Pilot Census

pilotcensus.com

Where the American pilot population is actually heading.

The FAA publishes its complete airmen certification database every month, and a headcount is the least interesting thing in it. The questions worth answering are directional: is the student pipeline filling or draining, how many students actually convert to private and then to commercial, where are instructors accumulating hours before they leave for the airlines, is the mechanic population aging out faster than it is being replaced, which states are gaining pilots and which are quietly losing them. Pilot Census diffs every monthly snapshot against the last, which is the only way to see flow rather than stock, and publishes the trend lines that flight schools, airlines and reporters currently have to guess at.