Why the industry must move beyond reactive planning to thrive.
"Do you know that game at the fairground, where a mole pops up out of a hole and you have to hit it with a mallet? As soon as you’ve whacked one down, another pops up, and you just can’t get to them all fast enough … that’s what it feels like planning resources at a flight school. One week we’re short of single-engine aircraft, I’m solving that, and then we’re short of IFR instructors. Then, just as that seems under control, we’re short of examiners – it’s just whack-a-mole."
This vivid description from one of our customers perfectly captures the complexity and frustration of resource planning in flight schools.
Pilot training planning is inherently complex. With so many requirements to juggle, just one restriction can cause a bottleneck and disrupt the entire process, but in this industry these bottlenecks are generally dealt with as they hit. In our early days of planning, we just called it ‘firefighting’ – constantly extinguishing the hottest fires without ever getting ahead of the issues. This firefighting was one of the main reasons we decided to take the leap and create Aeroplanned. We envisioned how much smoother pilot-training operations could be if potential issues were identified early and resolved well in advance.
Implementing Aeroplanned into flight school operations has been an interesting journey. Transitioning to proactive planning and enhanced visibility doesn't happen overnight, especially when the flight school has been relying on spreadsheets (or sometimes even just a whiteboard!) for planning. Even the best spreadsheets lack the visibility needed to understand the plan, the specific problems, and the required solutions. There is too much complexity, too many involved areas of operation, too much change, to properly align while relying on manual methods. So, as we embark on this journey, we work with flight schools to introduce this visibility with our clever, specifically designed software solution. Great, right?! Well… actually, it can be quite confronting and … not so great.
Initially, Aeroplanned might reveal more ‘moles’ popping up than ever before… how many mallets do we need here?! Seeing everything at once can be overwhelming. However, as uncomfortable as it may be, this visibility is key – these problems already exist. It’s crucial to bring them to light and start resolving them.
One of our earliest customers recently shared their journey with Aeroplanned:
Phase 1 – Confrontation: “Is it really this bad?”
Phase 2 – Acceptance: “Yes, it appears so.”
Phase 3 – Action: “Ok, with this visibility, we can make practical, actionable plans for students and resources.”
Phase 4 – Implementation: “Phew, we’re all on the same page and moving forward, from high-level goals to daily schedules.”
Phase 5 – Assessing the Plan: “How are we progressing, and how are we adapting to the constant changes?”
With this customer, navigating the entire process – even the awkward initial phases - has been incredibly rewarding; their delays are now resolved, students are tracking slightly ahead of schedule and resources are optimised. Scenarios are being run to make the best decisions months, even years, in advance. What a buzz to see!
In an industry that has been forced for so long to work reactively, where whack-a-mole and firefighting are just part of the daily tasks, we think we can see the tide starting to turn.
It is possible to effectively plan despite all the changes and variables.
It is possible to anticipate problems and work proactively.
Let’s put down those whack-a-mole mallets and firehoses. Let’s focus on getting ahead, controlling what we can, and confidently adapting to whatever comes next in this ever-changing industry!
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