[a.alexeev.p]

Dear Fellow Pilots,

Having recognised the disputes that often arise around cost-sharing, I decided to research that topic as part of my university degree thesis. That would be extremely helpful and just take 6-8 minutes to fill in an anonymous survey with multiple choice questions. It is designed for both pilots and student-pilots. Opinions from commercial pilots are also very welcome, though it is desirable that you fly GA sometimes.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions and thank you very much for taking time to read my post.

The survey could be accessed through the following link: [link not available anymore]

Kind regards,
Alex

[PeteSpencer]

I tell you what, I'll fill in your questionnaire if you promise, once the thesis is complete, to come back here and pubish the findings, and don't just disappear into the sunset clutching your newly-acquired degree.

I've lost count of the number of student/research questionnaires I've completed on here over the last 15 years: Only a minute fraction of the originators ever come back with details of their findings.

It makes our participation, as a captive bunch of pilots a rather hollow and futile exercise.

Peter

[a.alexeev.p]

Dear Peter,

Thank you for your reply! I apologise I didn't explain the proposal clearly - I prefer not to go into details right now, but findings are absolute minimum that I am going to give back to the community... I might not be able to share everything till about December though, so please be patient Any other questions you might have please feel free to get in touch.

Best,
Alex

[TopCat]

Why the granularity of the 'in-command hours' question?

The vast majority here will have over 100.

[a.alexeev.p]

Thank you for your question! I have noticed that most operations manual in clubs etc would have reduced restrictions for pilots with 100+ in-command hours ie such pilots are considered safe an experienced in my interpretation. On the other hand many concerns expressed on social media re cost-sharing is that low hour pilots participate in it, so a more detailed breakdown was used for anyone below 100.

[GolfHotel]

I never got past the hours question. Splitting that into 7 sections with one for 100+ struck me as strange. Now to hear that anyone with over a hundred hrs is “considered safe” in your interpretation helps me understand where your are coming from. That’s the number a flight sharing app uses I understand.

Well we have recently been treated to someone with more than those hours getting into an entirely predictable situation where his passengers showed more airmanship than he did. Guess what he uses the cost sharing app as well.

For those reasons I wish you luck but “I’m out”

[flybymike]

Judgment often has little to do with experience.

[FlarePath]

Not convinced that your final outcome will actually be "meaningful" for the aviation "community" the questions are IMO not going to give you what you want. You say you would like student pilots to take part in a survey about cost-sharing, well they will only have opinions and nothing more because of being students.

Asking for "In-command" hours including P1 is confusing. Questions about Co-pilots, again at the type of GA the survey seems to be pitched at, this is irrelevant.

"Sharing dutys on different sectors" this is commercial GA not what this is about?

Are you a Pilot "Student" or just a uni student?

The survey is headed....."Flight Sharing" that is totally different from "cost sharing" ie Flight shared two pilots each pay their own flight time. ie: IOW and back one out one fly's back, "Cost shared" "Wingly" or just a pax who pays the pilot a a sum of cash for the flight.

IMO you need to take someone on-board who has experience of GA from a flying perspective and talk them about what you are really trying to achieve.

I did fill out your survey but.........


Good luck anyway.

[flybymike]

Sharing dutys on different sectors" this is commercial GA not what this is about?

Plenty of PPLs share “flying duties”although what percentage of PPLs would use a sharing app for this purpose I have no idea.

[a.alexeev.p]

I never got past the hours question. Splitting that into 7 sections with one for 100+ struck me as strange. Now to hear that anyone with over a hundred hrs is “considered safe” in your interpretation helps me understand where your are coming from. That’s the number a flight sharing app uses I understand.

Well we have recently been treated to someone with more than those hours getting into an entirely predictable situation where his passengers showed more airmanship than he did. Guess what he uses the cost sharing app as well.

