My New Aircraft Classifeids Site

planeviz

planeviz

Pre-Flight
Joined
Jan 19, 2012
Messages
50
Location
New Hampshire
Display Name
Display name:
Dave G
I had my airplane for sale in ‘08 when the aircraft sales were very slow. After listing it with the big three at various times I decided to keep it and still own her. However, having a background in web development left me thinking how I would do an aircraft classifieds site differently. About 4 months ago I decided to go for it. It’s PlaneViz.com and it’s finally open.

How it’s different. Well, it’s 99.9% empty :eek:! But I’m working on that. You can help by listing your Sale, Partnership, Fraction, or Lease; it’s free. (Do a search for NY to see what the search results and look like; the 195 is in fact for sale.)

I would appreciate your feedback on the site itself and the process of adding aircraft. It has some pretty major differences than what we are all used to in a classifieds site.


  • It’s location aware, displaying aircraft in the vicinity of the site visitor ahead of more distant ones. I did that because from my experience it’s more likely that a buyer will come for a look at an aircraft that is closer to them. Plus, when selling a share it’s useful to have the ad display to local pilots.
  • It’s entirely search based.
  • It's completely self-service.
  • The video on the home page is purely for enjoyment or educational value and changes every so often.
Please give it a try if you have an airplane or helo to sell.

PS. No joy with IE 7, requires 8 or 9. Good to go with most others browsers.

Thanks!

Dave Goodwin
 
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nice web site, you did a great job on the features and development.
 
Nice site.

Here is what I really like- You put Engine Time in the Summary for Each Plane. I HATE having to go into the listing to determine engine time and Where the plane is located. I'd make that mandetory for any listing.

Other than that put a link to Pilots of America on the site:D
 
Its interesting. What is different about it than Barnstormers (aside from having a decent navigation scheme)?
 
Assuming someday there are 500 airplanes in your database, how would I search on common criteria? For example, suppose I'm only interested in IFR equipped single engine airplanes under $40k built after 1969 with less that 1000 hours since last engine overhaul?
 
SkyHog said:
Its interesting. *What is different about it than Barnstormers (aside from having a decent navigation scheme)?
Click to expand...

Couple of differences
On PlaneViz the ads that a user sees are location relevant, displaying planes in the vicinity first; someone in Texas would see planes in the south central part of the US while a New Yorker would see aircraft in the northeast. On Barnstormers and the others everyone sees the same planes regardless of location.

Another difference is that our free ads are full and complete with photos. Controller offers a free, complete ad too, limited to the first ad. I don't have a limit on the number of free ads per person/company and the user can stop an ad then reactivate later with it still being free.

I'm also betting that a clean interface will appeal to site users as it keeps the focus on the airplanes.

Barnstormers is of course a hugely popular and well known site (another difference) and I admire how far it's come in just a few years.
 
Jim Logajan said:
Assuming someday there are 500 airplanes in your database, how would I search on common criteria? For example, suppose I'm only interested in IFR equipped single engine airplanes under $40k built after 1969 with less that 1000 hours since last engine overhaul?
Click to expand...

What's IFR equipped and how would you search on it? (I'm baiting you, I got flamed on the red board for suggesting that a seller might be a little optimistic painting IFR equipped all over his ad when the plane contained a KX170B and a KR86) I actually think this would be a great feature for the site, being a dumb fresh PPL I bought my plane thinking 2 nav/comms was a great IFR trainer then learned there's not an airport around that I can legally file to with that equipment.
 
My suggestion is to add an area for aviation "stuff"

Spare parts

Avionics

Headsets

Pilot "stuff" for lack of a better term.
 
Jim Logajan said:
Assuming someday there are 500 airplanes in your database, how would I search on common criteria? For example, suppose I'm only interested in IFR equipped single engine airplanes under $40k built after 1969 with less that 1000 hours since last engine overhaul?
Click to expand...

Good point, right now you could search by one main parameter like "single" and the sort the search results by another one (IFR, $$, year, engine time, etc). I will add the ability to sort by multiple parameters, but not as granular as your example. Here's why:

In my view, a classifieds ad site has to strike a balance between usability and visibility. On one hand I owe it to the customer to ensure their listing gets as many eyeballs as possible and on the other hand I want to make the site as user friendly as possible.

I realize that in this example you would not be interested in other aircraft. However, it makes more sense to get eyeballs on those airplanes that are in the margins of what you want than to omit them entirely. (E.g., fits all your wants but has 1,025 hours instead of 1,000).
 
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I understand the tradeoff. It is just that in terms of searching, trade-a-plane and controller seem to have a pretty good set of pre-defined search criteria fields that can help narrow things down. Of course this assumes the sellers bother to fill these in, and not all do.

Something as simple as search for listings with asking prices under a certain amount would go a long way. Barnstormers doesn't seem to have even that ability with their search criteria. Barnstormers is probably your main competition and I think their layout and navigation is terrible. About 15 years out of date, design-wise.
 
Jim Logajan said:
I understand the tradeoff. It is just that in terms of searching, trade-a-plane and controller seem to have a pretty good set of pre-defined search criteria fields that can help narrow things down. Of course this assumes the sellers bother to fill these in, and not all do.

Something as simple as search for listings with asking prices under a certain amount would go a long way. Barnstormers doesn't seem to have even that ability with their search criteria. Barnstormers is probably your main competition and I think their layout and navigation is terrible. About 15 years out of date, design-wise.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback Jim; I will definitely add some additional filtering capability. Should be up there in a week or two.
 
Jim Logajan said:
Assuming someday there are 500 airplanes in your database, how would I search on common criteria? For example, suppose I'm only interested in IFR equipped single engine airplanes under $40k built after 1969 with less that 1000 hours since last engine overhaul?
Click to expand...

And painted blue with silver stripes....?
 
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