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.

About the author
Rich Stowell
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.

In a 2024 experiment at AirVenture, only 11% of participants said they were extremely satisfied with conventional flight training as doing a good job. Eighty-seven percent were satisfied with training built on our optimal Learn-Do-Fly approach, with 48% extremely satisfied.

Who it's for
Flight Schools
Stop losing motivated students between instructors.

Your dropout problem isn't about price. It's about the quality of instruction. It's about handoffs. Students lose momentum when their instructor leaves for the airlines, when the front desk is unable to answer the first question, when the next CFI starts 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.

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. What you bring on top of it is your judgment, your voice, your expertise. Teaching from a framework instead of a syllabus means you stop rebuilding the same lesson and start refining it.

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 to pass a checkride. It's to make flying everything you thought it would be — to turn you into a pilot in command who can think, adapt, and fly safely for the rest of your flying career.

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.

A Framework, Not a Curriculum
The bones, not the script.

Your school’s syllabus, your instructor’s voice, and your student’s background all still belong. The Standard is the structural foundation underneath them — consistent, portable, and independent of any single instructor or school.

Pilot-Centered
Progress that survives the handoff.

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 intact.

Measurable
Evidence, not intuition.

The Standard produces evidence — patterns, outcomes, dropout reasons, what’s actually working — that schools, insurers, and examiners can act on. Training becomes something you can improve, not just repeat.

Open
Free to adopt. No license required.

Free to download, free to adopt, customizable by the training provider. There is no platform to buy. The Standard is the framework — the platform (Flight Ops) is optional, and always will be.

What's in the document
01
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.
02
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.
03
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.
04
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.
05
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.
06
The Back Matter
Why it matters: the Standard supports the FAA's stated goal of airmanship through correlation-level learning. The ACS mapping shows how the Standard and certification standards mesh.
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.

The Learn-Do-Fly Training Standard is open. Free to adopt. No licensing required.