Today marks the kickoff of our spring Groupon helicopter lesson promotion (link). We’ve refined our offer somewhat from what we did a year ago. The price is slightly higher, $99 instead of $69, in order to try to get people who are more likely to continue taking lessons at our regular rates. We’re explicitly offering people the choice of hitting the books and coming to ground school or using their Groupon for a short demonstration flight in which an instructor will patiently explain to them (and probably their two kids in the back seat as well; they get to bring three passengers total) how the airport works, how air traffic control works, how flying a helicopter works, etc., while also giving them a nice view of the towns that surround our airport.
Overall the Groupon experience has been positive for us as a merchant. It took a while for business to build and the very first customers who redeemed the Groupons weren’t very likely to return, but we’ve noticed that we’ve gradually gotten busier with students and quite a few of the Grouponers come back for second and third lessons. One guy got a Groupon as a gift from his son and has now flown about 120 hours with us (he’s most of the way through his helicopter instrument rating). Though our R44 rates are the lowest in the world, that’s still 120*$349/hour = $42,000 of revenue.
If this offer is successful, I am going to officially declare that we won’t have to do any marketing other than via Groupon. It can seem like a lot of effort to welcome so many people to the school who aren’t likely to return, but we do roughly break even on the helicopter operating cost and each person who comes to us knows where the school is, knows what we sell, and is in a position to educate others about helicopters and learning to fly them.
I think that our biggest obstacle to converting more people to the cause is the FAA’s pilot certification structure. There should be a “pilot’s license” that people can get who are able to take off, fly around, and land without the instructor needing to take the controls. This is the James Bond level of flying skill and it can be learned in about 10 hours ($3500). After that, the pilot can rent a helicopter any time, with an instructor as co-pilot, and take two passengers in the back seat. Why can’t the FAA recognize that as the achievement that it is? Students always ask “How much does it cost to get a license?” and the answer ($14,000+) discourages them. An FAA Private certificate, though, demands that a person demonstrate the ability to handle a helicopter in an emergency,e .g., after an engine failure, or navigate to the other side of the state without a GPS, land on a slope, land in a confined area, etc. None of these skills are required by the person who wants to rent a helicopter and fly from airport to airport with an instructor-copilot. That person might not be the most skilled pilot on the planet, but who among us is? And who among us is such a great pilot that we can’t benefit from having a copilot? So how about an FAA certificate that is kind of like the JAA “multipilot-only” certificate (handed out to airline first officers who can press buttons in a sim, but have so little experience in real aircraft that they are considered helpless without a captain), but given to learners who’ve mastered the basic skills of aircraft control?
I don’t know what Groupon’s constraints are, or yours, but have you considered offering two Groupon’s?
Your $99 Groupon, as well as a $9000 flat rate 45 hours or Private Certificate whichever comes first (contingent on medical certificate.)
I would think there would be real value both for you as well as your customers to have a locked in price upfront in exchange for cash upfront as well.
And perhaps some interesting publicity for having the most expensive Groupon and helping them justify their $25B valuation.
P,
good for you. But I’ve seen Groupon wrecked a lot of resturant business. Groupon strangely works better for spas, massage parlours, nail salons.
Very interesting. I find Groupon to be simultaneously annoying and addictive. Every time I get an email and think “That’s it! I’m unsubscribing” I see an offer that is interesting or compelling, and think, maybe next time…
I’d love to spend a month or so with you guys and get my PPL, the low rates you offer would probably make this worthwhile compared to a UK flight school even taking into account airfare and accommodation. But I suppose that 9/11 killed the foreign flying student market…
Jerry: We don’t want to take $9000 of someone’s money up front. What if they don’t like us? Or don’t like flying helicopters? Pushing refunds back through Groupon is not simple for a merchant.
Stephen: UK citizens come over and train in the U.S. all the time. They don’t need a visa to be here on vacation. As foreigners they need to visit tsa.gov and get security approval, which takes about two weeks. It has become harder for students that want to come here for a full year to get all of the ratings that they need to be professional pilots, but a European who wants to come and do an intensive three-week course, then return home with a PPL, is able to do so without much additional paperwork.
