Eric Lindbergh Wants You To Fly A New Plane
by ANN Associate Editor James Aronovsky
As an aviation
journalist, I know that I'll never get rich in this profession. But
there are times when my business card allows me entrance into the
highest levels of personal aviation even if only for a short time
as recorded on the Hobbs meter.
A few weeks ago, as a representative of the most authoritative
aviation news site on the web (the boss makes us say that...), I
was invited to witness the formal Launch Event in Long Beach, CA of
a new form of aero club called iFly.
Unlike most traditional aero clubs, however, you get no choice
of airplanes. You're stuck with a brand-new leather and Garmin
equipped Columbia 350 with the 310 hp engine and 1300 mile range,
no exceptions.
As Aero-News reported last week, iFly now
has six Columbia 350s at various airports in Southern California.
Eric Lindbergh, who is the motivating force behind the iFly
concept, was there at the opening and we had a nice chat about the
joys of flying the formerly named Lancair. We had met several years
ago when he was touring the country prior to recreating his famous
grandfather's flight to Paris. At the time, I was on assignment for
Parade Magazine and Eric offered the reporter and me (playing the
photographer) a short flight. Unfortunately, I was relegated to the
back seat, which while better for photographs, really isn't the
right place for a pilot. However, any place in a Columbia airplane
isn't really so bad.
Once on the ramp, I met my pilot, Scott Marti, formerly chief
flight instructor for Columbia and now a membership director at
iFly. He proceeded to give me a short introduction to the Columbia
350. This is the glass panel version of the Columbia 300 that Eric
had flown to France and it is a Very. Nice. Airplane. Climbing on
the footstep, then up on the wing, carefully staying only on the
approved area, I realized that this was about the only thing that
this plane had in common with the stolid Cherokee 140 I regularly
fly. As soon as I plopped into the comfortable leather buckets, I
knew the Piper plane was losing the comparison. Once buckled in,
Scott shared the extensive preflight with me. Among the checklist
items I had never performed in my Cherokee was the pressurized door
gasket check, auto-pilot self test, and the automatic Windex spritz
onto the Garmin G1000 glass panels (OK, the last one is apparently
not offered on this particular model).
With the plane started, we taxied out and Scott mentioned that
most pilots initially had trouble with the differential brake
steering instead of a steerable nose wheel. Having soloed decades
ago in a Grumman Yankee which uses the same system, I found the
differential brake steering quite familiar. However, the
comfortable leather interior certainly wasn't.
We both studied the Los Angeles terminal chart and decided for
the purposes of our flight, we wouldn't attempt any of the
complicated VFR corridors and just stay under the Class B area. The
decision was proven smart as a gloomy California marine layer
started to come in from the coast. With Bose ANR (automatic noise
cancelling) headsets, the noise level in the plane was essentially
zero as we accelerated on takeoff. Chris said we would throttle
back for navigation comfort but even at 55%, the plane was
considerably faster than my Cherokee at max cruise. I took the
stick, which really is a stick -- it's even made out of real wood--
and found it to be completely natural. Even with hundreds of hours
using the typical spam-can yoke, I'd go to the stick in a minute.
The Columbia uses rods instead of cables, so the control inputs
felt directly tied to the ailerons and elevators. The rudder was
equally precise.
Obviously, with our limited time frame and visibility, I wasn't
going to perform a thorough airplane performance test but I will
say this: the plane is a sweet ride. Scott was either impressed
with my plane handling skills, or more likely, confident in his
ability to get us out of trouble, but nevertheless, he allowed me
to make the approach and landing back to Long Beach. An approach
speed of 95 knots was fairly exhilarating compared to my usual 65
and the high wing-loading made the airplane feel like it was on
rails down to the runway.
Clearly, if I were in the market for a high-performance piston
single, the Columbia would be a strong contender. That is why Eric
Lindbergh selected this airplane for what he considers a very
viable concept in airplane ownership. Actually, this is not
ownership in the traditional sense because participants in iFly
will not have an equity position in the planes. That is, unlike
fractionals, which are very popular with the business jet
community, members of iFly will not actually own any part of the
airplane. Instead, they will have essentially unlimited access to a
fleet of identical aircraft that they can fly virtually anytime and
anywhere.
The advantage, according to Andrew DeMond, CEO of iFly, is that
the member doesn't have to worry about insurance or if his
particular plane gets dinged. If a plane is down, a replacement is
flown in and since all planes will be outfitted identically, the
only difference the pilot will notice is the N number.
Andrew is sure there is a huge untapped market of pilots who
instead of buying a 30 year old plane, would rather have access to
a new state-of-the-art model. While clearly not intended for the
flier of modest means (stop looking at me), his research shows that
many more pilots would fly more often if they had an airplane that
their wives and friends could consider as nice as the luxury cars
they drive on the ground.
He says iFly is a privately funded company with the distinction
that almost all investors are either pilots themselves or
aviation-minded private business investors. Many are already
current Columbia owners and are sold on the brand.
Brian Anderson, Chief Financial Officer for iFly, brags that he
will bring to this aviation company non-aviation financial
standards. Considering the atrocious record of so many failed
aviation ventures in history, that is probably a very good thing.
He claims he will be a "financial disciplinarian" to keep the iFly
venture on sound fiscal footing.
In the meantime, Eric Lindbergh calls the iFly Smarter
program a wonderful "hands-off" experience - hands off
registration, insurance, maintenance, tie-downs, repairs, etc. He
claims it's the ultimate turn-key experience. You reserve the
plane, you turn the key, and fly!