If you’re not a regular OPR* listener, you may be interested in this link to a story on Morning Edition. I was interviewed regarding East Coast Aero Club’s experience with selling helicopter lessons on Groupon.
[They edited out my comment that “The Obama Economic Miracle has yet to arrive at East Coast Aero Club”]
* OPR = Obama Praise Radio.
How are you with the backlog of groupon customers, anyhow? I haven’t been flying much, so I haven’t seen the ECAC office very often.
Joshua: How has it worked out? People have been doing the pre-ground-school reading at a moderate pace, which means that we haven’t had any trouble getting people into ground school (typically offer four per month) or up in the air. Our instructors are very eager to build hours, so they make themselves available nearly every evening so that people can fly right after work. I don’t think that any Groupon customer who works a 9-5 job has had difficulty in getting up in the air (though that might change in the winter when it gets dark at 4 pm). We haven’t had enough conversions to regular student status to have a big effect on the schedule or our monthly revenue, but on the other hand nearly everyone who has shown up has found the class interesting and the flight enjoyable and comfortable.