When 2 equals 4

When pushing a huge boulder up a large hill, the work is made much easier when loads of people show up to help.

Oh, and it is usually a lot more fun.

Everyone gets to celebrate as new plateaus are reached.

In the aviation industry, tens of thousands of us push, thankfully.

And yet, we’re never going to be done pushing that boulder — for the same reason doing a few push-ups once in a while doesn’t create a beach-ready body.

The boulder and the hill are a journey. A worthy one, to be sure.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Foundation is an organization that pushes as hard as anyone and harder than many.

Those Rusty Pilot Seminars AOPA hosts all around the country — I’m sure you’ve heard of them — they cost real money to put on. (Money that does NOT come from our AOPA membership dues, by the way.) They also work. For every 100 people who attend, 41 people sign on with a flight instructor to complete a flight review, knocking the rust from their pilot certificates.

I wish 41% of the people who signed up for a trial subscription to General Aviation News became paying subscribers…

In 2018, the AOPA Foundation raised just shy of $8 million, Foundation VP Jennifer Storm said as we chatted at SUN ‘n FUN 2019.

The Rusty Pilot program is just one of four You Can Fly initiatives the AOPA Foundation supports with the money it raises…from us all. The other initiatives are High School, which develops a STEM-based curriculum for schools to use, free of charge, to teach high school students using aviation as the focus; Flight Training, to help decrease the 80% student drop-out rate; and Flying Clubs, to make flying both more affordable and more social.

Here’s where I circle back around on the boulder metaphor.

You see, the Ray Foundation, which is an outsized supporter of all things aviation, has challenged the AOPA Foundation to raise $2 million by Aug. 31, 2019.

And for every dollar the AOPA Foundation raises, the Ray Foundation will match it, dollar for dollar up to $2 million.

So, like the headline reads, 2 can equal 4. But it’ll be a LOT easier if you help.

Your $20 donation becomes $40. Or $50 becomes $100. I won’t insult you by continuing. Multiplying by 2 is pretty basic math.

Put another way, if 1 in 6 of us certificated pilots (about 100,000 of us) drop a $20 bill in the foundation’s piggy bank, those $20 bills will equal $4 million.

Boom.

And those successful Rusty Pilot seminars will continue apace, alongside the other You Can Fly programs, thereby continuing to push the boulder up the hill.

Care to help push? Donate today.