1991 ~ 1993
While training for my IFR rating, (Instrument Flight Rules) I purchased a copy of Azure ELITE, a $695.00 software package that simulates instrument flight. Azure ELITE was originally designed by Swiss engineers to assist pilots learning the complex flight management systems of the MD-80 jet. Success of the MD-80 spawned the additional development of two single engine aircraft.
Impressed with its professional design, realistic instrument flight characteristics and brilliantly integrated FAA instrument approach procedures, I wrote the US licensor and offered to market this product in Texas and Oklahoma. The US licensor had been selling by direct mail only and were intrigued with my proposal. We negotiated the contract details and I flew out to San Jose, CA. to formalize the agreement. Departing San Jose, I was humbled that I had just struck a software deal from silicon valley.
I leased office space and set up shop at Meacham Airport in Fort Worth, TX. At that time, Meacham Airport was the sixth busiest airport in all the Southwest, as measured by radio contact at FAA control towers. Fort Worth was home to nearly one thousand student pilots emrolled in the eight flight schools based at Meacham.
To market, I maintained an office to demo the software, telemarketed to targeted pilot databases, traveled TX and OK to give presentations to aviation groups, colleges with flight programs and set up displays at airshows.
Since Oklahoma is home to the FAA, I made frequent trips to the Human Factors division and advocated that the FAA allow PC based flight instruction to be logged toward an Instrument rating. Concurrently, Embry Riddle and the University of Illinois, with FAA grants, were conducting blind studies to prove or disprove the efficacy of PC based trainers versus traditional approved devices. The FAA collected industry leaders to a summit to discuss PC based flight training devices and I was invited to speak about ELITE.
The current FAA Advisory Circular which specified requirements for Aviation Training Devices was written prior the PC revolution. Consequently, the FAA had no criteria for PC based trainers and could not approve their use. This made marketing to flight schools quite difficult; an obstacle I never overcame.
In 1992, one of the largest flight schools based at Meacham, under the cover of darkness over the weekend, locked their doors and posted bankruptcy notices on the schools windows. When students arrived on Monday, they realized they lost their tuition and many faced deportation. It was a very sad day at the airport.
However, I was successful in leasing the former pilot supply retail space and entered the pilot supply business. Because pilot supplies sales dramatically outpaced sales of IFR software, I elected not to renew my reseller license and concentrated all my energy on the pilot supply business.