How YOU can grow your airport community:

David Flynn

David Flynn

Filing Flight Plan
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Sep 18, 2017
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David Flynn
The romance of general aviation is fading among many pilots and enthusiasts. An ongoing airline pilot shortage, disinterest from the younger generation, a lack of real connection and communication between pilots, and the decrease in overall activity are just a few of the challenges general aviation is facing.

Our solution: Hangaround - Your Airport's Home Base
 

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Interesting. I wish you guys luck with it.

I think it could help with part of the problem... getting conversations going, serving as a place to promote events, publish information, etc.

What it's not going to do is make it cheaper to fly, and I think, ultimately, that's what's killing GA. A friend of mine wanted to learn to fly. I got current prices and calculated the minimum cost. He lost interest FAST.

But still, you gotta try right?
 
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I couldn't agree more! My hopes are that with a place to connect to your airport community, you will be able to meet people to share costs with or just fly with. When I earned my PPL and moved to Oxford, MS, there were no flight schools or rentals within a reasonable distance and it was very hard to meet people at the local airport -- I wanted to be able to reach out to the airport community and ask if anyone would be interested in splitting the cost and going flying for an afternoon... but had no way of doing so. So I started Hangaround!
 
Hey, I own an airplane and it's still hard to meet people. I show up at my hangar and it's like an end-of-the-world movie. Beautifully manicured lawn, pristine buildings, and not a soul to be found.
 
Conceptually, sure, okay.

But what's the theory to monetize this?

I've only been involved with a half dozen airports and they've all had presence on the internet of things and they've all done various outreach activities.

The new thing here is __________________.
 
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i'm not associated with this thing, but if I had to guess, it's a way of a particular airport getting up and running without rolling their own solution.

I'm not on facebook, for example. Refuse to use it. So a facebook group is dead to me. If this is what I think it is, it probably allows airport KXXX to have a site almost instantly and then fill it in.
 
I'm the one who built it. It could replace a website or Facebook group for an airport, but works better as an add on. For example an airport could link from their static website out to their Hangaround community group. The Hangaround platform is a place where people can go and meet others at their airport (or any airport for that matter). Airport information in each group is complied by the members, so the success of the group is greatly dependent on the members of the airport.
 
I do wish that airports had more useful websites... Where to park, what fuel is available, can I camp there, what transportation options are available, food, is there a 24 hour restroom, Internet etc.
 
I volunteer at my local aviation museum a few times a month. We get lots of kids and teenagers and I always encourage them to take an intro flight.
 
When it comes to useful airport websites, it is hard to maintain because things change so much. Hangaround puts it in the hands of the community instead of one person. Each airport has an Information tab that allows users to create "docs" and add any information they like. Other members of the airport group are able to edit the information down the road if things change!
 
jordane93 said:
I volunteer at my local aviation museum a few times a month. We get lots of kids and teenagers and I always encourage them to take an intro flight.
Click to expand...

I wish we had more people like you at my local airport!
 
1) Buy a Pitts
Fly over town everyday like a maniac
people will start coming to the airport to see who the crazy guy in the biplane is :)
Then you can give rides and have people hooked.
Pretty simple

2) Buy a Waco and put in the local paper biplane rides at the airport.
 
Dancing girls in bikinis collecting dollar bills?
 
I'm going to try and get my grandkids into it by flying them as much as possible, and having them help me plan destinations/activities.
We'll see how that flies lol.
I'm sure about puberty the bikinis will help too.
 
Cool idea, I tried signing up but the password strength requirements are ridiculous. If this is something I am going to use, I don't want to have a decoder ring just to sign in.
 
pigpenracing said:
People are always hangin at our airport. I usually get out the golf cart and ride hangar to hangar and BS.
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That's not the case around here. We had an "aviation expo" at TUP a few years ago to try to get the community into aviation, and the guy over the company that owns the FBO said he didn't want people in the FBO. We had to run it out of one of the hangars, so that was kind of limiting, and kept people out that would've flown in. Some of the smaller airports have fly-in's, but those are few and far between, and usually between small groups of older guys. I'll print that flyer out and put it up on the bulletin board in the FBO @David Flynn
 
Mistake Not... said:
Hey, I own an airplane and it's still hard to meet people. I show up at my hangar and it's like an end-of-the-world movie. Beautifully manicured lawn, pristine buildings, and not a soul to be found.
Click to expand...

Sounds like my backyard airstrip. To me that's the absolute beauty of it, but I'm not looking to transform GA into a household hobby. I just wanna fly around and have fun. (Mission accomplished.)
 
pigpenracing said:
People are always hangin at our airport. I usually get out the golf cart and ride hangar to hangar and BS.
Click to expand...

Yea I’m constantly introducing myself to others at the airport. Guy few doors down from me has an Extra...said I can get a ride in it ;)
 
When I was a kid in the early sixties, Ga was somewhat more in the "media" (talking now televisions shows, etc.) and seen as a cool thing to do.
I still remember watching (though not how they filled up a weekly show with it) "Sky King"...etc.

One thing I've been noticing lately. More and more "reality" shows about flying. Commercial, but small planes like in Alaska, Afrika, and south america (at least three different series. The Alaska one is actually pretty good). It would be great if they did a reality show about student pilots getting their training.

One other thing, it seems from comments and my own experiences, with the security situation in larger airports, the general public often seem to not know they can drive on out to a local airport, watch planes take off and land, look at the planes, talk with folk, hang around. Some kind of outreach, plus "come on in" type of signs at the airport gates might do a lot to generate interest, and possibly new students.

I know at my airport, it is partially military use also, the signs out front could seem to be saying "military area, keep out", I've mentioned this to some in charge at the airport (as they are trying to stave off it being closed and turned into apartment housing, with a climbing wall) that it ought to be welcoming as the military area section is off to the right, the GA area is open to all.
 
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