OpenAirplane, FlyOtto Shut Down Operations
flyingmag.com
flyingmag.com
I think the idea of renting an airplane away from home is moderately appealing and I've done it 3 times (none via OpenAirplane), but each time with a local instructor, because I wasn't going to use an away-from-base rental airplane for purposeful travel.
The desire to rent an airplane without an instructor (what OA enabled) isn't that much higher for me than renting one with an instructor. In Iceland, I wanted to fly around and look at the terrain and nature. I flew the airplane, but have the instructor knowing where we were, all the radio procedures, and having a "walk up, get in, fly, go pay, walk away" experience was worth the modest instructor fee. Same with the two rentals I did in Florida; in those cases, I was trying out new aircraft as a potential type to purchase and had no reason not to have an experienced instructor on board (in fact, it was a big plus).
Now, the fact that I didn't do what OA is best at means that maybe I don't really see the advantage. If we're going somewhere within about 700 miles, we probably have our airplane with us. If we're going farther than that, we're probably not going to then want to rent an airplane to sight-see and need to not have an instructor on board. If we go to Hawaii, we'll surely rent an airplane and instructor.
I feel bad for the obviously passionate founders who had their company fail to thrive.
This opinion seems shared by Richard Branson, who famously said "if you want to become a millionaire, start as a billionaire and start and airline"!
I'm not seeing any common sense in the founders.
1. For most people, doing an extra checkout is a deal breaker.
2. Same with the 10% (or more) additional cost. I wonder if that disqualifies block time discounts as well.
3. Also requiring renters insurance, which although recommended, most people don't have.
However, if you already lived near an OA location, and you squint hard, it could make sense for a handful of pilots - just not enough to ever make a profitable business.
There's an article about Blackbird linked to this article. They were trying to do the "hold out" Part 135 charters but regulated under Part 91 thing that the FAA never allows, and never will.
I never got charged more for OA than the published rental rates...but all the places where I did my checkouts had me fill out one extra sheet of paper so that an OA checkout also counted as a checkout for their own insurance rules. So if I was flying with a place a lot, I'd just do the checkout there and buy block time from them and rent under their non-OA policy. Basically, OA was great for everywhere other than one's local FBO, for which it was still typically a better deal to just rent under the terms of their standard non-OA policy.
Renter's insurance would be a tough sell for a lot of people; my local FBO already required it so I was good to go. (My local FBO is great, but they're also the only place I know that does dry rentals where you're not insured by their policy...weird, I know)
That's a great attitude, and one I have adopted.
If they had EU presence I'd be shipping them a GDPR request for their non-compliant cookie form. Does anyone know whether processors (all their ad providers) have any liability if they rely on a controller's claim that consent was given even where it wasn't?
Yeah, there's incredible freedom if you have all the paperwork and own your own Mooney or other fast airplane.
Anything short of that in flying is a harsh, toe-stubbing reality unless you stay local VFR.
I've never heard of an insurance requirement for the checkout, so I believe it's an FBO requirement. I think it's reasonable because local procedures vary, but that invalidates the OA business model.
Also, FBOs vary in expectations. I've rented at some places where tow bar use was 100% mandatory, and others that didn't own any and just said, "push at the wing root."
In Hawaii there's no cross-wind limits, and in California if the wind sock flutters, everybody's grounded.
I started using OA because my local FBO required that I have renter's insurance and I needed a flight review anyway, so the barriers to entry were really low for me. I drove an extra half hour and did my flight review and all of a sudden I had OA privileges.
OA was great for taking trips as a renter. I could call around to all the area OA FBOs and someone always had a plane free and was always willing to waive the daily fees as long as I put, say, six hours on the plane. I never had anyone hassle me about getting another checkout. (To be fair, I was often flying out of the DC FRZ, so I think everyone figured I was good to go on local airspace procedures.)
I hadn't realized the diversity of avionics until I flew OA. I had one very memorable flight where, while about to preflight, I started chatting with an instructor. "Where are you off to?" When I told him Rhode Island (~400 nm trip), he visibly started and then gasped, "in that?!" I said, shakily, "yeah......" and then after a long awkward pause he said, "well, uh, I guess there's no reason you can't..." Took me 10 minutes of sitting in the cockpit wondering why I couldn't find the nav radio to realize there was no nav radio! That C150 was so small that after takeoff I put my feet on the copilot's rudder pedals, which worked out well since I had to fly the plane in a slight slip anyway because the fuel tanks didn't drain evenly. So there I was, stretched out across this tiny cockpit, navigating by highway over Connecticut, when ATC asked me to relay to one of the commuter turboprops that was having electrical issues. Me! In my C150 with nothing but a barely working COM1! You get the picture. The other plane got where it needed to be. I had a hundred hours at the time. I learned so much on that trip... especially how much more I had to learn.
Back to OA. I was trying to finish my instrument rating and had a shit experience with Dulles Aviation (now closed) at HEF. A shame since that's where I learned to fly back in 2002. On what I hoped would be my final xc before checkride prep, the instructor was fine until I had to ask clearance delivery to spell the departure procedure and from then on he SCREAMED at me the whole flight. Couldn't focus. Flew like shit. Mode C off by 300 feet the whole flight. Every approach, even after reminding ATC of the discrepancy: "Low altitude alert, check altitude IMMEDIATELY." My confidence was shattered. I needed a break. I went back to OA. Started renting from New Kent Aviation in Richmond because they accepted my OA checkouts. It was a long drive but they were amazing. I got my complex and high performance endorsements there so I could get checked out in bigger and better planes. At the end of those endorsements the instructor said, "well you're good to fly the 172RG, and you flew those instrument approaches so well, I'm signing you off for that checkride too." Passed it. Probably wouldn't have happened for a long time if I hadn't had the flexibility to try different places until I found an instructor and school that worked for me.
I dropped out of OA for a couple of years and devoted my flying effort to learning how to do aerobatics and fly tailwheels from the inimitable Marianne Buckley at VKX. Best money I've spent in aviation, perhaps ever. She's retired now. Good for her, too bad for the rest of us.
I returned to OA in 2018. I flew a few more times out of the OA FBOs at FDK and ESN. It was always a hassle because the paperwork was never quite right. I couldn't get anyone to respond to emails sent to the "crew" support email address for OA. In the past Rod Rakic would personally handle any problems that came up and he did so quickly and efficiently. The customer experience was great. By 2018 I was always dealing with a succession of people and I always felt that taking my money in exchange for putting me in a cockpit was way down their list of priorities.
I'm sorry to see OA go but I'm not surprised. It was a great idea that just didn't get the legs it needed. I hope one day something like it comes back around. Thanks, Rod, for the great times you enabled for me.
Normally, I'm with you on this but isn't Catalina somewhat unusual as an airport?
I don't completely remember what the issues were from my tour, but I thought it was somewhat treacherous.
This is similar to people wanting to fly into Burning Man. They explicitly discourage it unless you have significant desert flying experience and even then they discourage quite a few of the lower powered planes. (Deserts can be particularly bad for generating enough lift.)
pretty typical table-top style mountain airport. Anyone with a mountain checkout should be able to fly into there safely