By Kim Hilsenbeck.
Turn off State Highway 21 south into the San Marcos airport and head almost to the end of the road. There on the left sits an unassuming building at the edge of the tarmac. Inside, however, is a business poised to create turbulence in the aviation industry.
John Koenreich, general manager of Redbird Skyport FBO, which stands for fixed base operation, greets visitors with a firm handshake. He talked about what’s happening at the company.
“We take full motion simulator and sell it for about $85,000,” Koenreich said. “That opens it up for flight schools, high schools, universities…[simulators] used to be only for military, the airlines and the corporate industry.”
With Redbird’s lower cost, most any entity can now afford a flight simulator. Koenreich said some of the other simulators on the market cost a few hundred thousand up to a million dollars.
Just beyond the main reception area is a hangar with several planes parked off to the side. Koenreich calls it the “airplane petting zoo.”
Here, John Koenreich, general manager of Redbird Skyport shows off some of the features of the many desktop simulators. At top, Flight student Houston Hutchison (left) prepares to take off from the virtual San Marcos Airport with the help of instructor John Ekhoff. (Photos by David White) |
The room holds about 450 guests for special events – weddings, sorority dances, even the 2012 Taste of Hays fundraiser for United Way of Hays County rented out the hangar.
But Redbird Skyport is not just an event center or an FBO.
“It’s a concept,” Koenreich said. “It’s a research lab for our parent company, Redbird Flight Simulations in Austin.”
Aside from the FBO, which sells aviation fuel, and the special events piece of the business, Redbird Skyport also has a flight school.
“Our flight school is purposely small, we don’t really want to run a flight school,” Koenreich said, “we do it to collect data.”
The school only has 16 students at a time.
But the business’ core function is to sell flight simulators.
“Everything we do is driven to sell more simulators,” he continued. “If we help rejuvenate the general aviation industry then everybody is going to do well; manufacturers, insurance companies, flight schools – there is a ripple effect.”
According to Koenreich, the general aviation industry, basically private pilots flying their own or rented planes, has been on the decline since the 1970s oil embargo here in the United States.
Redbird collects data on pilots and monitors industry trends, which it shares with industry experts and other firms.
Koenreich said Redbird’s flight simulators are different from others on the market, which typically cost three times as much as a small airplane.
“The CEO of Redbird looked at the cost of simulators and said, ‘I can do better than that.’ He designed a less expensive simulator, took it to market and instantly started getting orders,” Koenreich said.
A private pilot’s license can cost tens of thousands of dollars and take a long time. He should know—he’s been a pilot since 1974.
Koenreich explained, “Most people start but don’t finish aviation training because they run out of money or time; this equipment addresses those problems.”
And though competitors of those pricey models said Redbird’s model wouldn’t make a difference, Koenreich insists it already has.
We’ve been open two years and we’ve reduced the training time needed in an airplane 50 percent,” he said.
That’s the most expensive piece of the puzzle—going up in the air with an instructor.
“You don’t need to be in an airplane for some of the training,” Koenreich said.
He listed some examples, such as learning how to use the navigation and communication systems.
Redbird simulators, according to Koenreich, are designed to make the time in flight with an instructor more valuable, because, “You already know what to expect in the airplane,” he said.
Down the hall from the main lobby is the simulator room. Desktop machines as well as four full flight simulation machines hum all around. Students in Redbird Skyport jackets pour over their lessons at a nearby table.
Koenreich explained how the different simulation models work.
“You can pick any airport in the world, Baghdad, France,” he said, “and use the simulator for training on approaches [to an airport].”
Pilots who want to keep their license current must do six approaches every six months.
“It’s a little like playing video games,” Koenreich said. “The video comes up on screen and it will show you how to do something, such as a ‘turn about the point.’ You watch video, and then you try it.”
And if you mess up or crash, Koenreich said, you just start over.
The Redbird simulators also use something called Parrot – a proprietary air traffic controller system.
“It teaches you how to communicate,” he said. “You pick up the mic and tell the [control] tower what you’re going to do. If you have to do that for the first time in the plane, it causes stage fright.”
Koenreich said by time they put a customer in the airplane for the very first time, they already know what a cockpit looks like.
“They’ve been able to push the buttons and turn the knobs, they know how to tune the radio, how to start the airplane, how to taxi. They have less anxiety and white knuckles,” Koenreich said. “They basically know how to fly.”
