6A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2002
Students' small-business idea takes off
Web site helps flight schools update pilots
By Mike Gilligan Kansan staff writer
Nick Wegner never thought his hobby of flying would lead to a business idea.
Wegner, Leawood senior, and Jasen Barnes, Overland Park senior, have developed an Internet application called Flight Schedule Pro, which is used by more than 1,200 pilots worldwide.
Wegner, who became a certified pilot four years ago, said he came up with the idea for the application when he had to call Kansas City area airport to schedule flight times and instructors.
"I had to call long-distance to schedule times," Wegner said. "I thought it would be easier if I could do it over the Internet."
The application's Web site, www.flightschedulepro.com, helps flight schools and flying clubs keep track of their aircraft and scheduling. Wegner said.
If a flight school pays for access to the site, it receives an account with a log-in name. The application knows which flight
school pilots belong to and they can schedule an aircraft from the flight school for the time they want, he said.
Barnes said the software had many advantages when compared to the old system of calling in.
"Before, the flight school would have to have someone there taking calls and recording the reservations," he said. "Now they don't have to do that."
Before they created the Web site, pilots couldn't see their times unless they called in, Barnes said. Now they can cancel their reservations online and see if any times have become available through other cancellations, he said.
"A lot of times planes need repairs," Barnes said. "Pilots can check to see if their time has been canceled, where before they would have to call to find out or wouldn't find out until they showed up."
The Web site lists two packages, which have a monthly charge of $3.95 or $7.50 per plane.
The more expensive package provides an additional phone service for pilots who don't use the Internet. Barnes said the service provided an 800 number with prompts that took the pilot
through the schedule.
Flight Schedule Pro is now a global company thanks to a flight school in Austria that began using the application, Wegner said.
"The guy at the flight school really wanted to use our application," he said. "We sent him the text and he had to translate it to German for his pilots to use."
The students have two Kansas City area clients and air force bases in Alaska and Florida that use the application.
Between 25 and 30 flight schools use the application, Wegner said.
Wegner and Barnes got the Web site running about a year ago.
"In the beginning, we put in entire days working on it," Barnes said. "It took us a couple weeks to come up with the concept and a couple months to get it working."
The hard work paid off though, said Barnes.
"Once the system is built it doesn't cost much to maintain it," he said. "We could add 100 to 200 more clients without having to do much more work."
Wegner and Barnes handle most business themselves, but they did hire a programmer to do all of the coding.
"Before, the flight school would have to have someone there taking calls and recording the reservations. Now they don't have to do that."
do that."
"We do all the text on the site, but we needed someone with a more technical background to do the programming." Wegner said.
They did not want to disclose any financial information about the site.
They are working on another project related to Flight Schedule Pro and would like to team up with someone who would be interested in working with the two entrepreneurs.
Anyone interested can contact the students at nwegner@flightschedulepro.com or call them at 832-0048.
Contact Gilligan at mgilligan@ kansan.com. This story was edited by Eve Lamborn.
Two priests removed in decades-old sex case
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine — The Roman Catholic diocese removed two priests from their parishes Saturday after they admitted to sexually abusing minors two decades ago.
The priests will not be sent to other parishes, said Auxiliary Bishop Michael Coite, second-in-command for the Portland diocese, which covers the state. He spoke at the St. Agatha parish in northern Maine, where one priest had been serving.
respectively.
Inasatementread to parishioners, Bishop Joseph Gerry wrote the revelations of priest abuse "leave us all embarrassed, humiliated and disheartened."
As part of a recent policy on disclosing such cases, the diocese said Feb. 10 that the Revs. Michael Doucette and John Audibert had each sexually abused a teen-age boy. The cases began 22 and 26 years ago,
At the time, the diocese said it moved the priests to other parishes because they had received treatment and evaluations determined they did not pose a threat to children.
In the letter read Saturday, Gerry wrote that another allegation of unwanted sexual advances was made against Doucette on Wednesday.
