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… identifies an emerging group of “no monkey business” general aviation users, according to association president Phil Boyer. The long-time AOPA head, who is retiring at the end of 2008, was a keynote speaker at last week’s annual meeting of the Southwest Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives.

According to Boyer, AOPA originally did what he calls the psychographic analysis some ten years ago to determine why its pilot members fly. The pilots fell into five categories …

20% - ‘Be all you can be’
10% - ‘Auto pilots’ … little emotional reward; flying is “a job”
18% - The ‘experientials’ …those who fly for the experience
27% - The ‘evangelists’ … very emotional about flying and very active at the airport
25% - The ‘dreamers’ … they rent; don’t own; fly the least and aren’t active at the airport

The association recently redid the same survey, at which time the new “no monkey business” group surfaced. The latest results …

19% - ‘Be all you can be’
8% - ‘Auto pilots’
31% - ‘Experientials’
12% - ‘Evangelists’
11% - ‘Dreamers’
19% - the ‘no monkey business’ flyers … goal-oriented; “This is a means of transportation.”

In other words, the results show that, at a minimum, a fifth of GA pilots today see the aircraft as a tool, which falls in line with the growth of business aviation over the past 15 years. What may be a growing concern, however, is the significant drop in ‘evangelists’, those who Boyer calls the “poster children of GA” and the group that tends to be most active in airport issues.

Meanwhile, Boyer expresses concern in the continuing drop in the pilot population, which today he puts at less than 600,000 for the first time in 25 years. In response, AOPA has launched a “Let’s Go Flying” campaign to “cast a wider net” to attract newcomers to flying. Check it out at www.letsgoflying.com.

Thanks for reading. jfi