Date of Award
7-2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Aviation
Department
Aeronautics
First Advisor
Brooke E. Wheeler
Second Advisor
Meredith Carroll
Third Advisor
Isaac Silver
Abstract
The purpose of this study was two-fold: to examine the difference between students who had obtained a private pilot certificate from a residential collegiate flight program and students who had obtained a private pilot certificate from a non-collegiate flight program in a) pilot performance and b) time spent completing commercial and instrument flight courses. A supplemental analysis of the differences in the number of lessons required to complete commercial and instrument flight training was also conducted as a further comparison between pilot groups. This study utilized an ex post facto, effects-based methodology and design with data derived from a university flight program’s archived flight records spanning a five-year period. A census of the commercial and instrument student records was used to provide the following: the sum of graded lesson objectives in each course, the ground and flight hours completion for each course, and the number of lesson attempts in each course. Independent-samples t tests conducted on the graded activity sums indicated no significant difference between pilot groups. MANOVAs conducted on the ground and flight times within each commercial and instrument course revealed a significant difference between pilot groups in the first of three commercial pilot courses. Follow-up univariate ANOVAs further revealed a significant difference in ground instruction time required with non-collegiate trained private pilots requiring more ground instruction time than collegiate trained pilots. No other time-related significant findings between pilot groups were identified. Mann-Whitney U tests on the lesson attempts indicted a significant difference between pilot groups in the first of three commercial pilot courses with non-collegiate trained private pilots requiring more lessons than collegiate trained pilots to complete the course. Findings of this study build upon existing research and contribute to a greater understanding of collegiate flight training with a focus on improving integration of non-collegiate trained private pilots into the collegiate training environment.
Recommended Citation
Cihak, Anton William II, "Follow-on Student Pilot Performance Differences Based on Private Pilot Training in a Residential Collegiate Program or Non-Collegiate Program" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 8.
https://repository.fit.edu/etd/8