Yet Another 'Crook' Makes Aviation Look Bad....
ANN has been poring through some troubling info gathered over a number of days.... info that has taken on voluminous and dangerous proportions. Based on a tip from "Aviation Criminal's" Kristy Graham, ANN has uncovered dozens of online offers on various "Daily Deal" websites purporting to offer exciting simulated 'Air Combat' experiences of the kind pioneered by a number of highly regarded companies that have been doing so safely and responsibly for quite a few years.
But... while the offers made through "Daily Deal" marketing sites like Groupon, Living Social, MemberDealsUSA, Amazon, and dozens of other entities may bear striking similarities to these well-known operators... we have discovered that the similarities are intentional... and overtly false/misleading.
Offering highly discounted adventures in the $300-$400 price range (or more for those choosing more extensive optional programs), and using a variety of identities, these online offers all eventually point to a site ostensibly named 'Fighter Combat Adventures.' Promising Top Gun-like excitement and featuring glitzy pictures of Extra 300s and SF-260s engaged in simulated air combat experiences, the site looks, to all the world, like the slick professional sites that adorn a number of the best simulated Air Combat company web sites... as well they should... because the FCA site is using stolen and misappropriated pictures, copy and other intellectual property seen on Arizona's Fighter Combat International site as well as California's Air Combat USA operation.
The FCA site breathlessly offers the adventure of a lifetime...
- "$399 for a hands-on fighter-pilot experience with 40 minutes of practice in-air combat in the plane (an $849 value)."
- "$599 for a hands-on fighter-pilot experience with 60 minutes of practice in-air combat in the plane (a $1,299 value)..."
- "In addition to being in control of the aircraft during the flight, each experience includes ground-school training, a hero photo, pre- and post-flight briefings done according to standard military protocol, lunch in the ready room, and a hero video recorded from within the cockpit."
It sounds great... just like the amazing experiences offered by all the legitimate and well-known Air Combat experience operations that have been a part of the sport aviation landscape for many years.
Air Combat USA and Arizona's Fighter Combat International, though, have nothing to do with the online Groupon/Living Social/etc. offerings and gave no authorization for their intellectual property to be used. Further, an examination of the site that the online scams point to, Fighter Combat Adventures, contains some glaring warnings that only a few minutes research revealed to be questionable, and based on false, fraudulent or errant data. The primary Fighter Combat Adventures site offers three locations for the featured flight operations... with specific addresses in Van Nuys, Santa Monica and Costa Mesa, California -- while yet another derivation of the site offers addresses in San Jose and Livermore, California.
However; a few phone calls, some Google searches and a little research reveals that the Santa Monica site is a restaurant (which denies all knowledge of ANY Fighter Combat Adventures activity or affiliation....) while the Van Nuys location is (alternately, for a number of different but similar derivations of the address) either a parking lot or Clay Lacy Aviation (again, which denies all knowledge of ANY Fighter Combat Adventures activity or affiliation....) and the Costa Mesa site turns out to be the Airport Admin building for John Wayne Airport (which, you guessed it, denies all knowledge of ANY Fighter Combat Adventures activity or affiliation....). Other addresses on variations of the main site eventually refer to other vacant lots, airport offices/businesses and one municipal building... all of which have NO idea who or what Fighter Combat Adventures is.
A phone number affixed to the Fighter Combat Adventures site leaves a voicemail message that claims to be "Fighter Combat and California Aviators" while inquiring messages left on the voicemail (by a number of parties, not just ANN) have not been returned. However; the short voice message heard on the line does appear, at least to four people so far, to bear strong similarities to a known and troubling person... but more about that, in a little bit.
Calls to Groupon, Living Social and a number of other sites offering the fraud-riddled Fighter Combat Adventures sales pitch took a long time to get to live people... and the response ANN and others received was, at best, noncommittal with those involved seemingly unconcerned about the issues raised about the many troubling and false attributes associated with this vendor. Attempts to get hard data on the vendor involved were met with general refusals to impart basic information and followed by short banal promises to return our calls after "investigations" which (apparently) were completed... and in which the intervening period, thus far, has allowed Fighter Combat Adventures to sell at least 100 more Air Combat adventure rides... to persons unknown and for which there is yet to be one iota of evidence to support the premise that any flights were or are in the process of actually being conducted.
