Wed, Jan 25, 2012
It was quite an event... and one that featured a unique brand of
excitement that we do not see too often in the GA world anymore --
the feeling that something "really different" is right around the
corner.
The event we speak of was Redbird Skyport's 'birthday' of
November 8th, 2011 -- a date to remember... for the first time in a
LONG time, aviation industry luminaries gathered together to
celebrate the start of something unique, innovative and utterly
NEW. A multi-faceted aviation research and development laboratory,
located in San Marcos, TX, the Redbird Skyport is the culmination
of the efforts of Redbird Flight Simulations and King Schools and
is supported by a growing number of industry partners.
Skyport is designed to be the first step in developing solutions
to the challenges of a shrinking pilot population, staggering
student drop-out rate and the ever increasing cost of flight
training. The innovative aviation laboratory will include a full
service FBO, flight school, and aviation experience center. All
aspects of the project will provide a test bed for innovative
hardware, software, business processes and ideas with the goal of
revitalizing general aviation.
The event also provided an excellent chance to gauge the
potential impact on the GA world, as judged by a number of industry
vets and experts... folks like outgoing Avemco Boss, Jim
Lauerman... a guy who know his way around the flight training biz
in no small way. Lauerman's bio notes that with over 4,000 hours of
flight time, his career has spanned almost every aspect of general
aviation. Starting in the Navy as an acoustic sensor operator
aboard a P-3 Orion, he eventually 'went civilian' where he
purchased and managed his own flight school and Grumman-American
dealership, which he later sold to become Chief Pilot and Chief
Flight Instructor at Elliot Beechcraft. In 1985, National Aviation
Underwriters recruited him to enter the aviation insurance
profession and was eventually promoted to Vice President of US
Specialty Insurance Company (USSIC) and later, became the Executive
Vice President of Operations at Avemco. He became President of
Avemco in 2007 and retired in January of 2012.
Join Aero-TV and Jim Lauerman for a look at the potential of the
Redbird experiment.
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