with autographs of the Skywalkers, (you know those ladies who perform acrobatics on top of a Stearman) .

It's great to see that such a show touches so many youth and hopefully we will have many new skywalkers & pilots from it in the future!

Do you remember when and why you decided to fly?

I remember it exactly, it was not during one of the air shows my father took me to, or while reading one of his aviation magazines; it was due to a story told by my older cousin, who worked as a nurse in the Hospital, overhearing a doctor telling about a non-stop gliding flight from the Netherlands to France!

Over fourty years ago, as a teenager, my father allowed me to register for a summer gliding camp in the United Kingdom at the Kent Gliding Club, and this was followed by many years as a youth member of a flying club in the Netherlands (ZHVC based at MVKV)

I got my pilot's license in my twenties and there was especially the fun in the weekends of flying together with my flying buddies, at the beginning of my (pilot) life. (Incidentally, in an era with far fewer rules and airspace restrictions.)

How different the time is now, and especially in these challenging times we now are facing; certainly the youth members of flying clubs share the flying passion in exactly the same way as we did in the past, but it seems as if the pressure on the youth of today is many times higher, also without Covid-19 present.

School, study, (being an eternal student is no longer possible), many have part-time jobs and there seams less time to fly. The theoratical exam for the pilot's license now contains many more subjects and the student pilots have to study much more themselves, while we used to have all this arranged internally at our club.

And if they are going to fly, they have to take into account an ever smaller airspace in the Netherlands and more rules.

Many flying clubs have now also introduced a Safety Management System, whereby every incident must be reported and recorded. A very good measure to promote flight safety and to prevent incidents of which I am a great supporter as a pilot and as an aviation broker.

Because of all these changes, over the years more and more of the relaxed atmosphere and romance has been lost at the flying clubs, don't you think?

Will the youth want to keep flying in the future? Of course! I do not doubt that!

If we give our youth members a helping hand now and take them to an Airshow, (hopefully possible next year again) or telling a nice flying story might help!

Translated and amended for Linkedin from the original Dutch version; Published as column in the AOPA (Netherlands) Magazine juli 2019. Permission granted for this publication.

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