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Free Calculator · Flight Schools

The annual PPL revenue your funnel is leaking — calculated.

Most flight schools sit at a 20-25% discovery-flight-to-enrolment conversion rate. Cascade Air, an OTGM client, tuned its funnel to a 40% upper benchmark with four specific mechanics. This calculator shows you the annual enrolment and revenue gap between where your funnel is now and that upper benchmark — and which of the four mechanics is most likely closing the gap for you.

Read the Cascade Air case study — the benchmark this calculator uses
Flight school instructor briefing a discovery-flight student on the ramp

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How we calculate this

The math is deterministic. Open the disclosure below to audit it — there are no hidden assumptions and no rounding inside the calculation. Your inputs and the 40% upper benchmark are the only numbers in play.

current_annual_enrolments = monthly_discovery_flights × 12 × (current_conversion_percent / 100); cascade_tuned_annual_enrolments = monthly_discovery_flights × 12 × 0.40; annual_enrolment_gap = cascade_tuned_annual_enrolments − current_annual_enrolments; annual_revenue_gap = annual_enrolment_gap × average_course_revenue; six_month_revenue_gap = annual_revenue_gap / 2. The 40% figure is the Cascade-tuned upper benchmark, sourced from the Cascade Air case study. The math runs client-side AND server-side and produces identical results — you can verify by reading lib/discovery-flight-calculator.ts in the OTGM repository.

Aircraft type, instructor capacity, regulatory environment, geography, fleet age, current marketing spend, paid-vs-organic mix, GPU utilisation, and weather-down days. All of those affect the real outcome — none are folded into the calculator. The gap above is a top-of-funnel framing exercise, not a forecast. The diagnostic Joey sends afterwards is where the real-world constraints get factored in.

Because that is the rate we observed with Cascade Air after the four-mechanic funnel rebuild landed, sustained over a 9-month measurement window. We could have used 30% to make the gap look more achievable, or 50% to make the lost-revenue figure look bigger — neither would be honest. 40% is what we have actually seen with a properly tuned funnel. If we ever see a higher sustained rate with another client we will revisit the benchmark.

Frequently asked

Questions about the calculator + the funnel rebuild

Where does the 40% Cascade-tuned conversion rate come from?
Cascade Air is an OTGM client (Australian flight school) that ran a discovery-flight conversion funnel rebuild — pricing transparency on the pathway page, instant-booking integration, automated 48-hour post-flight CFI follow-up, and retargeting for prospects who flew but went quiet. The lift was a 4× increase in discovery-flight enquiries plus a conversion rate above the 25% baseline most schools sit at. We use 40% as the upper benchmark in this calculator — not as a guarantee, but as the realistic stretch target when all four mechanics land.
My school converts at 35%. Is the calculator still useful?
Yes — the gap will be smaller, but the framing changes. If your funnel is already converting above 30%, the bottleneck probably is not in DF-to-enrolment conversion. It is more likely in discovery-flight enquiry volume (the top of the funnel) or in PPL retention past the 15-30 hour drop-off point (the bottom). The diagnostic we run at intake covers all three layers, not just conversion.
Why is the calculator asking for my email before showing the gap?
Because the gap is the lead — without the email we cannot send you the breakdown, and we cannot follow up with the diagnostic. You can also see the gap on-screen the instant you submit; the email is for the durable copy you can forward to your business partner or accountant. Unsubscribe is one click any time.
Is this just a sales tool dressed up as a calculator?
It is a lead-capture tool — we are not hiding that. The math is deterministic and shown in plain text below the result so a sceptical operator can audit it. The 40% benchmark is honest about being an upper benchmark, not a promise. If your funnel is already above 40% conversion the calculator says so and recommends a different focus. The diagnostic email we send afterwards is built around the four mechanics, not around closing you on a call.
What does the diagnostic email actually contain?
A read on which of the four conversion mechanics your funnel is most likely missing — pricing transparency on the pathway page, instant-booking integration, automated 48-hour CFI follow-up, retargeting. We can usually narrow it to one or two from the calculator inputs alone. If you want a full intake, the next step is a 30-minute call; if you want to keep it async, you can stay on the diagnostic email thread and we will continue there.
Who built this calculator?
Joey Pehrson — commercial helicopter pilot, Grade 2 flight instructor, and the founder of Off The Ground Marketing. The four conversion mechanics are calibrated by someone who has signed off discovery flights, mentored first-solo students, and watched the funnel from the operator side. That is the difference between an agency that gets aviation terminology technically right and one that knows where the funnel actually leaks.

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