The month of April was one of the greatest flying months I have ever experienced. I thought that the month of March was great because I had 13hrs of flying time, but since I flew 18hrs in the month of April, I was very happy and satisfied. Despite the fact that my work commitments stopped me from attending the Sun n Fun 2015, as I originally planned, I have no complaints. I still hope that I will fly to Oshkosh this summer.

This month I was unable to think about a specific subject for “from the cockpit” column! Unlike the other months, which I had specific and clear idea what From the Cockpit is about a few weeks ahead of publication date.

The reason behind this indecisiveness on the subject was because I was thinking about multi-issues all related to the flying. I see them as pressing issues but was not able to pick one of them. Norm reminded me twice (thanks Norm) about the article, and then I decided to talk about all of the issues. I was thinking about the declining club membership and our discussion about the need for more ultralight instructors. In the last two months, it seems that we have one instructor added to our club membership and for the first time we had three new members in one month which is great news. I am aware of another two members thinking of obtaining their instructor license. I am looking for more advancement in our goal of having more ultralight instructors so we can put more pilots in the sky.

I was also thinking about a workable business model. One that can attract new flying enthusiasts, who don’t own an airplane, to come together, buy an ultralight, get their training in the plane and then enjoy the freedom of flying in their own toy. What I mean by business model is not the profit side of the equation, but the legality, administration, maintenance, insurance etc. Last month we kicked off the discussion during the monthly meeting, and I hope that we can keep the discussion going until we come to a viable solution(s) around this important issue.

The most pressing issue that I was not able to dismiss and kept thinking about is the pilot salaries, especially the junior pilots. Junior pilot salary level is low to the level makes it prohibitive to the new pilot to sustain their life without picking second and may be third day/night job to make their ends meet. It is astonishing how the aviation business is taking advantage of pilots love to fly and marginally dampening their salaries. Junior pilots are in need to accumulate hours so they can apply for big chartered or commercial airlines jobs. With low salary for their first few hundred hours the junior pilots are forced to take other day/night jobs which negatively impact their ability to fly, which eventfully places more pressure on their ability to accumulate the required airtime. I understand that our club mission is not to resolve junior pilot low salaries, but I am a firm believer that the well-being of all the aviation industry components is necessary to the growth and the well-being of general aviation.

Finally, after a great winter like the one we had, I see this spring is great as well, though it is a bit windy. I hope we will have a great flying season. Make sure that your airplanes are ready, enjoy your flying and fly safely.