Community Aviation / The Standard

For all who came here to fly.

The Learn-Do-Fly Training Standard — a free, open framework for general aviation. Authored by Rich Stowell, Master CFI-Emeritus. Stewarded by Community Aviation. Free to download, free to adopt, no license required.

Download the Standard →

Free PDF. We'll let you know when the next version drops.

In a recent measured comparison at AirVenture, only 11% of participants rated conventional flight training as doing a good job. The same group rated training built on the Learn-Do-Fly approach in the 80s.

Who it's for

For flight schools

Stop losing students between instructors.

Your dropout problem isn't about price. It's about handoffs. Students lose momentum when an instructor leaves for the airlines, when the front desk can't answer the first question, when the next CFI wants to start over from lesson one. The Learn-Do-Fly Standard gives every instructor on your roster the same framework, the same vocabulary, and a portable record that travels with the student — so progress survives the change.

For instructors

Your best lessons. Repeatable.

Right now your best lessons happen when everything clicks. The Standard makes that the floor, not the ceiling. It gives you the bones of every lesson — the principles, the sequence, the vocabulary — so what you bring on top of it is your judgment, your voice, your examples. Teaching from a framework instead of a syllabus means you stop rebuilding the same lesson and start refining it.

For pilots

Training worthy of what you're preparing to do.

Most student pilots don't know what good instruction looks like — they assume what they're getting is what they're supposed to get. The Standard gives you a different lens. You'll know what a principled lesson looks like, how to recognize when you're not getting one, and how to ask for something better. The goal isn't a checkride pass. It's a pilot who can think and adapt for the rest of their flying career.

The author & the work

Rich Stowell

Master CFI-Emeritus · 2006 National Flight Instructor of the Year

Rich Stowell has specialized in emergency maneuver, spin, aerobatic, and tailwheel training since 1987. More than 9,600 hours of flight instruction given. More than 36,000 spins. A recognized subject matter expert on inflight loss of control whose instructional techniques, writings, and presentations have reached well over 100,000 pilots worldwide.

About the standard

The standard was always there. Now it has a name.

The Learn-Do-Fly Training Standard formalizes nearly four decades of practice, experimentation, and field validation. Its framework converges independently with both the Wright brothers' 1910 training model and ICAO's framework for upset prevention and recovery training. It is not a new idea imposed on aviation. It is the standard that was always there, finally named and documented.

What that means in practice:

It's a framework, not a curriculum. Your school's syllabus, your instructor's voice, and your student's background all still belong. The Standard is the structural foundation underneath them — the bones, not the script.
It's pilot-centered. A student's record, vocabulary, and progression travel with the student across instructors, schools, and aircraft. The five-years-from-now version of a pilot still has their foundation.
It's measurable. The Standard produces evidence — patterns, outcomes, dropout reasons, what's actually working — that schools, insurers, and examiners can act on.
It's open. Free to download, free to adopt, customizable by the training provider, no license required. There is no platform to buy. The Standard is the framework; the platform (Flight Ops) is optional.

What's in the document

The Principles

The Nine Principles of Light Airplane Flying. The first principles from which all flying knowledge derives.

Why it matters: gives every lesson a foundation that doesn't get stale as aircraft, technology, and regulations change around it.

The Framework

The Learn-Do-Fly optimal learning sequence and the learning sciences that underpin it.

Why it matters: pacing, spacing, and sequencing built into the framework itself — so retention isn't left to the instructor's intuition.

The Vocabulary

Word Walls — a shared, precise language for instructors and students to use during instruction.

Why it matters: no more re-teaching what the last instructor called something. The student keeps the words. The next instructor picks up where the last one stopped.

The Calls to Action

What pilots, instructors, flight schools, and organizations can do in the next 12 to 24 months.

Why it matters: this isn't a theory document. It's a working plan with concrete moves for each role.

The Stewardship

Community Aviation's role as steward — and the invitation to join what comes next.

Why it matters: the Standard is authored once and evolved continuously. Early adopters help shape the next version.

The Back Matter

Appendices mapping the Standard to FAA ACS requirements, field evidence, and the full bibliography.

Why it matters: nothing in the Standard requires you to fight the FAA. The ACS mapping shows your examiner that what you taught is what's tested.

Flight schools

Building a flight school program on the Standard?

We're onboarding a limited number of flight schools to build Flight Ops alongside us — the platform that operationalizes the Standard end-to-end (scheduling, lesson plans, student progression, instructor handoffs, owner dashboards). If you want a platform built on this foundation from day one, that conversation starts here.

Talk to us →