Kit Darbys AirInc goes TU!

[GogglesPisano]

It's not what he did 20 years ago, it's what he's done over the last 10. Convincing starry-eyed kids that there is a pilot shortage and that there is a tremendous return on investment. A lot of people learned the hard way that he was full of dog poop.

 

[Browntothebone]

Krap! I just renewed my membership. Sux that they didn't let me know of the impending shutdown. I'm going to call them and get my money back since I just renewed.

 

[Motive Flow]

There goes that free AirInc membership to recent ALPA furloughees...right down the toilet.

 

[saabservant]

My first job offer in late 1997 came from attending one of his seminars and job fairs.
Went to a couple more over the years, but no direct interviews or offers.
His newsletters were good sources for learning how to conduct a search, do apps, and survive an interview, and pass a sim ride.

My only gig would be his prices, which were steep for the job fairs.

He did arrange special fairs for groups in trouble, ie the Mesaba pilots during their bankruptcy. I know a few guys who got offers, a couple from Continental...

If his only sin was peddling optimism and being prepared, I'll forgive him....

the sadder message is: there is no hiring anymore, even Darby admits it!

 

[NuGuy]

Heyas,

FAPA and the follow on Air, Inc was a product of the times. There was no internet, and no ubiquitous method of communication. Some aspects of aviation were VERY hard to find information on unless you just happened to know someone.

The Internet has changed the way we think about information, but more importantly, how information flows. That has put a LOT of information "brokers" out of business, not just FAPA, et al.

Nu

 

[freightdogfred]

He was a money grubbing weasel, and that's being nice. He could give a rat's ass about helping anyone, he was in it for the money and nothing more. There was a real decent old guy out of LA, a real old-skool dude that cut his teeth flying the old iron to places I can't even spell. I think his name was Nichols or something similar. He had a rag called FCI (Flight Crews International) that came out once or twice a month, and it had real time, accurate info on hiring and contract work, complete with phone numbers and contact names. If you had some experience you'd find work right away with it. Well, Kit bought him out just to shut it down, to force people to go to his service. Maybe when the pilot shortage shows up he can find work.

 

[FreightGod]

He's looking a lot older too. Saw him several times during my forced training in Sept.

Caught a jumpseat with Kit back in the 90s.
Not sure what he looks like now or back then.

He pumped me some on the Tower Air hireing, operation, etc.

Nice enough chap I guess, but all business.

There was a real decent old guy out of LA, a real old-skool dude that cut his teeth flying the old iron to places I can't even spell. I think his name was Nichols or something similar. He had a rag called FCI (Flight Crews International) that came out once or twice a month, and it had real time, accurate info on hiring and contract work,

Yeah, we all rememberd him and subscribed to his rag. $35.00 per month was it..?

Some guys got a job from it, most did not.

Most jobs came from connections and friendly intel:

"Evergreen are having a class next month and they are short of 2 guys."

So and so are looking for 747 drivers, call so and so ASAP..

Etc, etc.

Once ya got a foot inside the "community" the phone would ring.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Uh, no, shutting down "for tax reasons" would officially qualify you as a scumbag . . . . .

That summarily describes Kit, no?

 

[rajflyboy]

It's not what he did 20 years ago, it's what he's done over the last 10. Convincing starry-eyed kids that there is a pilot shortage and that there is a tremendous return on investment. A lot of people learned the hard way that he was full of dog poop.

I agree 100%

I was always ticked off that Darby woud never give phone numbers to the Hiring HR folks at company's. Thats really helpful when you are looking for a flying job.

I could always find that info on my on and never did spend any money with Air Inc!

 

[pipe]

When I was in college (one w/ an aviation program), he came to town to "speak". In retrospect, he came to town to take everyone's beer money in trade for a subscription to his worthless rag. I am proud to look back on my early wisdom -- I knew at the time that the beer was a better investment. I have since landed interviews and offers with four majors over the years and not even referenced a borrowed copy of his rag. Anyway, I digress.

