Plane Conversations

What about travel by private aircraft?

AAA says that over 32 million of us in the US are on the road or in the air this weekend, which is the beginning of the summer vacation season. That is an increase of 5.4% over last year. That’s good news for the travel and tourism industry.  

Even in a shaky economy that is struggling to recover, we still spend money to get out of town and go to the beach, or see something new, or go see friends or family in another city. 

Of the 32 million travelers, most of us travel by automobile in this country. The love affair with the auto that began early in the last century remains today – the freedom to go where you want to when you want to in a personal vehicle. Maybe 10% of us travel by air. Of that 10% maybe 5% of them travel by private aircraft – aviation’s version of the “ go when you want to where you want to” automobile.

If my assumptions are anywhere close that means that ½ % of people who travel use private aviation.

That leaves those of us in the business of private aviation (business aviation, air charter, flight schools, personal and business aviation manufacturers and all of the businesses that support private aviation) a big opportunity for growth. If we move just ½ a percent of the market of travelers to use private aviation, we double the size of the industry  

Based on what we all hear in the market of conversations, people only travel by airline because it is just too far to drive, not because they enjoy the experience. If we can make it in the car in a reasonable time frame we drive to eliminate the hassle of air travel. In many cases a 400 mile trip can be done as quickly in a car as traveling by airline.

I grew up flying everywhere in small single engine aircraft, and I can tell you that it is more fun and less hassle than driving or flying the airlines. Over the years of travel on busy holiday weekends, I remember many times looking down at the interstate I would have been driving on and seeing the traffic jams, all the while cruising along at 200 mph on the way to Alabama to see family. I don’t ever remember being stuck in a traffic jam on the busiest travel weekends when I was flying a small aircraft.  With the rare exceptions of waiting out bad weather I can not remember traveling in a small aircraft ever being a hassle.

If we in our industry can come up with solutions to make travel in private aircraft more affordable, is there any doubt we will grow by leaps and bounds?

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VIP is an acronym used often to describe Very Important People or those that, for some reason or another, are more important than other people. It is most associated with music stars, sports stars and the rich. But, let’s face, it: We all want the VIP treatment. It makes us feel special or important. And feeling very important? Well, that’s really cool.

 More than VIPs, I like the idea of MIPs. Most Important People. Who are the MIPs in our lives? Family first, best friends, and coworkers who are also friends.  We like spending time with our MIPs. When we are away from our them, we can hardly wait to get back to them.

 So for all of you Road Warriors, you business travelers I see in airports all the time with wearied expressions on your faces and Smart Phones in your hands, what is it worth to you to get more time with your MIPs?

With all the negative things that have been said and written about riding around in business jets (could be a propeller aircraft, as well)  – about the costs and luxury, the one thing the critics always fail to mention is the time private jet travel saves. Time - that finite resource we all possess and want to maximize.

 With travel by business aircraft you get security, privacy and, most importantly, you get time. Time not wasted in an airline terminal can be spent with your MIPs.

 So, like a lot of things we spend money on, methods of travel have different values to different people. If you don’t travel and like to stay home then a private jet doesn’t bring much value.  You are less likely to understand why anyone would spend that much money using that mode of transportation. But if you have been financially successful, you do travel and the your market values you highly, then you are more likely to understand the value proposition.

 As I have said in other posts, the way our industry will continue to grow is to find ways to bring the costs down so that more people can take advantage of the value proposition that we can provide.

For all of you road warriors out there riding on the airlines every week, going to sell your product, meeting your vendors any doing everything else you must do to grow your businesses, you deserve to get more time back – just like Oprah or any other VIP does.  To get that time back, you don’t have to ride around in a Gulfstream jet (even though it would be nice to do so). If  time is what you are looking for, then your options are numerous. You can charter an aircraft or you can learn to fly, renting or buying a small aircraft to get around. Flying yourself compares to using air mass-transit like driving your car compares to taking the bus.  In some cases riding the bus saves time (when you are in big city traffic) but in other cases driving yourself is more efficient.  Or maybe there isn’t even a bus to ride and driving the car is the only way.  It works much the same with airplanes.  In a lot of cases, the time savings of flying yourself versus flying on air mass-transit ultimately translates to monetary savings.

On one end of our business spectrum sits the Gulfstream G550 business jet and on the other end sits the small Cessna or Cirrus propeller aircraft.  The Gulfstream that requires years of piloting experience, but the Cessna and Cirrus can be flown by anyone who takes the time and effort to learn to fly. In between are a world of options that make sense at levels where the value of your time increases.

At the end of the day, the goal is to spend more time with your MIPs; so, I say go take a look at what our industry has to offer to help you achieve this goal. If you have to travel there is no other device invented yet that can save your time like the private aircraft.

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Just like your automobile, aircraft require maintenance to keep them airworthy. Airworthy is an easy aviation term to understand. For once, our industry came up with a term that adequately says what it means! 

Unlike your automobile, aircraft have mandated inspections that are designed by the manufacturer and required by the governing authorities (in our country that would be the Federal Aviation Administration).  I can ignore the oil change due light in my car and keep driving.  I may pay the consequences down the road but no one else really cares.  I may find myself stuck on the roadside and spend more money in the end if I don’t do the preventative maintenance now.

When it comes to aircraft, whether they are large commercial airliners or the smallest private aircraft, the FAA requires those of us who own and operate these aircraft to do the required maintenance.  It makes good sense considering you don’t pull over to the side of the road when your aircraft breaks down.

Without getting into all the technical jargon about aircraft maintenance, there are basically two types of maintenance  inspections you have to do on an aircraft.

The first type is required based on utilization.  In our cars, we change the oil every 5000 miles.  When it comes to maintaining aircraft we perform certain maintenance tasks based on the number of flight hours since these flying machines don’t count the miles.  Time intervals of maintenance vary on different aircraft and even vary for different tasks on the same aircraft, but the essential theory is that utilization causes certain parts of the aircraft to wear.  The stresses of flight create wear on the engines and airframe; so, the purpose of these inspections is to change out components and fluids that deteriorate with use, i.e. oil.  Just as importantly, though, we are looking for signs of wear that would indicate a need for preventative maintenance.  Highly skilled and trained maintenance technicians know what to look for and can detect problems before they become bigger problems.  Put simply, the objective is to fix it before it breaks.

The other type of maintenance inspection is based on calendar time.  An airliner may fly 10 hours per day 365 days per year (3650 hours of annual use).  A small private aircraft may fly only 100  hours in that same year; however, each of these aircraft have aged one year chronologically. A ten- year-old Boeing 737 may have accumulated 36,000 hours of flight time while the 10 year old single engine Cirrus Design personal aircraft may have accumulated 1000 hours.  Each aircraft is the same chronological age; but, they have lived vastly different lives.  Aircraft need to be looked at on a calendar basis for components that deteriorate because of age.  Using the car analogy, think about what happens to a car with age. Under the hood the belts and hoses start to crack from age and tires, even though they may not have been used much, will deteriorate.  The same thing is true for the flying machine.

Like the utilization inspection, the calendar  inspection’s purpose is two-fold - to fix what is broken and to detect and repair problems before they really become a safety issue.

Having worked with some really great maintenance technicians, I can tell you that I rest easy at night knowing that these dedicated, smart, trained and highly-skilled people keep our aircraft safe.  This system of maintenance for aviation continues to advance in skill level, cumulative knowledge, training, and technology to make these flying machines safer each year.  If automobiles were maintained like aircraft, they would never wear out.

The next time you get into an aircraft to go flying, know that the machine is constantly cared for by dedicated professionals that put their name on the line every day when they sign off those inspections.

Safe Flying!

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