Thoughts - new business venture

Hello!

What type of products do you usually buy?

In 25 years of aviating (10 more if you count gliding) I have bought two headsets, one handheld radio, and a few dozens of maps. The flying school provided me with a protractor and a whizzweel. This is it. Nothing else. If nothing of it breaks, I won't buy anything else. Oh, I forgot: As a collector of calculators I also have quite a few navigation calculators. All from eBay.

How frequently do you buy them?

Only once as I wrote.

Do you shop around or do you stay loyal to one supplier?

Loyal.

What prompts you to shop around ? Price or product availability, maybe both?

If so, then both.

Would a pickup service be useful if it was local (with free parking)?

Negative.

Any products you'd like to see?

Nothing comes to mind.

Sorry if I sound negative, but when I look around I only see people like myself (I am flying commercially and as an instructor). The things we need for work are provided by the the company, including clothing, and everything else does not need to be expensive "aviation" stuff. A 30 Euro torch or timer offers zero advantage over a 3 Euro one from the cheapest supplier on eBay. I don't wear sunglasses at all and rarely a watch, so won't spend any substantial money on these either. Maps and charts are a thing of the past, we have iPads now.

Many years ago a buddy of mine tried the same thing (start yet another pilot store). He failed miserably in less than a year...

Good luck anyway, max

Unless you can be very competitive on price and speed of delivery, I imagine it would be hard to compete with Transair or Flightstore in the UK for the core business, though I am loyal to Transair as (and this is rare these days), their service has been 100% and my trust in them is 100%.

I think there is a niche for providing equipment that is generally available only in the US and is not commonly found in Europe. There is a company (mentioned recently here) that attempts to do this and in my personal experience is terribly bad at stock management, delivery, customer service. So if you can get the stock into Europe and you can be absolutely super good at the areas I mentioned, there is an opportunity I believe.

It's hard to quantity things I'd like to see, as I pretty much have everything I want right now, but if I was going to try, I would have a poke around at a few of the US shops, see if you can find what is a strong seller, and see what isn't available at some of the big retailers here.

In the UK (or Europe) we shop around for the best deal. If it originates in the US, then we buy direct, preferably from a small outfit to get personal service. However, if avionics, then guarantee terms need careful research before purchase abroad.

I find 95% of the content of my local UK pilot shop is useless junk, but I am sure that even if many might agree, nobody would agree on which 95% is junk

And it is obvious that the shop makes most money on stuff like ATPL training material, and the occasional £500 leather jacket. And maps of course, though not as many nowadays due to many people flying with electronic charts.

Aircraft Spruce (USA) sells in the UK and often it's not a bad deal, and any deal is good if nobody else sells it, or the US manufacturer wants $250 for shipping a small item. AS have a vast range which makes any European pilot shop look tiny. Their catalogue, which can be picked up at say AERO Friedrichshafen, is about 30mm thick.

I've also been buying from the USA for 10+ years, directly, but you do get hit with the import VAT and usually totally outrageous courier shipping charges. There is no real warranty because the return shipping makes it not worth sending stuff back unless the vendor gives you their courier account number, which most won't do. But quality gear is reliable enough for this to not matter to me.

Maybe new stuff that would sell would be electronic charting / flight planning products. Everybody is getting excited about those.

Of course everybody sells them too, but often one can develop a good business by being very specialised and doing a small area very well.

I have been doing that since 1978, in electronics, selling products which were "officially obsolete" for 30 years... Pick an area for which there is a proven demand but which nobody is doing well.

Just make sure you are not making money out of "froth" like Sock Shop, Knicker Box, etc.

I bought a Garmin GPS from Harry M and after a year the connecting lead came apart, Harry sent me a new one, no charge, that broke after 6 months and they sent me another foc and 6 months later it also broke and they sent me another also foc....this is the kind of service that you will need to provide.

The dreaded Garmin lead... they ALL fall apart. The plug usually gets stuck in the GPS and has to be dug out. The solution is to squirt some superglue into the moulded joint that opens up. The design has been fixed recently but they no longer do the right-angle plug.

Hi Charlie,

I suppose I'm in the same boat as a lot of other above. Apart from the few bits and pieces that I bought for doing my PPL (ruler, pens etc) I rarely tend to buy anything from a pilot shop.

Headset....I bought once. It's not a litle over 10 years old, but still as good as the day I got it, so will be around for a lot longer.

GPS....that's all consumer devices now.

Pens, rulers etc....not much need for them anymore, even charts then to be electronic.

To be honest, I don't see much business in it beyond the PPL school.

If I was determined to get into this business, I'd approach the various schools, and try to do a deal with them where you sell a "PPL Pack" tailored to their students, where the school gets a commission. Then you have a captive audience, and the school is incentivised to sell your product.

But even still....I find it hard to see much of a living in it.

Colm

How about forgetting the GA market, which is well catered for, and hit emerging nations' air force training outfits? My mole has told me that's where the money is - exotic uniforms as well - the markup is eye-watering.