AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2013 - 82

SIGTRONICS

AVIATION HEADSETS
PORTABLE INTERCOMS

S-20 Headset

P&E

OWNERSHIP

to upgrade to a turboprop or light jet. “It’s
definitely the gourmet way to fly.”

• Articulating Mic
Boom
• High Noise
Environment
Microphone
• Foam Ear Seals
• 3 Year Warranty
• Youth Version
with Child sized
Headband available

S-45 Headset
• Gel & Foam Ear Seals
• Air Pillow Headpad
• 5 Year Warranty
• High Noise
Environment
Microphone
• Stereo, Helicopter,
and Youth
versions

SPO Portable Intercom
• Operates up to 40
hours on one 9-volt
battery (SPO-22)
• Includes a DC cable
for aircraft power
• 5 Year Warranty
• Music input
• Audio output for
recording ATC flight dialog—Great for training
• Push to Talk Switch inputs for both pilot & copilot
• Available in 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 place versions

SPO-62

All Sigtronics headsets and intercoms are
built in the U.S.A. with high quality cables
and components.
See our web site for our complete line of
headsets, intercoms, and accessories.

Sigtronics Corporation
909 305-9399 • www.sigtronics.com

RICK MATTHEWS was with AirShares Elite,
but recently he assembled a new team and
created a company that aims to make aircraft available to all. Aviation Access Project,
based in Gallatin, Tennessee, has only just
begun to realize a vision of operating lowcost aircraft, including Light Sport and used
models, at small airports across the country.
Each flight center would combine training,
aircraft management, and opportunities
for pilots to socialize—a key ingredient in
Matthews’ formula that is absent from many
other managed fractional programs.
“We are redefining the industry,”
Matthews said. “What has been happening
has been failing us.” He said the effort was
inspired in large part by AOPA research on
flight training that found between 70 and
80 percent of student pilots never earn a
certificate. Matthews turned his attention
to making airplane access as affordable as
possible, and scoffs at an analysis that precludes all but the most populated areas as
fertile ground for fractions.
“We don’t just want to make money in
this,” Matthews said. He envisions 1,000
flight centers spread across the country,
offering equity buy-in options of $10,000 or
less, and monthly management fees starting
around $100 per shareholder. “We’re in this
to literally transform the industry.”
John Armstrong founded DiamondShare with fellow Diamond dealers—and a
different business model that blends ownership and leasing: each brand-new Diamond
is sold to a single owner, and Armstrong will
recruit up to three additional “members”
willing to make one-year commitments
to pay $999 per month for 8.3 hours of
monthly DA40 use, excluding fuel. Those
payments defray the owner’s cost, which
may be reduced further by tax deductions
and depreciation. (The same is often true
in other shared ownership programs.)
Armstrong said the idea is to put a brandnew $420,000 aircraft within reach of pilots
who otherwise would never dream of it.
Most pilots can’t justify the expense of
a state-of-the-art aircraft, Armstrong said,
relegating them to decades-old airplanes

82 | AOPA PILOT August 2013

and technology. In turn, dealers have a hard
time selling new aircraft, and the GA fleet
continues to age. Owners of 30-year-old (or
older) aircraft are being driven out of aviation by the ever-rising cost of maintaining
an aircraft priced within their means.
“They get beat up by the shops and they
just leave,” Armstrong said. “They quit flying. That’s the worst thing that can happen.
We have to find ways to get modern airplanes out there in larger numbers, or this
industry is going to slowly just die.”
Armstrong and his fellow dealers have
sold six DA40 aircraft divvied up in this way,
and plan to adapt their model for the DA42
twin in the near future.
IN ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, FlyteOne
President Alex Atteberry offers yet another
take on managed fractional ownership, not
tied to any particular make or model. He
began working on his own plan in 2008,
and offers management services for a broad
range of aircraft: turboprops and jets at one
end, and eventually offering Light Sport
shares at the other. In between, the company manages single-engine certificated
pistons like the Piper Cherokee Six for a
total fee of $20,000 per year, divided by
however many owners buy a share.
Atteberry said the program—which
advertises buy-in costs as low as $10,000—is
just being launched, and a half-dozen locations across the country are being explored
as potential bases. He sees potential for
many more than the six aircraft currently
under management, as customers who once
might have opted to buy alone are now willing to join forces for lower costs.
“I think a lot of it has to do with a big
paradigm shift, from I have to own it,”
Atteberry said, “to, I own it, I’m in control,
but I don’t have the headaches.” He expects
the managed ownership model to gain
traction as owners realize that comparable
utility can be had for a fraction of the price,
even when paying for maintenance, storage,
insurance, and other details.
“What I look at with what we’re trying to deliver—you may be flying alone, but
you’re not alone,” Atteberry said.
AOPA
EMAIL james.moore@aopa.org

http://www.sigtronics.com http://www.sigtronics.com

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2013

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