“Pilots Are Like Taxi Drivers”

“Pilots are like taxi drivers.” One sentence from a father in Madrid ended a deal I had worked for months. The mistake was mine: I was so sure of the person in front of me that I never asked who else had a say.

After Motorola I started 2flyplanes, building low-cost flight simulators at Cuatro Vientos airport in Madrid. Our first full simulator was based on the Airbus A320. The first customer I went after was a young man from Kuwait, a keen flight enthusiast. I courted him for months. He loved aviation and he loved the machine. Every signal I read said yes.

Finally he came to Madrid for a test flight. He brought his father.