ZigAir - missed opportunity?

stratobee

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stratobee
I was seeing on GulfstreamGirls Facebook page (I know, I know..:rolleyes2:) how she had a link to ZigAir. I thought: "That's a great idea!". But as I realised it was only for part 135 operators I couldn't help thinking that it's a missed opportunity and will never reach critical mass. Just not enough traffic to be useful. Any potential customer will soon tire when there are no flights available. For fun, I tried to find a ride between LA and Las Vegas - probably the most frequent private flying trip in the western US - and came up with no matches.

http://zigair.com

Wouldn't it be a lot better and more useful if something similar could be set up for part 91 operators? The user base would increase hundredfold. I fly by myself 99% of the time on my long cross countries and I would love to have someone onboard to talk to at times and share some costs. Wouldn't even have to be half the cost for me personally, just a little contribution towards fuel would make me happy as a clam. Or even for free at times, just for the company - I'm going anyway.

I'm a member of Angel Flight and even though that's for people with medical disabilities or conditions, the same general structure or principle could work for this thing: As an airplane owner/renter you could post your intended route and how many seats were available and likewise passengers could put up the route and see if someone might "grab" it? Almost like an airborne equivalent of Uber or Lyft. Of course some kind of defined shared cost price would have to be set up for each airplane type, but that would be an easy thing to do. Of course it has to be financial advantageous to the user more than the owner, but I think most of us would accept that. Maybe some kind of minimum req for the pilot as well.

Is this viable? Or am I missing some legalities?
 
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I can think of a few draw backs. Let's see: Liability, pilot qualifications, owned aircraft vs. rental, oh and most important what will happen when money changes hands.
:popcorn:
 
It's not even very successful for Part 135 yet. The only flights in the database are one helicopter and one 172 flight that seem to be flown by an operator who is the same people running the website (at least the "EAST COAST" branch).

There's already PilotWantsA135Violation.COM, er, I mean, PilotsShareTheRide.com
 
I saw a listing there for a 182 flight and it said "4 seats left." Hmmm...
 
I saw a listing there for a 182 flight and it said "4 seats left." Hmmm...

That's the Google 182.

FYI, at least some 182s were offered with a child seat option for the cargo area. Probably not much room for cargo in that configuration, but it does have 5 seats.

And I've seen at least one 182 (jumper dumper) with one seat and a lot of people sitting on the floor.
 
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That's the Google 182.

FYI, at least some 182s were offered with a child seat option for the cargo area. Probably not much room for cargo in that configuration, but it does have 5 seats.

And I've seen at least one 182 (jumper dumper) with one seat and a lot of people sitting on the floor.

I stack passengers like chord wood. They seem to like it. More stable in turbulence. ;)
 
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