By RYAN CRAWFORD
Gwinnett Daily Post
Published on: 06/07/07

LAWRENCEVILLE - It would have been a beautiful day for flying. The sun was shining, the clouds were clearing and the sky was a brilliant blue. But on Wednesday afternoon Aaron Sohacki wasn't flying. No, the 23-year-old chief executive officer of Lawrenceville's ImagineAir was cleaning the dull, dirty floors of a dimly lit hangar in preparation for his company's grand opening celebration later that night.
It's not quite the task you'd expect to see a CEO doing before a big night with county officials and other VIPs. And it's not quite the task Sohacki, who loves to pilot planes, would prefer to be doing.
But Sohacki has no problem making the necessary sacrifices needed to get his "air taxi" business off the ground.
In fact, Sohacki said he and one of his business partners, 24-year-old Ben Hamilton, got into the business because they didn't have much to lose.
The pair, who had been flying since they were teenagers, met at Georgia Tech and began seriously discussing starting their own business in their senior year of college.
"I was still young and didn't have much to lose," Sohacki said. "So why not go out there, take a chance and really try to do something?"
Sohacki said the idea of starting a flight school had been tossed around before an opportunity arose with Paul Fischer, a doctor in Augusta.
Fischer had been interested in the prospect of small aircraft travel for some time, and Sohacki and Hamilton were able to convince him to partner with them and provide some financial backing for the company.
Financial backing was a crucial piece of the puzzle with their current aircraft, the Cirrus SR22-GTS, costing just less than $500,000, Sohacki said. ImagineAir has four of those planes in its fleet.
The company also plans to add some Eclipse 500 VLJ (Very Light Jets) in 2008 that cost nearly $1.5 million.
"To his credit he (Fischer) saw some promise in us and hopefully we've met his expectations," Sohacki said. "He had faith in us, which we're very thankful for."
The company's vision was to provide an alternative to commercial and charter flights based on a model formulated by NASA, Virginia Tech and the Federal Aviation Administration called the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS).
Ken Phelps, director of operations for the company, said ImagineAir can go to local airports across the Southeast (like Gwinnett's Briscoe Field) and pick up travelers for quick, affordable trips in the region.
ImagineAir is able to cut down on the cost of charter flights by using more fuel efficient planes and by using a taxi-like system where when one passenger is dropped off, another can be picked up at a nearby location. This cuts out "dead legs" where the plane doesn't have any passengers.
The company is trying to market its services to businesses as a way to save their employee's time and the company's money by doing away with overnight trips.
The company said it has certainly seen a demand for its services over the first two months, having about one flight booked a day.
"We've been having to turn business down, which is tough, but good," said Hamilton, the company's president.
But ImagineAir is focused on growth and is looking to add planes, pilots and hopefully passengers in the near future. Sohacki believes the company will be able to do the latter by lowering the cost and making this type of travel affordable for those outside the top 1 percent of income earners.
"We want to really open up private aviation to people who haven't experienced it in the past," Sohacki said.

ImagineAir and Let your Imagination Fly are trademarks of Imagine Air Jet Services, LLC. All other trademarks are registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.