I was sent by the school to pick him up about an hour away in a light twin. He asked if he could fly on the way back to the school. I was a current MEI at the time so I didn't care, as long as it went in my logbook. He proceeded to underperform my worst students all the way back to the home drome. I was phenomenally unimpressed -- so unimpressed that I didn't even bother to go hear his talk. In addition (and this is important when you're 22 years old) he dressed like a ******************************, he had ******************************bag hair, and he had the social panache of a lump of dung. At that age you tend to look at an airline captain and a USAF reserve pilot and assume that they walk on water -- this guy was the most singularly umimpressive lump of plasma you could imagine. Good riddance.

PIPE

 

[CCDiscoB]

How much money do you guys think he made over the life of AirInc?

 

[Fozzy]

Good riddance.

 

[208starcheck]

He took the side of management in the Netjets contract fight. If I remember correctly he was the expert witness on the company side against the pilots.

What an azz clown.

 

[UndauntedFlyer]

Kit was always an optimist. His glass was half full, never half empty. I liked Kit because he always had a positive spin to most everything.

I notice that most of the negative comments here are from those with negative results.

Positive people get positive results, Negative people get negative results.

 

[414Flyer]

There is a different between Optimism and Lying. PilotYIP is optimistic, Kit was lying.

There is a different between providing an interview and information service, and then trying to monopolize the information.

There is a different between trying to help people get great jobs, and then trying to make it to where they have to be your customer if they want a great job.

 

[~~~^~~~]

I did not know the gentleman personally, but he offered a service and I was a repeat customer. No one "cheated" anyone. I feel that I could have gotten the jobs without Air Inc., but good jobs come along so rarely in aviation, does anyone want to risk being unprepared?

An interview is like a check ride, the more you practice the better the result.

 

[rajflyboy]

Kit was always an optimist. His glass was half full, never half empty. I liked Kit because he always had a positive spin to most everything.

I notice that most of the negative comments here are from those with negative results.

Positive people get positive results, Negative people get negative results.

Kit simply did not put out all the hiring information that was readily available to anyone that was looking. On top of that his interview prep as often old and not accurate. All this for a lot of money for someone that is barely getting by financially as a flight instructor.

 

[crj567]

Krap! I just renewed my membership. Sux that they didn't let me know of the impending shutdown. I'm going to call them and get my money back since I just renewed.

-Good luck with that "dumbtothebone..."

Karma is an awesome thing, ain't it?

-TURD

 

[relief tube]

Too many 61 year-old's planning on staying for 4 more years......no one's hiring cuz' of it so job placement co.'s go TU.

Hooray for age 65.

 

[fam62c]

I hope that some of these "pilot factories" start throwing in the towel as well. The last thing we need now is more people who want a career in commercial aviation. They could stop all pilot training for 5 years and we would still be massively oversupplied with experienced pilots looking for work. The only thing worse that AirInc's constant message about a non-existent pilot shortage is the BS from some of these training companies about what a great career awaits the eager young people willing to throw their money down. Don't do it, now is the wrong time.

 

[NuGuy]

I did not know the gentleman personally, but he offered a service and I was a repeat customer. No one "cheated" anyone. I feel that I could have gotten the jobs without Air Inc., but good jobs come along so rarely in aviation, does anyone want to risk being unprepared?

An interview is like a check ride, the more you practice the better the result.

Heyas Fins,

Agreed. I had newsletters from FAPA and later on Air, Inc. In the pre-web days, it was a reasonable source of information. I had a mailing list made up from their address lists and I would shotgun out resumes every month or so, and wound up at one place because of it.

I didn't know the guy personally. I spoke with him on the phone once, and seemed ok.

This is simply a case of "video killed the radio star".

Nu

 

[crj567]

Well it was near the end when he pi$$ed off DAL in 07. They black listed him. That is why they went to other job fairs.

I have to call "B.S." on that one, dude..... I know a lot of people who went to his jobs fairs and were hired at DAL-even after '07. Maybe DAL didn't like the guy (a lot of people didn't, obviously-but they still hired folks from his fairs and interview training.)

