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#21
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"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:uJDZe.402545$xm3.398599@attbi_s21... How about putting ads in the Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Quad Cities, etc., newspapers with reduced room rates if an intro flight is taken? Guests can take an intro flight either at IOW or bring a coupon saying they took one recently someplace for the discount. Say if a room is $75/night without a intro flight or $65 w/intro flight included, I would take the intro flight just for the discount. I personally think that's a great idea, but our local FBO is not keen on teaching people to fly. For them it's, at best, a break-even business venture -- or, at least, that's what they like to tell us. Your local FBO, and mine, and all the others are going to be sucking serious wind in 10 years, maybe less because they are not turning over every rock in sight trying to find and train new pilots. Once all the old guys (no slight here, but the aviation crowd is a very old demographic) stop flying, the GA market is going to contract in a huge way, and the sales of fuel, accessories, airplane rental, and everything else is going to drop like a rock. The odd thing is that the FBO's don't seem to realize that they are cutting their own throats when they don't recruit new pilots and/or when they try to do anything more than break even on student pilots. In many businesses, there is a loss leader which is used to get the consumer in the door, with the next step being to upgrade that customer to something more profitable. Our FBO's need to adopt the same principle, and forget profiting on PPSEL students. Once folks are pilots, that's when the FBO's stand a chance to make money in rentals, rating upgrades, fuel, etc. My home FBO, for instance sold its fleet of C-152's ($42/hr) a few years ago and replaced them with C-172's ($75 - $120/hr, depending on the airplane). Simulataneously, they upped their primary training instructor rate from $21/hr to $35/hr. That took the cost of dual instruction from ~$65/hr wet to ~$110/hr wet, even in the FBO's doggiest C-172. For the student who only needed 20 dual hours and 20 solo hours to "graduate", those changes added ~$1,600 to the cost of getting a PPSEL. We *do* offer 30 minute flights for up to 3 people for just $75 bucks through them, which is a GREAT deal nowadays. (It was $60, until the latest gas price run-up...) -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#22
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What Jim Burns said, plus....
Glass Cockpit ground school!!! G-1000 and Garmin 430/Entegra |
#23
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It seems to me that you have to look at it from an FBO/Flight
Training/Airport/Pilots Groups point of view. Rather than the hotel being their destination, the event or the service must be the destination. The package and the hotel are the reason that they want to do it at IOW rather than at home. So, how do you get more out of town people to the airport and keep them there overnight? Misdirect a loaded airliner into IOW. Ideas and a few that I've actually been involved in. Wings Weekends Weekend Ground Schools HP/Complex Weekends Glider Weekend Aerobatics Weekend Maintenance Weekend Basic Maintenance Package Deal Pinch Hitter Course Iowa City Alexis Park Inn Aviation Seminars and Pig Roast featuring the Beer of the Week CFI Refresher Clinic Wings Weekends can be done if your FSDO is capable of doing a safety seminar per your request. If your FSDO is currently broke (like Wisconsin's) they may authorize a CFI nearby to be the Safety Councilor and qualify him to conduct the Safety Seminar to complete the Wings Program. That's what they've done here in Wisconsin. You tell them what you want to do, they help you get info and materials, then approve your seminar and give you the Wings Certificates. Weekend Groundschools. You could get Aviation Seminars to come in for a weekend, or if you want, I can put you in contact with a couple CFI's near me that do them for Private and Instrument. These can draw students from far and wide because there are students everywhere that like the finality of these programs and "just want to get it over." They also appeal to students who can't attend the traditional weekly classes. We've also done a couple HP/Complex Weekends. Ground training and 2-3 hours training in a HP/Complex airplane. We were lucky enough to have a rental on the field, but I know of several CFI's that came to us and rented the 182RG to take it to their location to do the same type of program. One problem that students are having is that some of the smaller 2 year aviation programs do not own their own HP/Complex, and it's up to the students to get that endorsement on their own. Is there a secondary school aviation program in Iowa City? Glider Weekend. This one could be tough. If you could contact your recent glider friends and talk them into coming down to IOW with a glider and tow plane, you may be able to pull it off. Basic aerobatic instruction and demonstrations may also bring interested pilots. Maintenance Weekend. Have several A&P's put on demonstrations and give talks about maintenance that airplane owners can perform and what