Mission Statement: Help others gain valuable aviator skills, obtain training at a fraction of the cost, and build economical flight time. Our primary emphasis is on giving kids a purpose and a skill, while helping adults discover exciting career possibilities.
Situation Analysis:
Industry Situation:
The Light Sport Aircraft market has become the fastest growing segment of aviation. There is a severe pilot shortage in the USA. Airlines are cancelling flights a day due to lack of pilots. Very few companies have utilized Light Sport Aircraft, modern simulator technology, or cooperative principles to solve this problem. According to Salary.com, the average pilot pay is just over $200,000 dollars. The demand for pilot training, aviator skills training, and time building has skyrocketed.
Our Situation: Our cooperative business model puts us in a strong position to capture a large share of the time builder and aviator training market by making it affordable for students to learn and build flight time.
We have two powerful weapons in our arsenal to help solve the pilot shortage situation. One is the exclusive use of our cooperative program that is known for its ability to provide flight time at a fraction of the cost of any other program. The other is our one of a kind mobile flight simulator and associated aviator training program.
Our Short Term Objective: To help local cooperatives provide valuable aviator skills, give kids a purpose, help adults discover exciting career possibilities, and make flying affordable.
Our Long Term Objective: Duplicate the LetsFly Cooperative program at every feasible airport in the country. If there’s no LetsFly cooperative program available locally, contact us for details on getting one started.
Target Audience:
The first target includes the large certified pilot base, which is currently renting or owns a 50-60 year old aircraft. This target market includes the time builder pilots that want to build time quickly and move on to a high paying airline job. By showing them a way to cut their flying costs, learn aviator skills, and gain experience in a state-of-the-art, technically advanced aircraft, we can help local cooperatives capture a large share of this market and save student’s thousands of dollars.
The second target is the population in general. It seems like nearly everyone at one time or another has dreamed of flying or would like to get into an exciting new high paying career. Many people who have checked into the possibility of learning to fly, have been disappointed to find out the cost. In many cases we have been able to cut those costs in half with our cooperative system, Light Sport Aircraft, and our mobile flight simulator. Flying jobs are plentiful and the average pilot pay is over $200,000/year.
The third and possibly the best market of all are the parents who would like to help their kids learn a valuable skill. Our mobile flight simulator and in home training is the perfect solution. We have the capability to start training a child at age 10. They can get their initial pilots license at age 14 and gain valuable aviator skills for less than the cost of piano lessons.
Tactics and Strategies:
Duplicate and expand the LetsFly cooperative system.
Description:
A. Aircraft: We highly recommend Light Sport Aircraft. Other aircraft may be utilized by local cooperatives based on preference.
B. Mobile Flight Simulator: Mobile flight simulation geared towards learning to fly and acquiring aviator skills. This approach to create an aviator is unique to LetsFly cooperatives. We’ve structured our in home mobile training to help kids and adults learn the skills to become successful in any career or venture.
C. LetsFly Cooperative System: Our cooperative program has been widely recognized as the most economical way to own and fly an aircraft. The LetsFly Cooperative system is a hybrid business model patterned after other successful cooperatives and real estate principles that have been modified, copyrighted, and trademark protected to fit an aviation application. Through the use of proprietary information, cooperative structure, and local associations; LetsFly has solved many of the problems that have plagued the aviation industry for years, such as lack of aviator skills, aircraft utilization, capitalization, financing, high training costs and affordability.
Competition:
LetsFly is in a league of its own when it comes to cooperative shared ownership and mobile aviator training. There is no competition. We have refined this process through experience over the last 20+ years.
Aviator Training:
The average cost for a private pilot’s license is $17,500 and takes an average of 70 hours flight time to complete. The initial (student) pilots license makes up about 1/3 of the cost of a private license. Utilizing our cooperative mobile flight training system results in a savings of $2,150, and is designed to cut the time to complete a private pilot’s license down by 30 hours resulting in an additional savings of $5,400 dollars (30 hours of aircraft rental at $180/hour=$5,400) Joining a local LetsFly cooperative can result in flight time at a fraction of the cost of the going aircraft rental rate. But the most significant advantage is gaining the skills of an aviator that will help individuals becoming successful at anything in life.
What is included in aviator training?
An Initial FAA issued pilots license if desired ( Minimum age 14)
Aviator skills training
Certified Flight Instructor time and final prep
Books and materials
Training syllabus
24 lessons