"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:hZ69l.459303$TT4.400839@attbi_s22...
GA is definitely in for a hard road ahead in my opinion. The extremely
high costs vs the limited public access and required training can hold
few positive aspects for the community considering the current
economic situation.

Last week our airport's FBO (Jet Air, Inc.) spun off its aircraft rental
and pilot training operation -- lock, stock, and barrel -- to another
company (Iowa Flight Training). This is a new twist (as far as I can
tell) in that the FBO is dumping (what it perceives to be) a money-losing
operation onto a completely separate organization.

Both companies are pleased with this arrangement, and (IMHO) it could work
out to everyone's advantage. It will be interesting to see (a) how our
airport commission handles this (it's always been a requirement that the
FBO provides flight training -- but it didn't specify precisely *how* this
was accomplished), and (b) how successful a dedicated flight school can be
when compared to the traditional FBO model.

Our FBO has always said that flight training and aircraft rental was like
an anchor around their necks, dragging them down financially. I sure hope
the new folks do not discover this to be true, or this new arrangement may
be short-lived.
--
Jay Honeck


Our local FBO just keeps adding aircraft, the newest being a Cessna 400 in
the last week or so (KMQJ). They have a course with ground and flight time
so you can get checked out in it. I am considering doing it just for the
experience and the fun, I can't wait to deploy the speed brakes!