renter pilots should be knowledgeable of. I'd skip the annual thing, most people have pointed out the obvious reason of needing something that wasn't available or not being able to get parts on quick notice or during the weekend. BUT I would seriously consider oil changes, tire installs/inspections/rotations, brake work, plug cleaning, and mag timing/inspection, and fuel top off. For the right price that would be very tempting to fly in, attend an aviation seminar or two, send the wife to the masseuse, then have a great dinner and some "beer of the week". With pre-registration, you could get all the info to the A&P/IA so he would have everything in stock and maybe even be able to comply with some of the repetitive 100 hour type AD's. Even without the seminars, you could call it a basic maintenance weekend package, and it may appeal to individual pilots throughout the year. While any of the above is happening, you need to keep spouses busy and happy. Your in(n) house massage therapist, swimming pool, exercise room can be kept busy in this area. Day bus trips to Amana would no doubt also appeal to women. Artsy fartsy stuff may apply. Maybe even one of those in-house Tupperware or scrapbooking parties. You could also put on a Pinch Hitter Co-Pilot or Spousal Orientation Seminar. Mary would be awesome with this and not only put the pilot's wives at ease, but give them special insight into learning to fly and flying from a woman's perspective. Evenings would be open to wine or beer tasting and barbeque around the pool or in a banquet room. Do your local EAA chapters have a "regional" type meeting, where they invite EAA members from other chapters to a central event for the weekend? If not, get them to organize it and then work with them to offer different options for seminars, speakers, demonstrations, or any of the above. Same thing with CAP, let them play the host party to other chapters of the same organization for the weekend. Main thought is to bring in out of towners. Think of all the seminars at OSH. Those people just don't crawl in a closet when OSH ends, right Mr. Weir? Hunt up some local experts and ask them if they'd be interested in speaking. Company reps would also be people to talk to. I know Columbia flys around doing sales pitches, something like that would be a welcome break during a Weekend Ground school. I've never been to it, but that's basically what the Great Lakes Aviation Conference is, who knows, maybe in a couple years you'd have created the IOW Aviation Seminar Pig Roast Tupperware Party Symposium. Almost forgot.... http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182500-1.html Greg Gorak, from the Milwaukee area, does CFI Refresher Weekends (fri & sat) at hotels around the midwest. Maybe you can bring him in. Jim Burns "john smith" wrote in message ... Besides taildragger, how about HP, complex or other endorsement opportunities over a weekend? Also set up 'Wings weekends' that pilots could work on the 3 flight hours for the Wings programs with discounts on a room and CFI. 1. I agree, a WINGS WEEKEND program is a good draw for one weekend. 2. State maintenance weekend in collaboration with your local FSDO. Bring in A&P's, A/I's, manufactureres, vendors, FAA, state aviation officials. Two days for mechs to get recurrent training credit and update on the latest rules, regs, SB's, etc. One day set aside for pilots to attend maintenance seminars. 3. State aviation officials/airport managers conference. |
#24
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Jay Honeck wrote:
Iowa is (unfortunately for our airport, which had commercial service long before any of them) amply served by commercial service into Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Moline (Quad Cities)... So, if you cater to customers from overseas, you would have to arrange to pick them up at one of those airports. Would that be commercial use of Atlas? George Patterson Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks. |
#25
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The odd thing is that the FBO's don't seem to realize that they are
cutting their own throats when they don't recruit new pilots I've been telling them that very same thing for the last 8 years. Of course, in that time, we've had three FBOs, so they don't seem to be "getting it"... -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#26
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Thanks, Jim. I've printed this one out for Mary and me to peruse. There's
some excellent stuff in here! BTW -- Your potato harvest didn't cause you to miss much flying this weekend. Crappy weather! -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#27
