Eric Lindbergh Wants You To Fly A New Plane

by ANN Associate Editor James Aronovsky

As an aviation journalist, I know that I'll never get rich in this profession. But there are times when my business card allows me entrance into the highest levels of personal aviation even if only for a short time as recorded on the Hobbs meter.

A few weeks ago, as a representative of the most authoritative aviation news site on the web (the boss makes us say that...), I was invited to witness the formal Launch Event in Long Beach, CA of a new form of aero club called iFly. 

Unlike most traditional aero clubs, however, you get no choice of airplanes. You're stuck with a brand-new leather and Garmin equipped Columbia 350 with the 310 hp engine and 1300 mile range, no exceptions.

As Aero-News reported last week, iFly now has six Columbia 350s at various airports in Southern California. Eric Lindbergh, who is the motivating force behind the iFly concept, was there at the opening and we had a nice chat about the joys of flying the formerly named Lancair. We had met several years ago when he was touring the country prior to recreating his famous grandfather's flight to Paris. At the time, I was on assignment for Parade Magazine and Eric offered the reporter and me (playing the photographer) a short flight. Unfortunately, I was relegated to the back seat, which while better for photographs, really isn't the right place for a pilot. However, any place in a Columbia airplane isn't really so bad.

Once on the ramp, I met my pilot, Scott Marti, formerly chief flight instructor for Columbia and now a membership director at iFly. He proceeded to give me a short introduction to the Columbia 350. This is the glass panel version of the Columbia 300 that Eric had flown to France and it is a Very. Nice. Airplane. Climbing on the footstep, then up on the wing, carefully staying only on the approved area, I realized that this was about the only thing that this plane had in common with the stolid Cherokee 140 I regularly fly. As soon as I plopped into the comfortable leather buckets, I knew the Piper plane was losing the comparison. Once buckled in, Scott shared the extensive preflight with me. Among the checklist items I had never performed in my Cherokee was the pressurized door gasket check, auto-pilot self test, and the automatic Windex spritz onto the Garmin G1000 glass panels (OK, the last one is apparently not offered on this particular model).

With the plane started, we taxied out and Scott mentioned that most pilots initially had trouble with the differential brake steering instead of a steerable nose wheel. Having soloed decades ago in a Grumman Yankee which uses the same system, I found the differential brake steering quite familiar. However, the comfortable leather interior certainly wasn't.

We both studied the Los Angeles terminal chart and decided for the purposes of our flight, we wouldn't attempt any of the complicated VFR corridors and just stay under the Class B area. The decision was proven smart as a gloomy California marine layer started to come in from the coast. With Bose ANR (automatic noise cancelling) headsets, the noise level in the plane was essentially zero as we accelerated on takeoff. Chris said we would throttle back for navigation comfort but even at 55%, the plane was considerably faster than my Cherokee at max cruise. I took the stick, which really is a stick -- it's even made out of real wood-- and found it to be completely natural. Even with hundreds of hours using the typical spam-can yoke, I'd go to the stick in a minute. The Columbia uses rods instead of cables, so the control inputs felt directly tied to the ailerons and elevators. The rudder was equally precise.

Obviously, with our limited time frame and visibility, I wasn't going to perform a thorough airplane performance test but I will say this: the plane is a sweet ride. Scott was either impressed with my plane handling skills, or more likely, confident in his ability to get us out of trouble, but nevertheless, he allowed me to make the approach and landing back to Long Beach. An approach speed of 95 knots was fairly exhilarating compared to my usual 65 and the high wing-loading made the airplane feel like it was on rails down to the runway.

Clearly, if I were in the market for a high-performance piston single, the Columbia would be a strong contender. That is why Eric Lindbergh selected this airplane for what he considers a very viable concept in airplane ownership. Actually, this is not ownership in the traditional sense because participants in iFly will not have an equity position in the planes. That is, unlike fractionals, which are very popular with the business jet community, members of iFly will not actually own any part of the airplane. Instead, they will have essentially unlimited access to a fleet of identical aircraft that they can fly virtually anytime and anywhere.

The advantage, according to Andrew DeMond, CEO of iFly, is that the member doesn't have to worry about insurance or if his particular plane gets dinged. If a plane is down, a replacement is flown in and since all planes will be outfitted identically, the only difference the pilot will notice is the N number.

Andrew is sure there is a huge untapped market of pilots who instead of buying a 30 year old plane, would rather have access to a new state-of-the-art model. While clearly not intended for the flier of modest means (stop looking at me), his research shows that many more pilots would fly more often if they had an airplane that their wives and friends could consider as nice as the luxury cars they drive on the ground.

He says iFly is a privately funded company with the distinction that almost all investors are either pilots themselves or aviation-minded private business investors. Many are already current Columbia owners and are sold on the brand.

Brian Anderson, Chief Financial Officer for iFly, brags that he will bring to this aviation company non-aviation financial standards. Considering the atrocious record of so many failed aviation ventures in history, that is probably a very good thing. He claims he will be a "financial disciplinarian" to keep the iFly venture on sound fiscal footing.

In the meantime, Eric Lindbergh calls the iFly Smarter program  a wonderful "hands-off" experience - hands off registration, insurance, maintenance, tie-downs, repairs, etc. He claims it's the ultimate turn-key experience. You reserve the plane, you turn the key, and fly!

FMI: www.iflysmarter.com