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Old June 12th 17, 05:04 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Frank Whiteley
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Default FYI Soaring adventures may have filed Chapter 7

On Sunday, June 11, 2017 at 7:53:56 PM UTC-6, AS wrote:
On Sunday, June 11, 2017 at 11:30:27 AM UTC-4, SF wrote:
It's highly probable that Soaring Adventures has filed Chapter 7. We received a notice of filing from the US bankruptcy court for a Robert Wilkinson, in CT. No mention of Soaring Adventures in the filing, however Soaring Adventures is the only connection between our club and Robert that we can come up. It looks like there was no separation between his personal finances and the business, Ouch.

So for those operators out there that still accept their ride vouchers, you might want to reconsider continuing to do so. We got stuck holding the bag on one of them, and have received phone calls from other customers wanting to use their ride vouchers with us.

SF


Should we start a running bet on how long it will take for that guy to re-incorporate under a slightly different name and continue his practice?
Uli
'AS'


That is highly unlikely. Soaring Adventures of America AKA Robert Wilkinson, was an SSA Business Member for over twenty years. He did not renew his SSA Business Membership last year. I reached out to him in 2014 over some slow pay issues that came to the attention of the SSA (not from a gliding operation). The SSA also reached out again after a soaring operation complained of slow pay. That operation never told the SSA that they were paid, but we did follow up to find that they were. Up until that time, they were happy with redeeming the ride certificates. Robert had also been active on Yelp and other review sites and actively resolved complaints, including offering refunds to purchasers.

When business was good, he apparently donated rides to charitable organizations for their fundraising efforts and paid the providers. In his day, Robert personally logged over 6,000 gliders rides. He is 81 and blind in one eye. IIRC, his wife had some health challenges 2-3 years ago. I've never met him, but did discuss his slow pay issues a couple of years ago. His business model was to advertise nationally in major newspaper markets. That model started faltering about three years ago as people are now getting their news online. He appeared to dabble with Facebook without much success. The offerings besides glider rides were balloon rides and skydiving jumps. SSA received a complaint from a skydiving operation in Texas a few months ago. The matter is apparently now out of Robert's hands and is a matter for the court and his trustee. Creditors have until 8/23/17 to file proof of claim. It appears that notifications are being made to his creditors that proof of claim will be required.

One can argue that selling gift certificates for others to redeem is a questionable model. The SSA and it's business members have run into less scrupulous operators (those that churn companies) and have acted against them. Until the first slow pay report appeared on RAS (again, not a glider operation), as far as I know, the SSA had not received a complaint about SAA. I had enough difficulty in reaching Robert Wilkinson directly, I reached out to the listed Registered Agent on the CT SOS records, only to find he was retired and SAA was not a client of the succeeding law firm. When I did finally reach Robert Wilkinson, I advised him and requested he correct this, which he did.

Since the Wilkinson's co-mingled their personal and business dealings, they will lose their home in settlement with their creditors (and any litigants) and the business is shuttered. I suspect any goodwill that might have existed 3-4 years ago is sullied.

Robert Wilkinson did not reply to SSA attempts to contact him about the situation over the past 18 months or so. I had discussed not renewing his SSA Business Membership with staff last year, but it was moot as he did not renew.

Frank Whiteley
970-330-2050