h t t p://w w w . auxpdept.org/pdf/2009Survey.pdf

An interesting observation: 286 respondents claim to own an aircraft, yet only 166 list themselves as pilots.

Anybody else but me find this strange?

quote:

h t t p://w w w . auxpdept.org/pdf/2009Survey.pdf

I guess this is along the same lines as 2,913 respondents report they own a power boat but only 1,490 say they're coxswains. Whatever the reasons, that's a lot of potential assets.

It's possible that this comes from married respondents. Where both own the asset, but only one is the pilot or coxwain.

Another possibility is that the people recently joined the auxiliary and are working on those qualifications.

quote:

Originally posted by 18220692:
h t t p://w w w . auxpdept.org/pdf/2009Survey.pdf

An interesting observation: 286 respondents claim to own an aircraft, yet only 166 list themselves as pilots.

Anybody else but me find this strange?

Due to the vagaries of the Aux Air quals for piloting a facility you could be a 25,000 hour 747 driver and still not be qualified to fly your own aircraft under orders.
Likewise you may be able to navigate a boat to Hawaii and back and still be "unfit" to drive an 18' boat across the river.
After a few years nothing is strange anymore. Illogical phenomena rule the day and that's normal.

Actual experience in the Auxiliary suggests otherwise. There have always been more pilots than aircraft.

And, if the survey results are to be believed, a much greater percentage of aviators responded disproportionately to that of the boating community. Extrapolated out, it results in a population of flyboys that far outnumbers current total numbers.

Give me statistics and I will make them say anything I want. They are also opened to the same interpretation

Just because one holds a FAA pilot rating or owns an aircraft doesn't mean they have jumped through all the hoops to become an Aux. pilot or offer their aircraft as an OPFAC. Yet they are still pilots and aircraft owners. The survey wasn't specific about that point.

quote:

Originally posted by 18220692:
Actual experience in the Auxiliary suggests otherwise. There have always been more pilots than aircraft.

And, if the survey results are to be believed, a much greater percentage of aviators responded disproportionately to that of the boating community. Extrapolated out, it results in a population of flyboys that far outnumbers current total numbers.

Maybe it was ACORN, practicing for the upcoming census.

286 respondents claim to own an aircraft, yet only 166 list themselves as pilots.

The 166 list themselves as Auxiliary qualified pilots. Somoene else noted that an FAA pilot and an Aux qualified pilot are not the same thing. A member can own a plane, be an FAA pilot and never Aux qualify as a pilot or lose his qualification. You can determine the latter by going into AuxInfo and looking at the number of lapsed pilot quals. You have to look at the REYR number. The Aux stopped reporting the number of dead quals, ie REYR for more then 5 years.

The tale of the tape (REYR pilots):

Co-pilot 57
First Pilot 43
Aircraft Commander 107

The reason for the drop-off in Aux qualified pilots is well known. When the Aux boosted the maintenance requirements on the aircraft but didn't provide any additional funding to pay for the increased maintenance, many pilots dropped out of the program. Most did not sell their planes or give up their FAA license. So you end up with a lot of pilots who own planes but are not Aux pilots. Nor are these facilities available to the Aux since the owners will not conform the added maintenance burden.

Coxswains vs owners is partially expalined as someone else noted by family members where only one is coxswain qualified.

Further many members own boats but they do not offer them to the Aux. In my old flotilla, members owned at least twice as many boats as were ever offered as facilities. Many just did not want the expense of making them a facility.

Then D7 and maybe other districts made the problem worse. D7 started de-listing facilities in they weren't used in 6 months. That angered many members, especially non-coxswain owners, who couldn't find a coxswain to take their boat out. So you have more boats owned then qualified coxswains.

Question as a former member- Was this survey available for ALL members to participate in???

According to the document 5,774 members filled out the survey. AUXINFO states there is 31,860 "active" members, so less than 20% of the "active" membership participated in this survey. So, where's the rest of 'em??

I think those numbers alone negate the validity of this survey and make the questions that had an opinion style answer meaningless.

Remember when the PSI was 1st announced, first form a member had to fill out and submit was the PSQ. Had a two week ABSOLUTE dropdead submission date, and the AUX had to extend that "dropdead" submission date by what, something like 18 months.

