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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Executives Charting New Course by Learning to Fly

Between flying across the country to meet with clients and volunteering as a member of the Civil Air Patrol and a volunteer for Angel Flight, Mark McKibben, doesn’t have much time to waste. With his free time at a premium, the 51-year-old owner of Chatsworth-based wireless, fiber optic and satellite industry consulting firm McKibben Consulting, decided that purchasing a single-propeller airplane to fly himself to client meetings and trade shows made a great deal of sense, as it would allow him more time and increased scheduling flexibility. But McKibben isn’t alone. As the commercial airline industry continues to be beset with woes, more and more executives are finding that flying themselves to meetings on private airplanes increasingly makes sense. And with the next generation of general aviation jets making their debut in the marketplace, many expect this trend to increase in the coming years. “It saves me a tremendous amount of time,” McKibben said. “I use it to go and meet with perspective clients as I do business all up and down the state. With my own plane and pilot’s license, I don’t have to shape my schedule around security hassles and scheduled commercial plane departures. It makes everything much more convenient. Yet it’s also useful for more than just business, it allows me to do a significant amount of volunteer work for Civic Air Patrol where we try to locate downed planes and for Project Angel Flight where I do medical transport for ailing individuals.” Chris Dancy, the media relations director for the Aircraft Owners and Pilot’s Association, claims that while the AOPA doesn’t have any concrete statistics for this trend, it would seem that the number of businessmen flying their own planes for business purposes has markedly increased in recent years. “For a businessman with three or four clients spread out across the country, a single engine propeller airplane can allow them to see all three and be home that evening, where with the airlines it might be two or three overnight stays,” Dancy said. “It provides a great deal of utility. Anecdotally, we hear that in the post 9/11 climate, more and business people have been learning to fly with an eye toward using aviation for business purposes. They like the fact that there aren’t any security hassles, they don’t have to waste time waiting in an airport and they get a tremendous sense of enjoyment from flying their own plane.” Of course, learning to fly and purchasing a plane are not the easiest tasks to accomplish, as one must be blessed with both time and money in order to own and be certified to fly a plane. In order to receive a license, the Federal Aviation Administration requires a minimum of 40 hours in the air, but most people generally need 60 to 70 hours to be fully proficient. The price tag to learn generally runs prospective pilots between $5,000 to $6,000. Then there is the daunting obstacle of having the funds to purchase an airplane. A new single engine prop plane runs approximately $500,000, with used planes costing substantially less. The new light jets that are starting to become available on the market cost significantly more, as they generally retail from $1 million to $1.5 million. However, Dancy maintains that once one gets over the steep price tag and the flight hours required for certification, it is relatively simple to learn to fly. “It’s truly not that hard to learn, just about anyone can do it,” Dancy said. “There are a lot of skills that you have to master but it’s not exceedingly difficult. It’s a lot to learn but almost anyone who can learn to drive also has the capability to learn to fly, it just takes longer.” Another Valley executive who has found flying his own plane to be an effective tool for his business is Mike Azzarello, the Thousand Oaks-based territory manager of the education market, for Sun Microsystems. As his business often requires him to fly to locations scattered throughout the state of California, Azzarello has found that flying solo allows him increased flexibility and saves crucial hours. “In my job, I have to cover a lot of geography and it’s important to get around and meet people,” Azarello said. “I’m always stretched thin and anything I can do to free up my time helps out. It allows me to do more face to face meetings and the time saved means that my quality of life goes up substantially. It allows me to balance things a lot better.” Azzarello pointed out that personally flying a plane is more useful to get to more out of the way locales such as Chico or Stockton. He claims that these types of smaller cities often lack direct flights or if they do, they are only available once or twice a day. But McKibben and Azzarello are by no means the only Valley businesspeople using their pilot’s licenses to improve their businesses. Mitchell Kaufman, the managing owner and a broker at West Hills-based real estate and mortgage firm Real Estate & Mortgages Inc., uses his plane to give each of his clients a free flight around the Valley after he closes a transaction. He also flies to Las Cruces, N.M, Sonoma County, the Napa Valley, Santa Barbara and elsewhere, transporting clients to look at various properties. “I personally fly each of my clients on an aerial tour of the Valley, so that they can see the house that they just bought from the air or they can view their current residence, and they seem to love it,” Kaufman said. “It’s a great business tool to promote the real estate and aviation market. Additionally, another benefit is the tax breaks it can allow you. When I bought my plane last year, I was able to off-set some income due to the tax write-off it provided.” And with the next generation of airplanes right around the corner, most parties expect the trend of businessmen flying their own planes to continue to increase, especially with the commercial airline industry as beleaguered as it is. “This trend is going to continue due to the new light jets that are hitting the market,” McKibben said. “These planes are designed for guys like me who can fly and the very light jet market is really starting to open up. It’s going to be a huge trend for people who can afford it. With my current plane, I will fly no farther than Denver, but with a lighter jet, I’d feel comfortable flying anywhere in the United States.”

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