Skyfarer Academy, an online hub for pilot training logistics and resources, has been live for more than a year, organically growing its network of aspiring pilots, instructors, and training organizations to reach a critical mass now of more than 14,000 users on the platform. The hub’s main function is to allow prospective learners to reach out to instructors for particular training engagements, from private pilot and other certificates, to transition and type-specific training.
A learner can search the online catalog for local instruction in their area, seek out online training providers, or look for other aviation services, including pilot gear. Then, they could use their profile to send a private request to a specific provider, and when they receive a response, establish a training appointment. Volume has increased substantially on the platform, and the folks who use it are ready to go: Reportedly 82% of learners searching for training are ready to start within the next month.
However, there was a missed opportunity that the founders of Skyfarer noted that happened with frustrating regularity. Often enough, prospects would post private requests and the provider wouldn’t answer within a reasonable period of a few days.
On September 1, Skyfarer launched a way to solve this issue, and maintain student privacy, through its Open Requests protocol. Now, a student can list a request that is open to any provider on the system to answer, improving the chances that one will take the opportunity presented. The listing can have screening questions and other parameters attached to it, so the respondent knows exactly what the learner is looking for and if they can be a match that perhaps the learner hadn’t considered in their original search.
More than 100 requests were created through the beta testing period, according to Skyfarer’s founder and CEO Nick Tsang. That number has more than doubled, he says, in the two weeks since the feature went live. “Every CFI and school knows the student who almost started training and didn’t,” said Tsang. “Usually it wasn’t about money or motivation. Somebody just never wrote back. We built this so one busy inbox can’t end an aviation career before it starts.”
You touched on my experience with Skyfarer earlier this year. Having been out of flying for a few years I was trying to get a new flight review. After failing to find a CFI at my airport, I was ready to give up when I ran across Skyfarer. I tried to contact 2 people listed and neither one responded. I contacted them with the complaint. I was given two other names that were close enough they might come to my airport. Neither of them responded. I finally gave up and sold my plane.