... that is making a difference in aviation, and it’s the passion that made them do it. It’s like old times.
Redbird Flight Simulations, Inc. of Austin, TX bills itself as the “fastest growing flight simulator provider” and recently delivered its 100th unit, after having officially formed in 2007. The company was founded by nine former Dell computer and Pepsi executives, a number of whom are pilots.
Charlie Gregoire, vice president of sales, marketing, and services, relates how his father, an accomplished pilot, got them into this endeavor. Relates Gregoire, “He came back from his King Air initial training and started telling us about the sims. And then we started thinking about our flight training. Why, if sims are such a good idea, why doesn’t every school have one?”
That led the company to create a flight simulator line that is affordable. Comments Gregoire, “It started as an intellectual experiment. Can we do this? If we build something nobody wants, at least we have a sim we can play with. At the very least, we were going to originally build at least nine sims – one for each partner. And then we’d disband if nobody else wanted it.” Those nine simulators have yet to be built for the founders.
“We set all of our pricing, did everything that we did, with those small local flight schools in mind. We developed these for local training operations. What we’re seeing is the universities are using them because that’s a very underserved market as well. These flight schools have been chomping at the bit for something like this. It just hasn’t been there.”
Price of a full-motion simulator that offers interchangeable panels for light aircraft is $60,000, though there are tabletop units that cost less. “To this day we have people who ask, how do you make it for this price?” relates Gregoire. “It’s the state of technology; and it’s the approach that we have to business. It’s the Dell model; it’s take the best of the best off-the-shelf components, integrate them, and develop something that can be much better for a lower price.”
The company recently joined GAMA, and is a supporter of AOPA. Comments Gregoire, “We’re doing something that’s really moving general aviation forward. It’s really promoting the growth of general aviation. With the state of GA today, a lot of it comes down to the cost of operating aircraft; of people learning to fly.
“We’re bringing the price for training down. This is all about making aviation more accessible.”
Thanks for reading. jfi
[Read more about Redbird Flight Simulations in the October issue of AIRPORT BUSINESS magazine.]