For those reasons I wish you luck but “I’m out”

Thank you very much for your input! Thinking through this I would still stand that on average a pilot with 20 hour in-command experience is less experienced than 100 hour one, but agree that it is definitely not the rule. I really appreciate your criticism though and it would definitely help me with writing a discussions chapter of my work

[a.alexeev.p]

Not convinced that your final outcome will actually be "meaningful" for the aviation "community" the questions are IMO not going to give you what you want. You say you would like student pilots to take part in a survey about cost-sharing, well they will only have opinions and nothing more because of being students.

Asking for "In-command" hours including P1 is confusing. Questions about Co-pilots, again at the type of GA the survey seems to be pitched at, this is irrelevant.

"Sharing dutys on different sectors" this is commercial GA not what this is about?

Are you a Pilot "Student" or just a uni student?

The survey is headed....."Flight Sharing" that is totally different from "cost sharing" ie Flight shared two pilots each pay their own flight time. ie: IOW and back one out one fly's back, "Cost shared" "Wingly" or just a pax who pays the pilot a a sum of cash for the flight.

IMO you need to take someone on-board who has experience of GA from a flying perspective and talk them about what you are really trying to achieve.

I did fill out your survey but.........


Good luck anyway.

Thank you very much for taking your time to both fill in the survey and comment with some insights. You are absolutely right that it might be meaningful or it might be not... I had to avoid bias in the replies and therefore did not go into all details in terms of my hypothesis though the question of the research is " Could the existing model be modified...?" so if the answer is "no" it is not so meaningful, but I promise I will try.

Please note that student pilots version of the survey is slightly modified and once they identify themselves as a student-pilot some of the questions are omitted, though opinions is a good starting point for me anyway:)

Do you mind just briefly touch on the co-pilot side? I appreciate that GA operations are single-pilot, however noticed that pilots do fly with other pilots who might be helping with frequencies, transponder, nav and lookout... So, if you could propose a better term that I could use to describe such "co-pilot" that would be hugely appreciated. Same when it comes to talking about "sectors" ?

I am a PPL pilot with night rating and 100ish total 40ish command hours and a uni-student. Also a foreigner so please don't be too harsh re my English.

Thank you for having such high attention to detail - I will double check depending on what was meant in each specific question

[Paul_Sengupta]

So, if you could propose a better term that I could use to describe such "co-pilot"

Task sharing?

[Maxthelion]

Alexeev, you done the same thing that all the students coming on here wanting to do surveys do. You've created your survey without the input of a reasonably experienced pilot. If you want these people to fill out a questionnaire then the best way to present it is in terms that they, as pilots, will understand. Most of the members of this forum are experienced pilots who find it irritating to be asked to participate in surveys that so frequently contain terms that are not relevant to them, but also, many of us will cheerfully give you some of our time to help you prepare your survey to make it non-irritating.

Good luck with it, hopefully you'll get some meaningful data anyway.

[a.alexeev.p]

So, if you could propose a better term that I could use to describe such "co-pilot"

Task sharing?

Love it!

[a.alexeev.p]

Alexeev, you done the same thing that all the students coming on here wanting to do surveys do. You've created your survey without the input of a reasonably experienced pilot. If you want these people to fill out a questionnaire then the best way to present it is in terms that they, as pilots, will understand. Most of the members of this forum are experienced pilots who find it irritating to be asked to participate in surveys that so frequently contain terms that are not relevant to them, but also, many of us will cheerfully give you some of our time to help you prepare your survey to make it non-irritating.

Good luck with it, hopefully you'll get some meaningful data anyway.

Thank you Maxthelion for constructive advice. As the survey is designed for pilots and not just experienced pilots there would probably always be some group that will come across irrelevant irritating questions. Anyone is free to close or interrupt the survey at any point they wish and if no relevant answers are suggested - in many cases free text entry answers are welcome. Either way, I promise I'd give fair criticism to my research in the discussions section using the feedback provided Thank you once again for your time.