Columbia "Pilot Club" Launches At Six SoCal Airports

Erik Lindbergh, grandson of famed aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, is no stranger to the Columbia line of airplanes -- after all, it was a Columbia 300 Lindbergh used to retrace his grandfather's historic flights in 2002. However, as nice as those planes are... their pricetags keep them out of reach for many pilots (at the very least, many ANN staffers -- Ed.)

Lindbergh (above) tells ANN he thought the same... which is why he founded a new program to transform the personal aircraft access paradigm. It's called iFly -- a new company that offers member pilots managed access to a fleet of high performance Columbia 350s for about half the cost of traditional sole ownership and without any of the responsibilities that can complicate a pilot's relationship with his airplane.

"Now more than ever, personal aircraft travel has the ability to transform your lifestyle. You can go where you want to go when you want to go," Lindbergh said. "With the Columbia 350, this is particularly true. It's fast, it's comfortable, it's easy to fly and it's one of the safest personal aircraft available today. With iFly, it's also much more affordable and we take care of all of the management details."

Lindbergh says iFly offers its members all of the flying and none of the headaches at a predictable cost. iFly maintains its fleet of Columbia 350s located at FBOs at six Southern California airports. The company is responsible for aircraft management, insurance, maintenance, ground facilities, scheduling, and training. Member pilots simply schedule the aircraft online, show up and fly.

iFly also offers an industry-low 4:1 member-to-aircraft ratio, and no preset limit on hours or overnight trips -- giving members unprecedented access to aircraft.

"The dream of personal aviation is the freedom to fly on demand, but pilots know that the reality rarely lives up to the dream," said iFly President Andrew DeMond. "The average personal aircraft is over 30 years old, relatively slow and lacks modern avionics and safety features. And then there are all of the expenses and problems that most aircraft owners try not to think about.

"With iFly, we strip away the hassles and unplanned expenses and provide our members with access to the aircraft that they really want to fly for about the same as it would cost them to own and operate a 30-year-old aircraft and we all know that there really is no comparing those experiences."

Initially, iFly will operate from six Southern California airports -- Van Nuys (VNY), Santa Monica (SMO), Torrance (TOA), Long Beach (LGB), Orange County (SNA), and Carlsbad (CRQ). Although the company is launching exclusively in Southern California, iFly has plans to expand nationally.

"We're very pleased that iFly selected the Columbia 350 for its fleet," said Columbia Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Randy S. Bolinger. "We strongly believe that iFly has developed a new business model that will expand access to truly capable aircraft to a much larger segment of the pilot community and deliver a customer service experience that is remarkably attractive. iFly has the potential to transform how pilots fly and we're proud to be a part of it."

FMI: www.iflysmarter.com, www.flycolumbia.com