Ep 2: Aaron Dabney: 4x Master Flight Instructor; Entrepreneur; Flight School Owner

The Leaders of Aviation

Aaron Dabney is on today to share his journey in the aviation business. Aaron always saw aviation as blue collar, as many men in his family had been military pilots or crop dusters. Aaron first decided he wanted to be in aviation in high school and enrolled in Texas A&M before transferring to Baylor University for college. It was when he met his now wife that Aaron second guessed becoming a pilot and being gone a lot of the time. He instead became an admission's counselor at Baylor and recruited a young man who had a plane he wanted to make some money off of. This is what got the wheels turning for Aaron on the possibility of being a flight instructor. Aaron got certified to do just that and had his first paying customer by August 2009.

In the Fall of 2013, Aaron went out on his own as a flight instructor. He says the number one thing he learned was that as a small flight school, he needed to set himself apart. He came up with the brand of ‘teachers first, pilots second’. He prided himself on having the experience to back up his teachings. Another lesson was that there’s always going to be a rainy day as a business owner. Small business is very much a two steps forward, one step back kind of dance. Accepting that early on can save you a lot of heartache.

What You’ll Learn:

• Basic qualifications and requirements of a master flight instructor.
• How and why to begin with the end in mind.
• Aaron’s most exciting and most scary aviation stories.
• How implementing systems can save you time.

Favorite Quote:

“Aviation is a very monkey see, monkey do business.” - Aaron Dabney