@Peter thank you very much! Yes, I am aware that the GA in Europe is extremely fractionated.
One other aspect that I have noticed to be faulty is the marketing part. I come from a world where marketing is almost everything and I have seen quite a few aviation websites – most of them are bad and hard to find. Not to mention ads campaigns, SEO, content.
This might be daft but could you not produce a database of all the frequently asked questions and answers across the whole range of light ga forums and put them into some sort of accessible mode rather than people shuffling through lots of AIPs, NCOs, EASA regs, FAA regs etc etc.
Marketing is the hardest thing, especially in Europe which is so fragmented culturally.
Thinking of a product is the easier part.
Anybody with a brain who walks into a PPL school can see opportunities…
Databases are a problem; they have to be current, so somebody has to be paid. The cheap way is to employ a bunch of “slaves” in Vietnam or some such, get half of them to enter the data and the other half to check it. It’s a popular solution… but you still need a constant revenue stream.
But a new database is not the solution. Pilots should airport-brief from the AIP and NOTAM. Nothing else. That is e.g. why our airport database has no runway lengths, etc.
Europe, and GA specifically, suffers badly from national and other loyalties. This affects peoples’ contributions to databases, such as our airport database. The old jokes like here all apply.
There are just those 3 large GA markets, and France is almost impenetrable for a foreign product. Germany likewise unless it is something superb and there is no domestic product. UK is ok.
I would start in the US actually – a vast single market, 5x to 10x bigger than all of Europe for GA, lots of $$$, one language, negligible nationalist angles.
Peter wrote:
There are just those 3 large GA markets, and France is almost impenetrable for a foreign product. Germany likewise unless it is something superb and there is no domestic product. UK is ok.I would start in the US actually – a vast single market, 5x to 10x bigger than all of Europe for GA, lots of $$$, one language, negligible nationalist angles.
Great advice. Thank you very much, @Peter !
I wish the whole aircraft renting thing was easier, more similar to renting a car.
I get it: owners/clubs don’t want to give out their very valuable assets to strangers without some reassurance that the given stranger is not going to crash their asset. But I believe a lot of this fear is based more on emotion than any rational thoughts.
If there was an international body whose member pilots were all checked out and had shown a given competency level, then there shouldn’t be so many “fear checks” when it comes to rent a bloody C172. We can reduce this “fear check” to a (maximum 1 hour) ground briefing involving the local procedures at the aircraft home base and surrounding airspace, the quirks/features of the specific aircraft and anything relevant. Sign off the ground briefing as complete and there you go, here are the keys go have fun.
Why this tedious club checking procedure where you need to show how well you can do the three touch and goes? It doesn’t really de-risk much more than just stick and rudder skills. The pilot can then go away and blow through very busy CAS and make a bloody mess for all we know, but hey he showed he can land the bloody thing which would be a surprise if he couldn’t given he’s got a licence and appropriate rating !!!
Alpha_Floor wrote:
Why this tedious club checking procedure where you need to show how well you can do the three touch and goes?
… because the school wants to earn extra money.
Laurent_N wrote:
Are those problems solved in any way that I don’t know about? Are they frustrating? Do you see more problems I couldn’t see?
I think perhaps you are too optimistic regarding the value of making things “more efficient”. GA is small. In a small and fragmented market things tend to go by ear to mouth, simply because more efficiency would add too much overhead. GA has enough overhead as it is. Also, most people in GA is into it for fun, it’s a recreational activity where people don’t mind a bit of fiddling etc.
The only aspect of GA that is truly alive in Europe (commercially) is UL. With that in mind:
1. Finding plane to rent : mostly irrelevant, people own their planes
2. Finding mechanic : mostly irrelevant. Owners fix their own planes, and there is loads of mechanics around that will help you if needed (ear to mouth)
3. Finding landing fees : SkyDemon has this, I think? Largely irrelevant in Norway/Sweden anyway, unless on big commercial airports where this is easy to find.
4. Insurance : not a real problem, google will find several (and ear to mouth), and you seldom change/check
5. Ferry pilot : From where? most ULs are made in Europe
6. We use MyWeblog, works well enough
7. A real problem for everyone, but won’t be solved with software. You need hardware, hangars 
IMO the main issues are lack of hangars and lack of fuel facilities, regardless. Both are hardware problems. I learned yesterday that the company distributing 100LL at ENVA and further north on Norway, will stop their services in October. Then what? This is a real tangible problem, and an opportunity Hjelmco, where are you?
The best way to make a small fortune out of aviation is to start with a big fortune!
Old wisdom!
Other than that, this is a free-time driven field. So most of the development is based on enthusiasts. In order to earn money one has got to get into commercial aviation.
arj1 wrote:
… because the school wants to earn extra money.
Sure but that kind of thinking is very short-sighted. What about the loss of revenue due to potential renters who choose NOT TO rent an airplane at all because of the barriers to entry?
Many times I’m on holiday somewhere and I would definitely like to rent an aircraft for a local flight, but I just don’t do it because I don’t want to deal with club check procedures.
Alpha_Floor wrote:
Sure but that kind of thinking is very short-sighted. What about the loss of revenue due to potential renters who choose NOT TO rent an airplane at all because of the barriers to entry?Many times I’m on holiday somewhere and I would definitely like to rent an aircraft for a local flight, but I just don’t do it because I don’t want to deal with club check procedures.
You see, I’m not sure they are interested in renters at all (except for maybe some amount of former students).
