Turning Base Episode 1: Why We Started Turning Base

There are plenty of incredible aviation podcasts out there that deep dive into airline news or military history. We grew up on that stuff. For us, aviation was the background track of our lives. We spent our childhoods watching the F-14 Tomcat and other jets pull vertical at the Muskegon Air Show, helping our grandfather hook up the tow bar on his Piper Arrow at Grand Haven, and spending hours around local FBOs.

But as we spent more time around airports and aviation businesses as adults, we noticed a major disconnect. The general aviation industry is filled with deeply knowledgeable, remarkably passionate operators who are world-class at what they do technically, but completely struggle to communicate their value to the outside world.

That massive gap between operational excellence and clear communication is exactly why we launched Turning Base.

Our approach to this problem comes from a very unique crossroads of aviation passion and early digital media strategy. In 2009, long before "influencer marketing" was a mainstream business buzzword, we were selected by Ford Motor Company as part of the original Fiesta Movement. We were given a European Ford Fiesta for a year to document our lives, create content, and build digital communities back when people barely even knew what Twitter was.

That experience later exploded into working on campaigns with ESPN and the X-Games, and even filming a national television commercial in Brazil. It taught us a foundational lesson that the aviation sector desperately needs to hear right now: Attention matters, story matters, and how you communicate your value dictates your survival. Unfortunately, in general aviation, those elements are routinely overlooked, and it's causing local airports to shut down.

Aviation businesses, whether you run a charter operation, manage an MRO, or expand a flight school, don’t necessarily need louder marketing. They need clearer communication.

Think about how fast decisions happen in this industry. A pilot planning a quick fuel stop or a private charter client vetting safety metrics will make their decision in seconds based on what they see online. If a website is outdated, confusing, or completely generic, that opportunity vanishes before a phone call ever happens.

We call this the Clarity Tax, the hidden, bleeding revenue loss that happens silently when your target audience doesn't instantly understand why they should choose you.

"A lot of aviation businesses are incredible at aviation, but struggle to communicate their value. In aviation business, invisibility is expensive. Often, the opportunity being missed is never even seen."

To understand how vital clear communication is in aviation, look no further than a hilarious incident Bryan experienced while on a business trip on a corporate jet. After their Citation experienced a mechanical failure on the East Coast, they had to unexpectedly coordinate with a local FBO and MRO team.

The company president, who spoke English with a very thick German accent, walked up to the FBO desk agent and stated they needed a charter to get back to "Holland" (referring to Holland, Michigan, where their jet was based).

The desk agent took one look at his European accent, hopped on the phone, and spent an hour frantically sourcing a massive, trans-oceanic private charter capable of crossing the Atlantic to the Netherlands! The crew had a massive laugh when they realized they were about to be flown to Europe for what should have been a quick 90-minute flight back to West Michigan.

While it makes for a funny podcast story, it perfectly illustrates our point: In aviation, small communication breakdowns create massive, expensive misunderstandings.

This isn't a sales pitch masquerading as a podcast. Our goal is to host practical, honest conversations at the intersection of general aviation culture, marketing strategy, customer experience, and airport operations.

In aviation, "turning base" is that critical transition point just before your final approach. It's the moment where alignment matters most. That’s our goal for the show: helping aviation businesses align what they do best operationally with how they actually communicate it to their customers.