Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-28

school" consisted of "lean-to." with a
shop in which was an obsolete engine.
Work on this and on the WORKOUT war;
time plane was the ground course
The flying instructor never averaged
more than four hours day at best.
With 80 minutes to reach man. it took
him three weeks to complete the first
lesson for the $50 students, as there
was no flying on Saturday or Sunday.
Delays and bad weather ran this up
to more than a month. The 10-hour
course could be completed, then, with
good luck, in 20 months! During this
year and eight months the students
had to pay their own board and lodging
expenses in small town where side
jobs were not plentiful.
The result was inevitable. Students
went broke" and gave up. Some had
to borrow money to get home. And
those who did finish their instruction
had had such long intervals between
lessons that they were invariably very
poor pilots" They had little chance
Of getting commercial licenses and
earning living in aviation.
Drawing to Close.
But now the heyday of the "gyp'
schools is drawing to a close. Take the
word of Maj. Clarence NJ. Young for
that. Maj. Young is director of the
aeronautics branch Of the Department
a Commerce which is rating the
schools
Until now a school could advertise
complete course" he said, which
sounded we'll but didn't mean anything.
Our ratings will be as flying schools.
ground schools and ground and flying
schools. The approved flying schools
will be rated as private pilots schools.
limited commercial pilots schools and
the ground schools. So man wishing
to get license in any of the three
classes can tell at once whether GER
tain, school is qualified to teach him.
At present many of the schools give
what will not fall under the classical
ton Of private pilots course. Yet
many unSuspecting students have gone
to these schools expecting to graduate
and go into transport work. OF course,
there are good schools. too, but they
have suffered because of the 'shysters.
I believe the rating system will soon
expose the INSCRIPTIONS operators. We
don't force them to get ratings, but the
good schools are asking for them. And
1t will be hard to explain to proSpec-
tive students why an approved rating
has not been obtained, SO the 'ShySter'
will soon be an unimportant hanger-on -
Number Of Schools.
It Is impossible to state accurately
how many of the 400 listed schools in
the United States are good schools and
how many are "gyps." But it is signif1-
cant that out of the 400 only about
rs have applied for rating under the
new rating regulations. Probably by
the end Of the year $50 or 200 will have
applied. but this Is by no means certain.
Whether the others apply or not, the
result will be the same. The "gyps"
will be disapproved-and this will be
published for the benefit of the prospec-
tive student flyers.
Every one of the rating regulations
covers some point that is vital in flying
instruction points that have been
brought out by accidents in the last
few years, for the majority of accidents
have occurred to pilots with less than
so hours flying time-that is. students.
For instance. the rule requiring a
fairly large. safe field without obstruc-
tons is a direct result of trouble Of GER