"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:51:57 -0400, Kyle Boatright wrote:

The bottom line is that FBO's and Flight schools need to work very hard
to
create new private pilots to trickle up to Commercial, IFR, Multi, etc.
ratings (and aircraft) or we'll wake up one day and aviation as we know
it
will be gone.

The problem with this reasoning is that the FBO has little control over
its stream of new/upgrading pilots. The case cited of an FBO that
[effectively] ditched flight training, for example, may be more savvy than
you think. If I were an FBO owner, I'd know what percentage of renters
were from my flight school, what percentage of graduates I lost, and what
percentage of renters were trained elsewhere.

good stuff snipped

I guess my point is that there are a lot of variables, and - from outside
- its hard to judge exactly how factors balance out. But [cheap] flight
training may not be the income generator we'd all hope.

- Andrew

As you say, ditching flight training may be savvy, but only for a short
period. If a particular FBO's business horizon is 5 years, then (maybe)
doing away with flight training makes sense. On the other hand, if they plan
on being in business for the long haul, they are gonna have a tough time.
They won't have students, renters, or even owners to deal with once the
supply of pilots ages out.

Again, it is a short vs long term thing. Too many FBO's are taking a short
term approach and effectively killing the industry's future.

KB