Thanks Phil, that’s helpful! Downloaded the FAA manual already! May take a while to save up the money though.
Another concern is FAA licensing versus JAA licensing: apparently can only fly N-reg aircraft cross-border if FAA? Although must be able to convert to JAA I suppose.
Philip: How does having a separate license that allows one to take an instructor and two passengers differ from a student pilot certificate? Certainly a student pilot cannot carry a passenger if he/she is acting as PIC (FAR 61.89). But a student pilot is only PIC during a solo flight. The instructor is PIC for dual time, so as far as I’m aware, passengers can ride in the backseat during a normal training flight. Have I missed something, or do we already have a license for what you described called a “student pilot certificate”?
Stephen: Conversion from FAA to JAA is pretty straightforward. Mostly some written exams.
Adam: A student pilot certificate doesn’t say “pilot’s license” on it. It says “medical certificate”, so it can’t be shown off to friends. It also doesn’t require any demonstration of proficiency. A person who has never set foot in an aircraft can get a student pilot certificate from an aviation medical examiner.
I would like a whole lot of different certificates. I understand the strict system, but I wish there were an IFR-lite ticket. No trips in the clouds more than twenty minutes. No non-precision approaches. No circle to land. I don’t know, just a bunch of restrictions so people can use it to get through a few clouds to the VFR on top or the reverse.
I’m intrigued as to why you’re not also marketing your other services, such as the Tours and Special Flights.
Could you not put together some packages based around specific events – Arriving in Style?
Wouldn’t a James Bond level of flying skill encompass being able to control the helicopter with one’s outstretched leg whilst making out on the backseat with a Bond girl?
JamesG: We did market Boston helicopter tours last year, but it was a headache to sell individual seats because often we’ve have a bunch of couples show up and nobody wanted to split up to grab the front seat. Packing groups of two people into a helicopter with three passenger seats just proved too difficult. Selling the whole helicopter at $297 for a Boston tour seemed like it would be too much for a Groupon impulse buyer.
Arrange a Groupon around a special event? We have just the two helicopters. We don’t want hundreds of customers buying a ticket for Valentine’s Day.
I don’t remember Bond mixing flying, esp. helicopters, with romance. But in any case we are rather short of girls, Bond or otherwise, at Hanscom Field. Our students often get to make out with a border collie who imagines himself to be welcome on the sofa, on laps, etc.
Maybe you can start the 0.05 mile high club service. The dog would cost extra.
David there is a similar service in Cincinnati with a plane and a VERY discrete pilot…
http://www.flamingoair.net/flight_of_fancy.html
Not sure if a dog or other 4 legged critters allowed…
I have looked at this but with groupon wanting a cheap price, then they want 50% of the coupon as a commission, it is a disaster for any flight school to do this. It may generate some cashflo but you will be loosing thousands to do this. I operate 14 helicopters and 7 airplanes at American Helicopters in Manassas, VA and we have models and marketing that works well. For the consumer, 90.00 is great, but a guy that wants a 90.00 helicopter ride thru a cheap discout math-up wont pony up 14K for a pilots license and the school will have a loosing marketing plan that could bankrupt them if not careful. Naturally, this is personal opinion only… I think the return would be very low with groupon customers comming back to buy a private pilot package at full price. Ours is 12,500.00 prepaid for a PP license and we sell 100’s a year but very few have come off a cheap coupon offer.
Kevin: Fourteen helicopters and keeping them busy in the Obamaconomy! You are my new hero! (Of course, it probably doesn’t hurt that you’re in recession-proof Washington, D.C.) I think that Groupon works best for businesses that aren’t good at marketing to begin with. That certainly describes us. We never figured out where we could advertise efficiently (since helicopters appeal to a very small percentage of the population, it didn’t make sense for us to advertise in mass media). We thought that with a well-established airplane flight school it would be easy to keep two helicopters busy and it seemed to be working well, but 2009 was a disaster. Groupon has made a huge difference for us.
Is the rate of Groupon customers completing a Private certificate low? Yes, but so was our rate for customers who paid our standard prices for an intro flight. As for having 100s of people/year who get a Private, that would be a dream for us! So.. you’re our hero.