We were lucky to catch up with Karl Koch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Karl, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Story of a risk I’ve taken:

I jumped out of an airplane for the first time in 1992.

Even crazier, the jump was not with a static line to automatically open the parachute, and it was not with a trained instructor on a tandem skydive…my first jump was freefall, by myself, accelerating towards the ground for five seconds before pulling the ripcord myself to release the parachute.

But that wasn’t the risk. Despite some perceptions, skydiving is safer than many day-to-day activities. The risk was challenging myself to try something different and to change my path, potentially risking the momentum I had achieved up until that day.

`Here’s why jumping out of a plane was a risk for me… I was a football player at the United States Air Force Academy when I decided to give up football to compete for a position on the skydiving team. The competition was strong and I was giving up a sport that I loved. I had to give up football completely to just compete for the skydiving team. If I did not make the team, both options were gone.

When I was 12, I decided I wanted to be a pilot and the US Air Force sounded like a great option. I applied junior year of high school and I was recruited to play football only one month before basic training. My life’s path changed almost overnight (leaving home/family/friends…going solo to get my long 90s hair shaved nearly bald and accepting getting screamed at most minutes of the day…another risk, another story).

The risk I took was going outside my comfort zone…leaving the sport I had trained for and excelled in for years…to do something new and intimidating and scary, without a definitive future path. I was #24 of 25 team members to be selected to join the team that year. Over the following three years, I jumped out of many different types of planes (and one hot air ballon) over 600 times, I competed in many inter-collegiate skydiving competitions (yes, it was actually a college sport!) and I was a parachuting instructor teaching countless students how to safely overcome their fears…with some of those students becoming the instructors to replace my team when we left.

Was the risk worth it? I asked myself that question the first 20 times I jumped out of an airplane. “Nobody is making me do this, why do I do this?” …eventually jumping out of a plane was like stepping out of a car. The answer is “yes, the risk was worth it”. The risk of trying something different defined the next 23 years of my military career. The skydiving team was given additional credit for airmanship experience and was a key factor in receiving an assignment to fly the F-16. I have over 2000 hours flying F-16s all over the world…I most likely would not have had that opportunity had I not taken the risk to give up my comfort zone to compete in something new. That “new” just happened to be jumping out of an airplane…which was not a risk, because we had a reserve parachute. I had to use it once. It all worked out. ;)

Karl, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a fighter pilot, I experienced things that Hollywood cannot possibly reproduce with even the highest budget movie (think Top Gun…cool, but falls short of the real thing). After leaving the Air Force and taking on a corporate role (powerpoint and politics, not flying) I decided to get back into flying. While still working in my full-time corporate role, I started Texas Biplane with the motto “Freedom is in the Air!”. There are many options to fly in different planes, but I wanted to create a unique experience that makes flying more than just being up in the air (major airlines and small Cessna trainers can do that…it’s not the same). Flying the F-16 is not something I can exactly replicate, but with my open-cockpit biplane I can share the excitement of flying low over downtown or lower over the rivers and between the trees.

I remember when I was 12 years old and I flew in a glider for the first time. It was life changing and I set my goals…dreams, really…that defined my next 30 years. I want to give that same experience to the next generation. Related, I flew with a WWII Air Force veteran in my biplane, allowing him to relive memories of aviation from an earlier time in his life. He went from his wheelchair into the cockpit on his own! “Freedom is in the Air!”…it’s not just a motto, it’s a truth about experiences, emotions, perspective
and desires.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Funding… a challenge for every business, startup or Fortune 500. My funding came from years of financial acumen instilled upon me by my parents. The military career path is not a get-rich path, but it was both rewarding and door-opening. I was able to save/invest properly over my military career, and was able to eventually purchase two different biplanes at different times to pursue my goal of bringing an exciting aviation experience to anyone with the desire to fly. I share my plane with the bank, so that is a consideration as well!

The initial purchase of a plane is a smaller aspect, the larger considerations include ongoing administrative and operational expenses. Navigating recent challenges that affect our economy (previously, the pandemic and shutdowns, now inflation and rising costs everywhere) are not unique to aviation by any stretch, but create a challenge when I am trying to provide a life-changing experience without charging an unachievable cost. I don’t sell computers hoping more people buy my products so I make more money…my goal is to provide an experience to as many people as possible, to share what I have experienced…in that context, threading the financial needle of revenue versus cost is always a challenge.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

{this isn’t much different than the question above…I’ll defer to that answer}

Contact Info:

• Website: texasbiplane.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/texasbiplane/
• Facebook: facebook.com/texasbiplane
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjEdyGIZ93is4X7LPADQ3BA

Image Credits
All photos taken by and property of Texas Biplane.