Freedom During Intro Flights

Zeldman said:
What is a discovery flight?

My first time in a small airplane was my first lesson.

The flight school discovered I had the right stuff to be a pilot as soon as the check cleared.
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It's a cheaper way for a flight school to try to hook you into training.

When I was an active CFI this concept first came to light. Before that it was called introductory flight. Before that it was called lesson 1.
 
Zeldman said:
My first time in a small airplane was my first lesson.
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Mine too. I think it was also the first time I had heard any type of talk on an aircraft radio and I would have had no clue what to say. People come to flying with different backgrounds and hopefully the person giving the intro flight tailors it that way.
 
Interesting point about 'discovery flights.' Some schools like them, some don't.

The guy I finished with said he doesn't like them because they are usually shorter than Lesson 1, so Lesson 1 must still be done (cost student extra $150) AND because he got a lot of tire kickers doing the discovery and never training (cost the school)

No right answer to be found.
 
I think these flights are good because they're usually at a pretty discounted rate ($90-$100), not a lot in the grand scheme of things. Of course, not everyone is going to follow through with lessons for any number of reasons...but they could be so jazzed about the flight that they might talk a friend or two into signing up.

Putting up with the tire kickers is just part of the cost of doing business.
 
My discovery flights vary widely depending on the student. Some are really timid and/or just want to take pictures so I end up doing most of the flying in those cases.
 
I actually despise intro / discovery flights. Especially if they are bought from groupon. School wants no more than .5 on the hobbs. Really can't do much on the flight for that amount of time. Then majority of these flights are people that just want to go up in a plane and have zero interest in learning or getting their license. So I tell my school do not schedule me for them. I am not looking to build hours, and the whole pre flight and then getting the plane put away isn't worth the couple of bucks.
 
On both my discovery flights I was able to do most everything.

The first flight the instructor took me out to the plane, showed me how to preflight, get in and out of the plane. We started up and he showed me how to taxi and I taxied to the run up area and onto the runway. He let me take off (with some help), and he basically let me fly to the practice area without any interference from him. (He said I knew a lot and was really prepared for my discovery flight, also told me he doesn't usually let other discovery flight students do much). He handled all the radios and landings with my assistance on the landings. And i believe I got the radio check on the way to the runway over the Unicom frequency.

On the second one, (different school), he taxied and I took off, did a little navigating, and buzzed a fisherman on the water near the practice area. He landed and handled most everything else though.


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Man, I must be doing everything wrong. I let my pax talk on the radio with coaching. they usually get a kick out of it
 
sferguson524 said:
Man, I must be doing everything wrong. I let my pax talk on the radio with coaching. they usually get a kick out of it
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And I'll bet when u drive a car your hands aren't at 10 and 2, you crazy, crazy man.
 
TommyG said:
I actually despise intro / discovery flights. Especially if they are bought from groupon. School wants no more than .5 on the hobbs. Really can't do much on the flight for that amount of time. Then majority of these flights are people that just want to go up in a plane and have zero interest in learning or getting their license. So I tell my school do not schedule me for them. I am not looking to build hours, and the whole pre flight and then getting the plane put away isn't worth the couple of bucks.
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I've flown with two flight schools that were big on Groupons, and both went out of business. I spoke with my old CFI from one of the schools after it went under and he attributed it directly to Groupon. His schedule was mostly filled up with Groupon flights, and on the rare occasion any of them wanted to take further lessons his schedule was so filled up with other Groupons that he could barely work them in. Apparently the school had $60,000 in outstanding sold Groupon flights when they declared bankruptcy.
 
MassPilot said:
I've flown with two flight schools that were big on Groupons, and both went out of business. I spoke with my old CFI from one of the schools after it went under and he attributed it directly to Groupon. His schedule was mostly filled up with Groupon flights, and on the rare occasion any of them wanted to take further lessons his schedule was so filled up with other Groupons that he could barely work them in. Apparently the school had $60,000 in outstanding sold Groupon flights when they declared bankruptcy.
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Funny, the school that I had my groupon intro flight and free ground school at also went out of business.
 
Just checked my flight school and of course it has sold over 1000 Groupon discovery flights at $99/each. And we wonder why we cannot book our pilots on-time, why reservations are always taken up with nonsense, and the rental fleet is beat to h3ll and back. Honestly, my CFI and I have had to cancel at least 5 times in the last 2 months due to maintenance issues. Maybe a harbinger of things to come.........
 
I stopped being a customer of Groupon after I read of some of their requirements for businesses and their practice of banning certain businesses from using their system.

Nothing about that company seems anything less than shady after you know their terms. The deals really are too good to be true.

Took an incredibly long time to reach someone to get them to completely remove my user account too, not just let it sit inactive. I made sure they deleted it because they make money off of how many "subscribers" see the ads, like many online businesses, and I didn't want them to have even a single digit to add to that number after I talked with some people who had tried using them to generate interest in their small businesses and the mandatory losses really hurt them.
 
Saintroad said:
Just checked my flight school and of course it has sold over 1000 Groupon discovery flights at $99/each. And we wonder why we cannot book our pilots on-time, why reservations are always taken up with nonsense, and the rental fleet is beat to h3ll and back. Honestly, my CFI and I have had to cancel at least 5 times in the last 2 months due to maintenance issues. Maybe a harbinger of things to come.........
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it's the CFI's flying the planes, not sure why they'd get beat on because of the groupon coupon. I was at an fbo when the guy wsa grumbling about the scheduling as well, said it was a royal PITA but they also get a lot of $ coming in in a short period of time and I've heard from several places that some of the coupons go unused, so maybe that makes up for 'some' aggravation.
 
eman1200 said:
it's the CFI's flying the planes, not sure why they'd get beat on because of the groupon coupon. I was at an fbo when the guy wsa grumbling about the scheduling as well, said it was a royal PITA but they also get a lot of $ coming in in a short period of time and I've heard from several places that some of the coupons go unused, so maybe that makes up for 'some' aggravation.
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When I am spending thousands of dollars a month at a FBO as a student or renter or anything else, and I get bumped because my CFI has to give a tour in our rental craft to a couple of people who will never patronize their business, it is slightly annoying. I am sure the revenue received from people not redeeming their reservations is sizable, but at whose expense? Keep them limited to specific days, specific times and do them on aircraft not currently in annual. (HAHAHA)
 
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