flightcrewview

What I am doing and what LTP did are entirely different worlds apart. Pilots and flight attendants don't mind paying for something that is useful and works. Nearly 3,000 of the 4,500 people that have tried Flight Crew View knew a good thing when they saw it and have signed up for it. (Is it more useful than 2 or 3 coffees per year?)

Also, to touch on the subscription vs one time payment issue: This was one of the hardest decisions that I had to make. I went with the subscription because most of the users are regional pilots and flight attendants who probably aren't going to use the app for more than a couple of years.

To put into perspective how much time and energy has gone into developing this app, I would have to charge every person who has ever even tried the app $30 each just to recoup the costs so far. That price tag alone would probably scare off half of those trial users, resulting in a more realistic price of $50 or $60 per person, just to break even.

So basically, the break-even point is roughly 5 years, which most people aren't going to hit, due to the turnover rate of Flight Attendants, and the fact that most of the regional pilots using the app are going to move on to a major.

Given all of that, I have decided to eat the cost of the initial 6 months of development and charge only what I need in order to break even each month with continued support, updates, and new additions to the app (some of which I posted just a little bit ago). Even then, I'm still not even close to breaking even with the amount of time and level of service that I am providing. Nearly all emails and app messages have responses within a day, even on weekends and holidays. Serious issues are handled within a day or two, and non-serious issues are usually handled within a week, depending on the issue.

Anyway, I just thought I'd write a bit more about why I chose the cost structure of the app. The support that I've received from most of you and the fact that it has spread to over 4,500 users at 17 airlines in just under 6 months through word-of-mouth only has been nothing short of amazing (and exhausting)!

As always, if there is anything that I can do to make the app even better, or if any of you have any more issues or questions, feel free to shoot me a message from the app or to my email at [email protected].

Bob