"The most recent allegation of misconduct has made it more difficult for the public to have confidence in both priests." Gerry wrote. "I have now concluded there would always be a cloud of possible future allegations."
The abuse did not occur in the priests' current parishes. Audibert was the pastor in Madawaska, and Doucette was the pastor in St. Agatha, Sinclair and Frenchville.
They were placed on administrative leave, with interim pastors serving until permanent replacements are named. A decision on where they will be placed will be made this week, the diocese said.
The diocese said it would remove all priests with a "credible" allegation of sex abuse of a minor.
A sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic church has grown nationwide since January, when Boston Cardinal Bernard Law admitted that a priest molested children for years but was kept on the job anyway, being shuttled from parish to parish. More than 130 people have come forward to say the now-defrocked priest, John Geoghan, abused them.
Since January, dozens of priests out of more than 47,000 nationwide have been suspended or forced to resign, and priests' names have been turned over to prosecutors.
A Florida bishop is the highest-ranking clergyman brought down by the scandal. The Rev. Anthony J. O'Connell, bishop of the
"The most recent
allegation of misconduct has made it more difficult for the public to have confidence in both priests.I have now concluded there would always be a cloud of possible
future allegations."
Bishop Joseph Gerry member of the Portland Roman Catholic diocese
Diocese of Palm Beach, offered his resignation Friday after acknowledging he inappropriately touched a teenager more than 25 years ago.
Slain journalist remembered fondly in memorial service
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Slain journalist Daniel Pearl was remembered in a memorial service yesterday as a husband who vowed to remain open to new cultures, a songwriter who believed the world was good, and a man who hoped he could make it better.
Pearl's wife, Marianne Pearl,
said the couple drew up a wedding contract in which they promised "to always remain open to new cultures and new people, and to inspire others with our relationship."
"We felt we were really lucky to have met each other," she said.
"The more time we spent together, the more we loved each other."
Mariane Pearl, a French freelance journalist who married Pearl in Paris in August 1999 and lived and worked with him in India, said they went everywhere together. She said she didn't understand why she wasn't with him the night he was kidnapped.
"Even death cannot separate us. I make the commitment to enable him to live throughout me, throughout our son," said Mariane Pearl, who is expecting the couple's only child in May.
Pearl's friends talked about his uncanny ability to talk his way out of predicaments — even once persuading a cab driver to lend him his belt for a job interview. They said that when he was kidnapped in Pakistan, they hoped he would talk his way out of that as well.
"He knew for sure that no matter how complex the situation, some good fairy would take care of him, and she did for 38 years," said Pearl's father, Judea Pearl.
There was more laughter than tears as people recounted anecdotes from Pearl's youth in Los Angeles, his college years at Stanford University and his career. They also recalled his musical talent on the fiddle and other instruments.
Members of one of the bands Pearl played in, The Clamp in Washington, D.C., played a song they had composed with Pearl called "The World is Not a Bad Place." It was written to welcome the
unborn son of a friend into the world.
Pearl, 38. South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped while researching links between Pakistani extremists and shoe-
bombing suspec
t Richard
C. Reid. A
video tape
received Feb.
22 by U.S.
diplomats in
Karachi
showed Pearl
dead. Hisbod
has not been found.
The chief suspect in his kidnapping and slaying, British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, goes on trial Tuesday before Pakistan's anti-terrorism court.
"He was courageous and brave because Danny, more than anyone I knew, had the courage to live, and live well. I think he lived more in his 38 years than I have and probably ever will."
Daniel Gill childhood friend of Daniel Pearl
In a news conference held after the service, Pearl's friend since childhood, Daniel Gill, announced that the nonprofit Daniel Pearl Foundation had been established to support charities that inspired Pearl, promote cross-cultural understanding, and to prevent violence.
"He was courageous and brave because Danny, more than anyone I knew, had the courage to live, and live well. I think he lived more in his 38 years than I have and probably ever will," Gill said.
Information about the invitation-only service at Skirball Cultural Center came through a single pool reporter who was allowed to attend.
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