What was paramount in our questioning was to find the origin of this offering, who was conducting it and see just how far the deceptive practices we'd uncovered so far would actually go... and who was likely (if anyone) to be hurt, financially or physically, from such suspect endeavors.
Aggressive web searches and interviews eventually turned up some interesting similarities in a number of the offers... with an 'M-One-Aviation' being seen in some of the specialized URLs associated with a number of the site offerings and a slip of the tongue uttered by one of the Daily Deal site staffers, noting that the suspect vendor/client was named 'M-One-Aviation.'
In the meantime, the two professional aviation companies that have conducted legal Simulated Air/Fighter Combat rides and adventures under the auspices of the FARs started getting calls from people wanting the "Groupon deal" or a similar offer to what they had seen on the web -- often confusing the fraudulent Fighter Combat Adventures pitch with the actual reputable company that their scam seemed to strongly mimic.
And when you read between the lines -- the frauds, the misdirection, the claims, the bragging, the sales pitch... it simply doesn't add up... the FCA site says that its a company with ten years of experience... that no one has ever heard of...
There are three "Recommendations" for FCA on the well-known YELP.com social media site... all from people who logged on to create new accounts in August of 2012... to leave ONE breathless, overtly positive review of Fighter Combat Adventures and NOTHING else -- though we have been unable to meet ANYONE who has actually flown with them, seen their planes, visited their offices or otherwise substantiated the firm as a real live, going concern.
And that's the point. Fighter Combat Adventures is selling (reportedly) hundreds of these rides at $300-$400 a pop (or more)... when the going rate is considerable higher and anyone who operates either an SF-260 or Extra 300 (the two types of aircraft shown on the Fighter Combat Adventures site), will tell you that much of the remaining fee will be eaten up in fuel costs alone... while keeping in mind that the "Fee" structure for many of these Daily Deal sites takes 50% right off the top... leaving the vendor with $150-$200 (from the $300-$400) in fees to conduct the operation all these people are paying for.
This represents an extraordinary loss--if the rides were actually conducted... and a totally unsustainable business model. While taking a loss may make some sense if there is a high-degree of repeat business involved in such an offering, and the opportunity to build a sustained business relationship, such rides are usually one shot deals and the potential to recover the losses on any potential future, affiliated/repeat business is VERY slim. So... the pitch makes no sense and Fighter Combat Adventures would lose its (posterior region) if it tried to actually deliver on its promise of Fighter/Air Combat Adventures for the prices these hundreds of customers are paying. That is... if they have any intention to do so... for which NO evidence currently exists.
The resultant worry is this, and it is one that has been expressed by legitimate Air Combat adventure operators and related aviation professionals... what if this is nothing but a money-for-nothing scam and there is NO intention and/or ability to deliver what so many people have apparently paid tens, even hundreds, of thousands (or potentially even more) of dollars for?
And that worry seems all the more prominent because of a number of factors that keep pointing in one direction...
You see, 'M-One-Aviation' sounds suspiciously like Mach One Aviation... one of the companies used by aviation con-man David Riggs to conduct a number of shady deals... and at least four people seem to think that the short voice mail on the FCA phone line sounds suspiciously like a man that many consider to be one of the most dangerous and dishonest men in all of aviation. And there's more... more details, more scams, more concerns (even one VERY troubling program that involves children)... and yes, more evidence pointing at David G Riggs...
To be continued... and you're NOT going to want to believe what's next...
E-I-C Note: Let me be perfectly clear about one very important issue in this story... both Arizona's Fighter Combat International as well as California's Air Combat USA operation have excellent reps and appear to be solid professional operations... we have uncovered NOTHING to suggest any true affiliation with the Fighter Combat Adventures scam outside of being victimized by the theft's the FCA site has made of their intellectual property and their apparent intent to mimic their appeal and appearance. -- Jim Campbell, ANN E-I-C
The Fraud-Riddled Fighter Combat Adventures Site
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.16.24)
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