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"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:zexZe.366651$_o.277188@attbi_s71... [...] I've talked to a couple of CFIs, and my favorite shop, and they're interested in trying it -- but I don't want to waste their money if the consensus here is that it's a dumb idea... Combo deals generally: I look closely to see whether I'm really getting a discount. Many are just marketing schemes to consolidate advertising costs. So make sure there's something significant in it for the consumer, on the order of 10-20% off. As far as the annual thing goes: no, I wouldn't have an unknown shop do my inspection. As a general rule of thumb, I would limit your combo deals to things that are valuable only at the immediate moment, rather than having a potentially on-going effect on the customer's life. An annual inspection in particular creates the potential for long-term headaches for the customer; even if you ensure yourself that the shop is reliable, the customer has no way to know this for sure. Responses to that kind of offer would probably be limited, IMHO. Rather than offering an annual inspection, maybe offer something like a free airplane wash, or an oil change, or something like that. I don't think you're crazy for considering combo deals, but make sure you think carefully from the point of view of the customer. Just because YOU know the deal is a good one, that doesn't mean the customer can be convinced. Pete |
#28
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Crappy weather put the potato harvest on hold until it dries out, so I was
able to escape to the airport. With 400 ft ceilings I couldn't fly, but I did pull her out and warm her up enough to change the oil. So I got a small airplane fix to hold me over! John Smith had a great idea about the GPS classes also. We did one at STE for the Garmin 430. Lots of pilots don't use 1/2 the features and aren't really up to speed on the 1/2 that they do use, especially renters. Jim "Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:WAJZe.367674$_o.31107@attbi_s71... Thanks, Jim. I've printed this one out for Mary and me to peruse. There's some excellent stuff in here! BTW -- Your potato harvest didn't cause you to miss much flying this weekend. Crappy weather! -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#29
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Do you have an instructor there that does tail-wheel endorsements? That
would be a good one. You might want to add something wives could do while the husband is flying. All of us aren't as lucky as you when it comes to flight interested wives. "Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:zexZe.366651$_o.277188@attbi_s71... Opinions, please! (No one on Usenet has any of *those*, right? :-) We're considering putting together a combo deal with a couple of other local airport businesses, along the following lines: 1. Come to Iowa City and stay the weekend in one of our aviation themed jacuzzi suites... 2. While you're here do your BFR with _________, a local CFII... 3. While you're here, have your aircraft annualed by ___________, a local shop with 40 years experience... 4. Any other suggestions? Tickets to a football game? Dinner at the Old Capitol Brew Works? Of course the package price would be very attractive -- much less than normal. I've seen these kinds of things for "Overnight IFR Training" and "Weekend Ground Schools" -- but do they work? Anyone ever done anything like this before? Would you feel comfortable having a strange shop annual your plane? (Or is that actually a selling point, having "new eyes" check things over?) I've talked to a couple of CFIs, and my favorite shop, and they're interested in trying it -- but I don't want to waste their money if the consensus here is that it's a dumb idea... Thanks! -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#30
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I don't think you're crazy for considering combo deals, but make sure you
think carefully from the point of view of the customer. Just because YOU know the deal is a good one, that doesn't mean the customer can be convinced. Yeah, that's always the catch. I've come up with some of the best deals in the world (in newspapers and at the inn) that flopped horribly. Although it's often a case of not being able to find the best advertising venue for the deal. Another problem we've got is that summers -- the best flying time -- are already full up. Now, would I rather have a hotel full of pilots rather than a hotel full of weddings? You bet! But everything you do with pilots is weather-dependent, and how can I make it "non-cancellable"? For example, let's say we do an "Aerobatics Weekend" at the inn -- something that would be VERY cool to do. Let's say we get a marvelous response, and we're sold out. Therefore, no one else can book a night at the hotel... ....and then it's crap weather for the weekend. No one can fly, including the aerobatics instructor. Then what? Do I simply write off any income for the weekend? Or do I charge everyone anyway? Who would want to pay *that*? We want to be pilot-friendly, but we can't lose an entire summer weekend because of weather. Our inn is simply too small to put all of our eggs in a potentially leaky basket like that. SO, can we do this kind of thing in the "off-season" when it wouldn't matter so much? Things are slowing down now, except for Big Ten football weekends. The weather is still pretty good around here through the first of November, and then we could build in "leaf-peeping" flights, too, I suppose? Then, if everyone had to cancel due to weather, I would only be out "potential" money rather than "real" money, since we probably wouldn't be sold out anyway. Just thinking out loud here... What to do, what to do...? -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
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