I personally disliked Kitster a lot-he was a scumbag, and the industry will be much better off without him and his endless "pilot shortage" predictions.

I hope that the "tax problems" he alluded to are related to him cheating on taxes..... I am not saying that is the case, but one could always hope-he could get his butt in trouble real nice that way.

 

[flynryan15]

I hope that the "tax problems" he alluded to are related to him cheating on taxes..... I am not saying that is the case, but one could always hope-he could get his butt in trouble real nice that way.

If he cheated on his taxes shouldn't he get a cabinet position? Guess we know who is going to run the FAA! :laugh:

 

[climbhappy]

I hear the mortgage broker business is booming right now. looming housing shortage. ride the wave up...

 

[Tristar]

I had the good fortune to attend one of Kit's seminars for free back when I was in college (late 80's - several of us worked the registration table in exchange for free admission). I came away from it with a few very clear impressions:

1) Kit's main job was promoting Kit.
2) If you were ex-military and clueless about the civilian world, attending one of his seminars would put you in touch with several HR people.
3) If you weren't, don't waste your time and money.
4) Kit's primary business was promoting Kit.
5) I was thankful all I wasted was a weekend, instead of cash.
6) Most of the presentations explained how you needed one of Kit's products to prepare you for _____ (fill in the blank, interview, sim check, writing a cookie cutter resume which would look like every other resume sent in by one of Kit's disciples.
7) Kit was there to promote Kit.

Do you see a theme evolving here?

Like someone else said, if he can take a few of the pilot mills down with him, then good riddance.

I did attend a free seminar put on by Kit after my last airline tanked. I'll concede Kit does give a good pep-talk, but there wasn't much substance behind it.

 

[PFTEXPJET]

Kit believed and promoted the MPL program....so does Jim Rice (VP ALPA). I spoke to both of them and they admitted it to me. Every pilot should be afraid if that passes.

 

[Airbus_Driver]

I used to work at FAPA in the early 90's and I might have even sold some of ya'll the memberships back then. FAPA was a good company to work at for a struggling CFI looking to supplement his income with a good paying part-time job. The owners of FAPA and Air Inc. used to be partners but split due to the different directions they wanted to take FAPA.

Kit started Air Inc. out of his home and put most of the information into a photo copied 3 ring binder that was mailed out. Nothing fancy. FAPA, on the other hand, continued to provide expensive, glossy publications, had a large staff and nice offices in Atlanta.

In the early 90's with many majors furloughing, FAPA had an unsustainable business model with high overhead costs. The Information Age had arrived and it became nearly impossible to compete with the free flow of airline employment gouge on the Internet.

Clearly, Kit did not learn from FAPA's mistakes. It purchased many of FAPA's assets and ideas (glossy magazines, pubs, hotlines, office facilities, etc.) instead of sticking to low the low cost model that that made Air Inc a modest success.

FAPA's owner told me years later that the Internet was like "piranha constantly nibbling at your boat and if you were to survive, you needed to keep building a stronger boat". I suppose Kit started construction of the boat too late.

Can most of the information that Air Inc provides be obtained from other sources? Of course it can, but not without considerable time and effort. Its the collection of that information in a one-stop-shop that you paid for. You do the same thing if you subscribe to Aviation Daily. Air Inc's $135/yr was a bargain by that measure in my humble opinion.

 

[TheInsider]

-Good luck with that "dumbtothebone..."

Karma is an awesome thing, ain't it?

-TURD

Are you implying that he deserves it because he paid for their services?

 

[414Flyer]

Amazing how many people Browntothebone manages to catch, everytime he goes trollin' with some bait and a hook.

 

[IBNAV8R]

When I was working on my undergrad degree, I called Air Inc. to ask for some hiring numbers for a report I was doing. The response was something like, "why should I give you that for FREE". Needless to say it left a bad taste and I never again called or even considered giving him business. Maybe it's a case of sour grapes. But now, after reading this thread, I suspect the numbers I was looking for would have been less than accurate.