Andrew Gideon wrote in
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That's my guess too. So the FBOs aren't [mostly] training people that
are going to go on to aviation careers. Thus, at least in the aggregate
(over all FBOs), they are training the "next generation" of GA-ers.

And that makes them "important" in the task of raising more GA pilots.

Absolutely. And the fact that they generate revenue from it is significant
as well. But I think a better argument is that they need to create pilots
who will buy planes to park at their tiedowns, and bring in to their
service stations.

We've a very different mechanism which may work out about the same. It's
a point-based system. A long booking "costs" 2 points; a short "costs"

[..]

Also, frankly, everyone is pretty good about it. I'd a booking that was
immediately followed by someone else's once. I found I wanted to stay
away longer, and a quick call to the other member made it possible.

That's a pretty cool system. It might be worth exploring if we ever
increase our members-to-plane ratio. Right now, with fewer than 10 members
per plane, scheduling is pretty good... Of course, now I recognize you as
Paramus Flying Club, but admittedly I had to hop online to double check.

Heh Good point. I'll have to remember that if I ever come across my
own unlimited budget grin.

In fact, now that I consider it, we've had and have members that owned
their own aircraft as well. Hmm.

Yeah, those are the best members too because they contribute to the fixed
costs without cluttering up the schedule.

I just recognized you: WFC-HPN.ORG? You're one of the few clubs in the
"neighborhood" with six-seaters. I've noticed that; we have only
four-seaters.

Well I'm not personally the whole club (although I did personally do some
work on the home page and the brochure grin). But yes, that's us. No six-
seaters though. All of our planes currently have 4 seats, but the two V-
Tail Bonanzas have the ability to have a fifth "child seat" installed.

I've also long admired what little I can see about your finances, in that
you seem to keep your aircraft very well equiped for a rather low price.

One of the priorities of the club that almost all members agree with is the
need to keep consistent and useful avionics in the planes. To the point
that when we bought our last two planes, we immediately switched their
avionics to match the rest of the fleet (GNS-480s). There's only one plane
in the fleet that doesn't have a GNS-480, and it's been a topic of debate
because for a while we thought we might be trading it in with the last
purchase instead of just buying the 8th plane. People didn't want to invest
to upgrade the avionics on a plane that wasn't going to be with the club
much longer. There's still an undercurrent of people who think we may end
up selling off that plane... But the club seems to waffle on it.