DeltaT
those people you mention went on to be successful there will be 1000's under similar circumstances who did not make it.
I agree with you, however you can't predicate the success or otherwise of this venture on the basis of well-known failures in the aviation industry. He may fail, he may not, but you and others have absolutely no way of knowing for sure which way it will go. There are plenty of informed (and not so informed) guesses being put forward here, but there is simply not enough information be sure one way or the other.
Now, it may well be that the money being asked for will be used for purposes other than training, that it may in fact form part of the start-up capital of the venture (in a roundabout way). As long as the way the money is being used is not illegal, what is the problem here? As long as you walk into the deal with your eyes wide open, and your own lawyer satisfied, it seems a reasonable bet to me.
Let's be quite clear that very few people starting a GA operation are sufficiently cashed up to be able to afford all the training, capital equipment and other costs that typically occur at the beginning of a venture. It's just the nature of the beast. People start operations on a shoestring and try and get through the first 12 months intact. This situation is not helped by a somewhat passive CAA, who allow all sorts of crap to go on. It is even more difficult in the present economic climate, which is a good reason to apply some creative thinking to the problem. Is this guy a charletan, or is he simply thinking outside the traditional aviation box? I don't know either way, but I suggest that nobody on here does either.
This guy might have a good idea and a sound business plan - personally I'd be asking to see the business plan! He might be able to make it happen, in which case the people who go with him will have done very well. There is always the risk (with any venture in any industry) that it might fall on it's face, which has happened to plenty of smart people in the past - remember the recent experiment in NZ real estate, "The Joneses"? Good idea, but didn't work. Should have, but it didn't.
Or the guy might be a crook, but to me this doesn't have the smell of that, not yet anyway. Has this guy ever been convicted (or even charged) with an offence of dishonesty? Apparently not, so perhaps a few of you should dial down the rhetoric a few notches and give the guy a break. Innocent until proven guilty, n'est pas?
Having started a few businesses myself, I know that it is almost always a very difficult and risky business. I have never been bankrupt, but I have seen good ideas inexplicably fail to take, and have had to shut down those ventures and try something else. That's the nature of entrepreneurial business (gee I hope I spelled that right...).
And finally... buying a job is neither new, nor particularly risky. It has been going on in the UK since the early '90s, and in the USA since the '60s. Far more satisfied customers than otherwise.
I have worked for airlines that have gone into receivership with little or no warning, three times now. I have lost a lot more than 20K in the process. There is risk, and then there is risk. You pay your money and take your (hopefully fully informed) chances...