Plane Conversations

I recently finished reading Falcon 7 – the new novel by best selling author James Huston. His last book, Marine One, made the NYT best seller list. I needed to try out my I-Pad book reader and Apple has this title in their bookstore so this was the book to try out the I-Pad reader.

James Huston takes aviation, international law, and the world of military special ops intrigue and weaves a story that will not let you put the book (I-Pad) down until you are finished.

The name for the book comes from the new long range business jet the Falcon 7X, manufactured by French company Dassault Falcon. The Falcon 7X is the culmination of state-of-the-art technology in business jet manufacturing and has a non-stop range of 5950 nautical miles at high cruise speeds. The aircraft incorporates fly-by-wire technology that has usually been reserved for airline class aircraft.

The Falcon 7X plays an important role in the book, a role revealed in the first few pages, and it continues to play a part in the plot as the story progresses.

For aviation lovers, the book includes great scenes involving helicopters, low level flying, FA-18 fighters and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

James Huston is an attorney with a practice in international and aviation law. He was also a Top Gun Naval aviator and flew the F14. He has used his knowledge of aviation and law to tell the story that will keep you spellbound and will convince you that this could really happen..  

The book starts with an FA-18 over the skies of Afghanistan on what was to be a routine mission. While on their flight back to ship, the crew is diverted to a target across the border in Pakistan. After making what was assumed to be a bomb drop on a terrorist meeting site, things start to go wrong, the aircraft is shot down and the crew ejects.

I won’t go farther in the story and give it away. If you like aviation and you like to read Grisham novels you will love this book.

Buy it in the airline terminal or at the Apple Book Store on your I-Pad and it will get you through a long stay in the terminal or a cramped and boring international flight.

You will wish you were in the back of the Falcon 7X instead of the coach seat in the back of the Boeing; but, you will not want to go where the Falcon 7X takes the characters in this story.

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VIP is an acronym used often to describe Very Important People or those that, for some reason or another, are more important than other people. It is most associated with music stars, sports stars and the rich. But, let’s face, it: We all want the VIP treatment. It makes us feel special or important. And feeling very important? Well, that’s really cool.

 More than VIPs, I like the idea of MIPs. Most Important People. Who are the MIPs in our lives? Family first, best friends, and coworkers who are also friends.  We like spending time with our MIPs. When we are away from our them, we can hardly wait to get back to them.

 So for all of you Road Warriors, you business travelers I see in airports all the time with wearied expressions on your faces and Smart Phones in your hands, what is it worth to you to get more time with your MIPs?

With all the negative things that have been said and written about riding around in business jets (could be a propeller aircraft, as well)  – about the costs and luxury, the one thing the critics always fail to mention is the time private jet travel saves. Time - that finite resource we all possess and want to maximize.

 With travel by business aircraft you get security, privacy and, most importantly, you get time. Time not wasted in an airline terminal can be spent with your MIPs.

 So, like a lot of things we spend money on, methods of travel have different values to different people. If you don’t travel and like to stay home then a private jet doesn’t bring much value.  You are less likely to understand why anyone would spend that much money using that mode of transportation. But if you have been financially successful, you do travel and the your market values you highly, then you are more likely to understand the value proposition.

 As I have said in other posts, the way our industry will continue to grow is to find ways to bring the costs down so that more people can take advantage of the value proposition that we can provide.

For all of you road warriors out there riding on the airlines every week, going to sell your product, meeting your vendors any doing everything else you must do to grow your businesses, you deserve to get more time back – just like Oprah or any other VIP does.  To get that time back, you don’t have to ride around in a Gulfstream jet (even though it would be nice to do so). If  time is what you are looking for, then your options are numerous. You can charter an aircraft or you can learn to fly, renting or buying a small aircraft to get around. Flying yourself compares to using air mass-transit like driving your car compares to taking the bus.  In some cases riding the bus saves time (when you are in big city traffic) but in other cases driving yourself is more efficient.  Or maybe there isn’t even a bus to ride and driving the car is the only way.  It works much the same with airplanes.  In a lot of cases, the time savings of flying yourself versus flying on air mass-transit ultimately translates to monetary savings.

On one end of our business spectrum sits the Gulfstream G550 business jet and on the other end sits the small Cessna or Cirrus propeller aircraft.  The Gulfstream that requires years of piloting experience, but the Cessna and Cirrus can be flown by anyone who takes the time and effort to learn to fly. In between are a world of options that make sense at levels where the value of your time increases.

At the end of the day, the goal is to spend more time with your MIPs; so, I say go take a look at what our industry has to offer to help you achieve this goal. If you have to travel there is no other device invented yet that can save your time like the private aircraft.

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