Sometimes it takes a while to get going.
For years, many years, there have been a variety of programs designed to encourage the next generation of pilots.
One of the oldest and most impactful is the Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) Young Eagles program. For decades now, Sporty’s Pilot Shop has made its Learn to Fly course available for free to Young Eagles, an incredible value for would-be pilots.
And since August 2025, Young Eagles has a new feature available called Young Eagles Connect.
Students using the Learn to Fly course can now connect with a mentor through Connect. Maybe it’ll be the pilot who took the student aloft for their Young Eagles flight or perhaps another member of the EAA chapter that hosted the Young Eagles event.
This is exactly the formalized next step the Young Eagles program has needed. At the national level.
“Young Eagles gives kids their first flight and points them toward scholarships and grants,” wrote Raf Sierra in his recent column at AvBrief.com. He added that his EAA chapter “took it further with instruction, mentoring, medicals, and certificates. The program is now quiet as its leaders have aged. Local energy only goes so far, but the idea stands.”
Exactly.
As great as Young Eagles and Young Eagles Connect are, it still takes money to make an aircraft fly. And unless the aspiring pilot has a silver spoon they can pawn for lessons, they’ll likely need help.
AviationStart.org launched in April 2025 so students can find help financing their dream. Jamail Larkins, AviationStart’s founder, was a Young Eagles himself years ago. That one flight set him on his aviation mission.
Today, Jamail’s mission also includes finding as many sources of funding for flight training as possible. If you haven’t heard of Jamail, stop by the About Jamail page on the AviationStart.org website and you can learn why this is so important to Jamail.
And what do students, as they are learning to fly, have to look forward to? A lot, actually. If they’re willing to work for it.
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) recently released its list of Top 40 Under 40 awardees for 2025.
Scrolling through the list I stopped on Sierra Marie Curtis’ profile. Sierra, a Gulfstream G650 pilot, reflects on her journey. At one point, she “was a flight instructor at California’s Long Beach Airport (KLGB) when she connected with a business aircraft flight operation that needed a copilot. There, mentors gave her the opportunity to fly the Beechcraft King Air 350 and Cessna Citation 500 series, and she began working part time at Flight Safety International.”
There’s that word again: Mentor. If you look close enough, you’ll see it nearly everywhere in the journey of most pilots.
And there are 39 equally impressive awardees with inspiring career tracks. Some are pilots, but most on the list aren’t. After all, it takes much more than a pilot to make a plane fly.
In fact, Boeing’s most recent Pilot and Technician Outlook reports “a global need for 2.4 million new pilots, technicians, and cabin crew members by 2044.”
No doubt, there are opportunities out there.
I wouldn’t say we’ve got a well-oiled mill cranking out future aviation industry participants just yet. But it does feel like the apparatus is coming together.
While it’s taken awhile, and we still have much to do, it does feel to me like we’re starting to gain some traction.
Onward.