Kinda like voting and elections in this country. Nobody shows up to vote, then everybody complains about who's been elected-JRC

When was the survey done?
Do not remember seeing anything about it.

I got a note about the survey from our FC yesterday. I thought it was the link to accomplish the survey. I, too, missed seeing it the first time around.

Robert Carr

quote:

According to the document 5,774 members filled out the survey. AUXINFO states there is 31,860 "active" members, so less than 20% of the "active" membership participated in this survey. So, where's the rest of 'em??

I think those numbers alone negate the validity of this survey and make the questions that had an opinion style answer meaningless.

Actually, a 20% return rate of voluntary surveys would likely be considered to be in the acceptable range for most surveys. Even in the military side, a 40-50% rate of return is considered good.

quote:

Originally posted by KD8FQM:
I got a note about the survey from our FC yesterday. I thought it was the link to accomplish the survey. I, too, missed seeing it the first time around.

Robert Carr

I remember it being advertised on the Aux. website and I also believe it was discussed on this website. My FC also contacted the membership and provided the link to complete the survey. I'm just surprised it took so long to compile and publish the results.

It was sent out as an email to the members - which could explain why the response was as small as it was. It was supposed to be in NAVIGATOR, but I don't remember if it ever showed up. Here's the text of the email:

"To All:
You were sent an invite to participate in a Member Survey.

We had a problem with the survey, and had to shut it down.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We have relaunched the survey and we invite you to please take it again.

Please follow this link to the new improved and active survey.

Please do not respond to this e-mail address with any problems.

This survey is coming from the National P Department under the Direction of Dante Laurino DC-P

Please contact the National P department with any concerns related to the survey.

To access the new survey please click on the link below:

http://www. surveymonkey. com/s.aspx?sm= htA3lh7cAsCvkHhbI56PMg_3d_3d [eliminate the spaces I inserted]

Thank you for your patience!

Dante Laurino DC-P

quote:

According to the document 5,774 members filled out the survey. AUXINFO states there is 31,860 "active" members, so less than 20% of the "active" membership participated in this survey. So, where's the rest of 'em??

20 percent completed the survey? Im not surprised. Most of our members are inactive.

Where in AUXINFO does it say that the Auxiliary has 31,000 active members?

quote:

Originally posted by CaptainBosco:

20 percent completed the survey? Im not surprised. Most of our members are inactive.

Where in AUXINFO does it say that the Auxiliary has 31,000 active members?

AUXINFO to AUXDATA Demographics cube, "ALL STATUSES" drop down menu, select "ACTIVE"

31,860 "active" members as of 18OCT09. I guess even the membership doesn't believe that number!!-JRC

quote:

Originally posted by Mightyz90_93:

quote:

According to the document 5,774 members filled out the survey. AUXINFO states there is 31,860 "active" members, so less than 20% of the "active" membership participated in this survey. So, where's the rest of 'em??

I think those numbers alone negate the validity of this survey and make the questions that had an opinion style answer meaningless.

Actually, a 20% return rate of voluntary surveys would likely be considered to be in the acceptable range for most surveys. Even in the military side, a 40-50% rate of return is considered good.

You rarely need more than 1,000 people to have a statistically valid survey of the entire country.

However, as usual, these results would be more interesting if broken out at least by District level and perhaps more.

It is probably true that those who answered are probably some pretty gung ho Auxies given that a fifth of respondents are AUXOP and a fifth were elected officers (probably some overlap).

The air community is probably WAY over-represented.

And a strong majority of Aux members do have email addresses in the database. That doesn't mean they are still the correct current address.

quote:

It is probably true that those who answered are probably some pretty gung ho Auxies...

Apparently so, given the overly optimistic replies to the stated queries. I'm sure there is some relationship of amount of chest candy a respondent has to the relative optimism of his response.

On the other hand, this sort of survey is the perfect opportunity for those who do have serious issues with how the Aux is being run to vent those feelings. They, more than anyone else, are going to be motivated to sound off.

What is most likely to be left out are those in the middle who are fairly satisfied with how things are going.