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Found a Need like MJ in the Aviation Field. Am i headed in the right direction or chasing a fulfilled Market?

LamboKing

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Thanks to a new friend, i see a potential need in flight/aviation. The idea is to create the limos of aviation lol.

The Primary target is flight students and aircraft owners who want to hire a more experienced co-pilot, commercial pilot. for 30-40$ per hour of their time. The model is 150 pilots per state (5-10 across 20 regions), all averaging 10 hours of bookings per week, onboarding their current clients for the payment and scheduling system, and we feed them new clients through our advertising.

My friend says It’s a very large market. There are many sectors of aviation which we could cover.

The cost would be dictated by the aircraft rental costs, pilots rate, we take a small fee. Pilots can freely post their profile. Firms/schools might need to pay and contract to be advertised on our platform. We would do that manually by having a meeting with them.


Just wanted to know someone have and insights or advice? This would be a partnership which we both would be building this from the ground up, advertising, marketing, investing the time and capital to bring it to fruition.
 
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Kak

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Thanks to a new friend, i see a potential need in flight/aviation. The idea is to create the limos of aviation lol.

The Primary target is flight students and aircraft owners who want to hire a more experienced co-pilot, commercial pilot. for 30-40$ per hour of their time. The model is 150 pilots per state (5-10 across 20 regions), all averaging 10 hours of bookings per week, onboarding their current clients for the payment and scheduling system, and we feed them new clients through our advertising.

My friend says It’s a very large market. There are many sectors of aviation which we could cover.

The cost would be dictated by the aircraft rental costs, pilots rate, we take a small fee. Pilots can freely post their profile. Firms/schools might need to pay and contract to be advertised on our platform. We would do that manually by having a meeting with them.


Just wanted to know someone have and insights or advice? This would be a partnership which we both would be building this from the ground up, advertising, marketing, investing the time and capital to bring it to fruition.

Very freaking cool. I love it.

What are you doing about type ratings?

What is the interface? An application?

Also this can reduce single pilot operation insurance cost and revolutionize flight training.
 

Scot

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Very freaking cool. I love it.

What are you doing about type ratings?

What is the interface? An application?

Also this can reduce single pilot operation insurance cost and revolutionize flight training.


Maybe I'm missing something here.. Is this like, Uber for CFI's?

Because, if I'm a GA pilot and putting around in my C172.. why would I want to hire a copilot for $40/4?

Also, if I'm a student, why would I hire random CFI's... Don't most students want to stick with a consistent trainer/course?
 

LamboKing

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Very freaking cool. I love it.

What are you doing about type ratings?

What is the interface? An application?

Also this can reduce single pilot operation insurance cost and revolutionize flight training.
Im deciding if this could be more cost effective to launch as a web application or ios to start. Also a rating system would be ideal.

Maybe I'm missing something here.. Is this like, Uber for CFI's?

Because, if I'm a GA pilot and putting around in my C172.. why would I want to hire a copilot for $40/4?

Also, if I'm a student, why would I hire random CFI's... Don't most students want to stick with a consistent trainer/course?

Exactly. Im wondering if its in the right direction a strong barrier to entry idea?

My plan would be to have it where students could have the opportunity select from a variety of instructors and view their ratings.
 
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InspireHD

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I'm trying to figure out what it is that you're offering. A student pilot getting a private license will need to have a CFI. A CFI is usually hired by a flight school that has all of the planes to be used. I guess you could find a CFI who has a plane and will rent it out to a student to teach them or that student already has their own plane and doesn't necessarily need to go to a flight school. That would probably be done under FAA Part 61 regulations.

You'll also have to research abilities of Commercial Licenced pilots as they would really only be able to do this if they are hired to fly someone else's plane. You cannot have a commercial license and taxi people around in your own plane unless you have a Air Carrier Certificate.

Check out the FAA regulations such as Parts 61, 141, 91, 135, and 121 (yes, they are out of order for a reason). Maybe you can find a way around it. I'm not well informed on commercial pilot restrictions.

Make sure you cover all of your bases too. The FAA doesn't mess around when it comes to their regulations. They've had businesses shut down.

Here is one example, which may detail something similar to what you are thinking of:

 

Scot

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I'm trying to figure out what it is that you're offering. A student pilot getting a private license will need to have a CFI. A CFI is usually hired by a flight school that has all of the planes to be used. I guess you could find a CFI who has a plane and will rent it out to a student to teach them or that student already has their own plane and doesn't necessarily need to go to a flight school. That would probably be done under FAA Part 61 regulations.

I'm also fairly certain you need to have specific insurance if you're doing training in your plane as well. After all, students put a LOT of wear and tear on landing gear and frame from not so graceful landings.
 

Scot

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Exactly. Im wondering if its in the right direction a strong barrier to entry idea?

Strong barrier to entry.. sure. But right direction... not so sure on that.

As a guy who got half way through pilot training but ran out of cash, I'd never cycle through CFI's. I want to find one I get along with and stick with them. Also, its not really that hard to find a CFI in all honesty.. its finding the plane at an affordable rate.

Now.. if you could find me a way to get a decent trainer or fun weekend plane for less than $150/hr wet.. then I'd be all over this app.

I heard a podcast ages ago that was essentially Turo for GA planes.. not sure what happened to it though.
 
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Kak

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Maybe I'm missing something here.. Is this like, Uber for CFI's?

Because, if I'm a GA pilot and putting around in my C172.. why would I want to hire a copilot for $40/4?

Also, if I'm a student, why would I hire random CFI's... Don't most students want to stick with a consistent trainer/course?

If you own your own plane and want to train in it or if you owner operate a more complex airplane or single pilot jet and want added safety factor for an unfamiliar flight for instance.
 
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Scot

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if you owner operate a more complex airplane or single pilot jet and want added safety factor for a unfamiliar flight for instance.


This I definitely get.. but is there a big enough market for a whole app that takes a 10% cut of booking fees from this?

And how many student pilots have their own plane to use? I’d venture less than 10%.

I’m just not seeing the scale here.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Just so I understand...

If I have an airplane and a pilot license, I can hire another pilot to fly my airplane somewhere for $30/40hr? Or, similarly, if I have a pilot license I can "Uber myself" to another person who owns an aircraft and earn $30/40 hour?

Example:

I own an airplane and have a license to fly it.

However I would rather hire someone else to fly it to Sedona, drop me off, and then fly back to Phoenix.

Is this correct?

If so, is $35/hour a rate someone who has a license accept? Seems a bit low.
 
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Kak

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This I definitely get.. but is there a big enough market for a whole app that takes a 10% cut of booking fees from this?

And how many student pilots have their own plane to use? I’d venture less than 10%.

I’m just not seeing the scale here.

Maybe not for PPL, but for instrument, complex and dual engines, turbine and jet it goes up.

A lot of jet owners start with a pilot because their travel needs can't wait for hours upon hours of training and they get hours while conducting business.

In business aviation, in contrast to the captain, copilots are shuffled around all the time.

Monitizing a pilot more than once might prove to be difficult however.

What about a turo style rental too?
 
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