I grew up with airplanes. My father always had an airplane and for the first 10 years of my life we had a grass runway on our property. My grandfather owned a helicopter charter company, my great-uncle was an RAF pilot and aerial photographer. My older sister is a Professional Pilot for a fortune 500 company. My younger sister recently flew solo too. Needless to say, aviation is in the blood.
When I got laid off from my last flying job in 2009 I was making more from my online “side-business” than I was from my full-time career. I decided to not go back to a flying career and pursue my online business as my career. It paid off but something was missing. The flying.
When flying is in the blood it is hard to give up completely. And to go from flying 75 hours a month for 12 years to never flying is pretty hard to do.
I decided the best way to fix this “problem” was to buy an airplane! I bought a 1978 Grumman Cheetah. I used the Cheetah for fun, travel and for
27NM from KTKI to KSWI and much cheaper fuel.
my aerial photography business. At the time fuel at my local airport KTKI was around $6.75 per gallon. Meanwhile, and airport just 27NM North was selling self-serve AvGas for $3.80 per gallon. While it always made sense to drop in for fuel if I was to the North, I still wasn’t convinced it was worth it to fly there to try to save money on fuel.
To help figure out if I was saving any money ferrying to another airport to save money I built an excel spreadsheet to find out. I was quite surprised with the results. When I factored in the extra fuel burn to and from the airport and the additional operating costs, sometimes it actually was cheaper to pay more for fuel.
In 2015 my family and I moved to Bolivia and I sold my airplane and put my aerial photography business on hold. I thought it would be a shame not to share this tool with other aircraft owners so I had my developers build a web app.
From Excel to Web App
The original fuel saving calculator in excel
For years I used the excel spreadsheet for personal use to figure out if I was really saving money stopping at different airports for fuel.
The sheet worked great for me so when I sold the airplane and moved out of the country I decided to make it a free web app for other pilots to use.
Since I am not a programmer, I had the design and development firm I use in Dallas make it into a java based app which I could embed into any website.
I setup a wordpress website at www.ferryfuelcalculator.com and waited a couple weeks for the script to be finished.
From Web App to iPhone App
When I contracted the company to build my java script app I told them to do so it could be converted to a ios or android app easily. This saved time and money when it came time to build the iPhone version. The web version took them about 4 hours to make and I received it about a week after I sent them the excel spreadsheet and details.
Once complete I added the web app to the new website and then got on a few pilot forums to spread the word. After a month or so I decided to have them make it into an iPhone app. The programming only took about 3 hours but we also had to test and tweak until it was ready. For beta testing we used the TestFlight app and ended up with 5 rounds of revisions before it was ready to submit to iTunes.
Submitting to iTunesConnect
Once the app was complete it was time to submit to iTunes Connect. First I had to renew my subscription to my Apple Developer account. This was a bit of a beating as I had lost my username and password from years ago. I first tried to setup a new developer account under my company name.
I got stuck in this process because they require a D&B D-U-N-S number. My company has one but each time I submitted the number Apple said it was incorrect.
I finally got frustrated enough to call the Apple Developer Support number at 1-408-974-4897. To my surprise I got a human on the third ring and he helped me get my old login information. Once I logged in I updated my Apple Developer subscription for $99 and I was ready to submit.
Then I got the instructions from my programmer:
The process is somewhat lengthy/complicated, but very well documented. You can review the process here: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/SubmittingYourApp/SubmittingYourApp.html
I took one look at the instructions and decided this would be a better task for him to complete. It was worth the extra half hour I had to pay. He got it submitted pretty fast and all I had to do was go in a complete all the details.
Waiting for Review
When I was done filling out all the information about the app to iTunes connect it was time to submit for approval. This changed the status to “Waiting for Review” in iTunes Connect. Since I am very impatient I needed to know how long this process would take.
I headed to Google and found the Average App Store Review Times website and their #iosreviewtime hashtag. When I checked it the average was 6 days. Now I had to wait.
Processing for App Store
Six long days later I got an email from Apple
What does Processing for App Store mean?
Processing for App Store? What does that mean?
I headed back to Google and found the iTunes Connect official definition
What is the Processing for App Store Meaning?
24 Hours? No way! Oh well, back to waiting.
Ready for Sale
Despite my impatience I received the “Ready for Sale” email a few hours later.
Hooray! It will be on iTunes soon!
Now it was time to get to work marketing. First I emailed and texted my friends and family with a link to the app. Many of them put the link of Facebook and email it to their friends.
Next I found an excellent way to let users of the website know their was an app available by using the ios Smart Banner on the site. I installed it the easy way by using the smart app banner plugin on wordpress. I also added a “buy on iTunes button” on the site using the iTunes Link Maker.
WordPress is the Best. It took about 60 seconds to make the ios smart banner.
Next I posted updates on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook announcing the new app. I also updated the forums posts about the website with links to the the new app.
Then it was time to wait again.
iTunes Connect analytics is not in real time so I had to wait until this morning to see if I made any sales. Since I am now a morning person I was up at 5:30am to check my stats.
I made two sales!
The new app made 2 sales!
What I Have Learned From the Process So Far
Taking an idea and acting on it is a slow process. I used the spreadsheet version for personal use for 3 years before I decided to make it into a web app.
The excel sheet is simple and wasn’t difficult to create. There are many people who probably use a similar formula to do what my app does.
During the process I had to keep from being negative. I second guessed myself often and the voice in my head tried to tell me it would “fail”. But what does “fail” mean anyway?
Odds are this app won’t recoup my initial investment. I know pilots will find it useful but I would have to sell more than a thousand to turn a profit. But that is not why I built the app.
By building this app I have learned:
- How to take something I find useful and share it with others
- How to explain to a developer the goals of the project and see it through
- How to test a java based version, install onto a website and tweak css to make it look right
- How to spread the word about a new website and get traffic for free
- How to have a java app made into an ios app
- How to test an app using TestFlight
- How to update my Apple Developer account by calling support
- How to submit an app for inclusion on iTunes
- How to price an app on iTunes connect
- What the steps are during review and what each step means
- How to install an ios smart banner on a wordpress site using a plugin
- How to make a “Download on the app store” button using iTunes link maker
- How to market the new app to a target audience on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin
- How to check sales and stats on iTunes Connect
- How to make my first ever sale on the app store!
When I read the above list I realize that there is no way for this experiment to “fail”. This experience has taught me more than I would have ever learned had I kept the spreadsheet to myself.
Even if these two sales are the only ones I make I am happy. There are two pilots who can use my little idea to save money on airplane fuel.
And I have gained experience that most people don’t have. So when the next little idea for an app comes around I am ready to go!