Formation Flying Clinic

NKTFlyer

NKTFlyer

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NKTFlyer
POAers,

I have been thinking of the prospect of putting on a formation flying clinic. Is this something that anybody here has seen in the past? Is there a market for such a thing out there? I teach forms on the regular at my day job, and can fly forms in my sleep. I and another instructor could put on a professional and purposeful weekend formation flying clinic if there were interest.

I am interested in who I should market it to, and how.

How far would you travel to do it?
How much would you pay for a ground school, 4 hours of dual, and a solo with an instructor lead?
Would it change anything if I could somehow incorporate Wings Credit?

Thanks for the replies. Sea stories are encouraged.
 
I've always wanted to get some real formation training, so I'll give my answers.

-I'd travel abouy 2 hours max for a clinic.
-Not knowing anything about the market, I'd expect to pay something in the 600-800 dollar range for what you described. That puts it in the "big birthday present" range instead of the "there goes my flying budget for the rest of the year" territory.
-Wings credit doesn't do anything for me.
 
There are typically some formation clinics held on a regular basis in SoCal, but the ones I have seen involved warbirds. I haven't seen much elsewhere.

Are you at Cherry Point? You might have some interest in getting some folks to fly in for a single weekend or two, but not sure how much demand there would be on a regular basis. I think you might get a few pilots to show up, but really not sure how much the average GA pilot would be willing to pay. I'm kind of spoiled in that regard because I'm surrounded by Hornet guys who also fly GA.

My only sea story is that my first formation flight was in my Beech 18. My only instruction was my previous experience as a Surface Warfare Officer driving ships in formation. Principle concept is the same. Aviation form flying just adds another dimension.
 
Mooney Caravan, RPA, Beech Boys and a couple others all do clinics, some just in so-cal some nationwide (like Mooney Caravan). A lot of them are geared towards the mass arrivals at OSH every year, but generally get more technical as well. I started flying formation with the Mooney Caravan for fun, with no plans for Oshkosh and after a year I ended up having a bunch of friends who convinced me to join them in Wisconsin this year.

There will be a clinic next month in Yuma with the Caravan and RPA, and several others throughout the country. Cost is pretty minimal as everyone is doing it for fun. As far as a business model goes I think there's a market, but you'd be competing against these groups that do it for the love of the game.
 
Fearless Tower said:
There are typically some formation clinics held on a regular basis in SoCal, but the ones I have seen involved warbirds. I haven't seen much elsewhere.

Are you at Cherry Point? You might have some interest in getting some folks to fly in for a single weekend or two, but not sure how much demand there would be on a regular basis. I think you might get a few pilots to show up, but really not sure how much the average GA pilot would be willing to pay. I'm kind of spoiled in that regard because I'm surrounded by Hornet guys who also fly GA.

My only sea story is that my first formation flight was in my Beech 18. My only instruction was my previous experience as a Surface Warfare Officer driving ships in formation. Principle concept is the same. Aviation form flying just adds another dimension.
Click to expand...

And a few knots!
 
bluesky74656 said:
I've always wanted to get some real formation training, so I'll give my answers.

-I'd travel abouy 2 hours max for a clinic.
-Not knowing anything about the market, I'd expect to pay something in the 600-800 dollar range for what you described. That puts it in the "big birthday present" range instead of the "there goes my flying budget for the rest of the year" territory.
-Wings credit doesn't do anything for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I suppose price point would be regionally driven. Just so we're apples to apples on this, is that 2 hours driving or flying? Is that $600-800 with your own bird or a wet rental included?

StinkBug said:
There will be a clinic next month in Yuma with the Caravan and RPA, and several others throughout the country. Cost is pretty minimal as everyone is doing it for fun. As far as a business model goes I think there's a market, but you'd be competing against these groups that do it for the love of the game.
Click to expand...

Yeah, love of the game is what I'm shooting for. Bucket list item/safety is sort of the realm I would be in. While I could do it, getting somebody seriously worked up for their FFI card is a whole other thing.
 
NKTFlyer said:
Yeah, love of the game is what I'm shooting for. Bucket list item/safety is sort of the realm I would be in. While I could do it, getting somebody seriously worked up for their FFI card is a whole other thing.
Click to expand...
Part of the challenge I think, is that a weekend clinic is great for folks who want to do multi-ship kind of stuff, but two airplane/photo shoot type stuff that most GA pilots would be interested in, can really be taught relatively quickly one on one. I'm not sure you'd get a lot of demand for folks wanting to fly in for that. But, I could be wrong.
 
NKTFlyer said:
Yeah, I suppose price point would be regionally driven. Just so we're apples to apples on this, is that 2 hours driving or flying? Is that $600-800 with your own bird or a wet rental included?
Click to expand...

I was thinking 2 hours flying distance and in my own bird. I really just pulled out a number that seemed reasonable, though. My expectation would be that at the end of it I would be safe flying formation at home with another competently trained pilot.
 
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