CFI, Safety Pilot, DPE Marketplace Website Idea

[Prestonalton]

Morning all! I've been working on an idea and I am looking for feedback if you'd be so inclined. Basically, here is the gist or BLUF:

An aviation marketplace website where instructors can post their services including their price, location, and what they offer. Other pilots can then book these services in their local area and it makes finding flight instruction more efficient and effective. 

I came about this idea because my PPL training was basically restricted to a single flight school who assigned me 4 different instructors of which I had no choice. In addition, it would be a way for instructors to build their clientele base. I'd like to test it out with the Mooney community to see your opinions and hopefully we can expand from there. The functions will be limited early on, but i'd like to hopefully grow it enough to where we have a pretty good selection. I know there are currently lists of instructors but many of them are outdated with some people not active anymore. The goal is to offer upfront pricing and schedules, easy interaction with local instructors, and increase safety of private pilots by reducing the barriers to finding aviation instruction services. Being in the military myself, I find myself spending countless hours on google researching different airports, instructors, and flight schools. However, there really is a lack of pertinent info out there.

 

So, here is the link to the site which has a much more thorough explanation: https://aircfi.sharetribe.com/

Feel free to sign up, post listings, and invite friends! Let me know what you like and don't be afraid to share what you don't like. 

[EricJ]

Looks interesting!

 

[Prestonalton]

Thanks! I think the biggest challenge is having a critical mass of postings so that eventually it will be prominently used, but I see it as good for us Mooniacs in the meantime 

[carusoam]

Preston,

Have you seen this thread..?

 

Your Website could help this project come together...

Use due caution, as it is work being put together by another MSer...

Best regards,

-a-

[midlifeflyer]

Other than safety pilots, how would this be markedly different from the lookups available from Gleim, EAA, and others?

[Prestonalton]

2 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

Other than safety pilots, how would this be markedly different from the lookups available from Gleim, EAA, and others?

So, what I don't get from those is the interactivity. My goal is to be able to message instructors on the site, understand their rates/services provided, and find their availability. Also, the user interface is lacking in my opinion. I would test out both sites (mine vs Gleim or EAA) and let me know the positives and negatives of each.

[Prestonalton]

10 hours ago, carusoam said:

Preston,

Have you seen this thread..?

 

Your Website could help this project come together...

Use due caution, as it is work being put together by another MSer...

Best regards,

-a-

Thanks for the talk-on. I've communicated on that forum as well. Hopefully we can put something together that is useful!

[MooneyPoor]

34 minutes ago, Prestonalton said:

Thanks for the talk-on. I've communicated on that forum as well. Hopefully we can put something together that is useful!

I’m game @Prestonalton. Anything to make things available and scalable for the masses. I’ve spent the last couple days on the ABS site gathering more ideas for scalability and user friendly things to apply.