FFF,
Having a go does not make it a lesson. By the same token, having a go does not make Public Transport illegal. It all depends on what is in the ops manual,if passengers are being carried and so on.
There are some AOC operators providing air experience flights already.Tigers etc are used and participants can have a go provided that the requirments in the ops manual are observed.
Remember that to train pilots you must have an FTO unless you have an AOC. (RTF for PPL level training which does not require FTO)
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If the idea is that the trial lesson will gather new flyers into the school then that is a complete failure. Less than 5% will do any further lessons.
Why?
Look at how they are done;
You turn up, fill in some forms and wait round for a bit. Some person takes you into a small room and talks about lots and lots of technical stuff before quickly whisking you out to an awaiting aircraft of which you know nothing about. You take to the air and after a brief instruction you get a go. This is followed by a bumpy droning flight to a point where you with help from the instructor manage to see the vicinity of your house and than back to the airfield where the instructor lands the aircraft. Time for a bit of paper and some written info and a thanks please call again before the instructor walks away to greet some other poor sod.
I am surprised that even 5% of people want to continue.
What will attract people to flying is having an idea of what they can do after they get their licence and both liking that idea and using it as a goal to keep them going during the hard times of training lows.
There should be more time spent on getting across what the prospective pilot can do with their licence when they get it. A few trips with a capable PPL would do far more for promoting the club training than any 30 minute trial lesson and would cost far less. If that can not be arranged then at least a good briefing on the club, it's facilities, it's acheivements, it's members and so on is essential.
With only 5 or less in every 100 students getting past exercise 3 and some even doing it a number of times there must be one of two posibilities;
The instructor / training organisation are totally incompetent; or
The majority of students were there with no intention of doing anything more than the cheap jolly (public transport) flight.
Most of the new start PPL students (with no commercial aspirations) will have been a passenger with another pilot and liked the idea or traveled on business trips and liked the idea or they simply have a desire to fly and have contacted the club for further information. Note that none of those will come to the club via a 3rd party seller such as the famous name associated with the red letter day term.
I could bet that if 5% of trial lessons convert into students. less than 1% of those will have purchased a 3rd party voucher.
Thus one could argue, why bother doing any pre briefing at all. Do a safety briefing at the aircraft, explain in the air what the passenger needs to know to have a go and keep it at that. There are organisations out there that do that.
Would a 10 minute trial lesson that the student purchased and was introduced to the instructor in the aircraft, departed, flew a circuit, landed and then left the instructor in the aircraft be public transport?
Regards,
DFC