The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) kicked off its annual Safety Symposium on Monday evening with a career panel of three industry entrepreneurs—one who started a corporate flight department, another a Part 135 operation, and a third a charter brokerage—who shared their insights before a packed room of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) students.

ACSF began holding career panels in tandem with the Safety Symposium after it moved its Safety Summit from Ashburn, Virginia, to ERAU's Daytona Beach, Florida campus. Moderated by ERAU students, this year’s panel featured Candace Covington, the senior director of aviation for Adobe; Nicole Battjes, CEO and founder of Rainbow Helicopters; and Kolin Jones, an ERAU alumnus who is founder and CEO of Amalfi Jets. The three drew so many questions from students that the session went 30 minutes beyond its anticipated time.

Covington joined Adobe in 2019 to start a small flight department with its first jet, a Gulfstream G650. That department now has a team of seven who collaborate across the flight department’s disciplines in flight operations, maintenance, and dispatch. It logs roughly 400 hours a year, with a little more than half of that international.

She called the invitation to stand up a flight department from scratch a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that gave her the ability to instill her values surrounding data-driven safety, just culture, and an environment where everyone can influence change even as they “rumble.”

Meanwhile, Battjes founded Rainbow Helicopters in 2011, the first new major operator to break into that market in decades. Rainbow now employs 55 and has a fleet of 10 helicopters that operate 35 flights daily across Hawaii, conducting air tours, charter, and aerial photography.

Battjes stressed the importance of remaining open to opportunities. She shared her story about an unexpected opportunity that helped launch her business—a company she once flew for that was going out of business but offered her the ability to lease her first helicopter.

She also shared her story of perseverance, where she was turned down 23 times when she sought financing initially, but now has access to that. Quoting Covington, Battjes explained the philosophy that rejection is “a look sideways. You can’t let it snowball.” She also discussed the underlying premise of safety and culture in building up a team in a state where many want to transit through but perhaps not stay after a few years.

“I started Rainbow Helicopters when I was 27, and I didn't have any capital or backing. It was truly from the ground up,” she said. “One of the things I loved about that time, I was just so excited and driven that, you know, I didn’t worry about my competitors. I didn't worry about any ceilings. I just did it.”

Meanwhile, the third panelist, Jones, is five years into his business, which he founded at 19 in his dorm room at ERAU. He faced skeptical eyes as a youth entering a well-established business—in fact, he’s younger still than his employees. But he moved forward because he felt like the space needed something different—a charter brokerage that goes far beyond just the requirements of bonding and disclosure of the operator.

Like the others, safety is its chief focus, so much so that all employees must undergo training to understand Part 135 regulations, and it will reject work opportunities from operators that may raise red flags. “Safety is a culture, not just a keyword,” Jones stressed.

“I feel like being an entrepreneur is a very audacious thing,” he said. “If you really think about being an entrepreneur in your company, you're essentially saying, ‘I’m looking at the market. I’m looking at these older, well-resourced, well-capitalized companies, and I’m thinking that, hey, we can do it better.’”

There is a lot of competition in the brokerage market, he conceded, but many in that space don’t have a deep knowledge of aircraft or charter.

Founding his company during the pandemic, Jones initially had remote work. However, acknowledging that this is somewhat controversial today, he now requires his staff to work onsite. Jones highlighted several benefits of having a team that works together. That brokerage is now moving into a 10,000-sq-ft facility. “We call it our big creative studio.”

And the brokerage is busy. On Sunday, it was managing a dozen flights on three continents. He credits the success in part to its social media presence. “I can't name one other company that competes with us directly that has any sort of big social media presence. We have 3.5 million followers across all platforms. In the past 90 days, we had over a billion impressions.”

The panelist advised the ERAU students to ask questions in their interviews and follow with thank-you notes. In keeping with their focus on safety, they suggested that one such question should surround whether a company has or is working toward a safety management system. If not, they agreed, perhaps that is not the right opportunity.