The boys are delighted to welcome back David Norton to continue the discussion of company planes. As they recline comfortably in the new Hat & Cattle G5, eating bonbons and sipping cocktails, David and the boys chat about the smart way to buy an airplane.
David Norton is Partner and Head of the Aviation Practice at Shackelford Melton & McKinley, a law firm based in Dallas. One of the of the foremost aviation attorneys in the U.S., David is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, a former Air Force pilot, and an active private pilot. He serves in a leadership role in various industry organizations, including as Chair of the Aviation Section of the State Bar of Texas and Chair of the National Business Aviation Association’s Domestic Operations Committee. Find out more about David and his firm here and at shacklaw.net. Thanks, David!
And as an aside, Jim’s broker keeps telling him that he’ll rival Gates, Buffet and Slim at the top of the Forbes list when pigs fly. Tune in to find out the real source of Jim’s interest in private jet travel. And watch until the end for the Parting Shot!
Anonymous
June 28, 2010 at 8:32 am
Two great discussions on airplanes. Thank you!
When I was COO about 12 years ago, we bought an airplane to fly customers to our new headquarters. It turned out that we did not fly many customers but we found it to be a real time machine (I believe what your guest called airplanes). We found that if 3 people were flying and the flight was no more than about 2 hours it actually was a cost reduction not to mention a time machine. This allowed us to bring others for development reasons etc. When we sold the plane we still used the company that provided the service but used their planes. Based on the information I heard in the two discussions, if a company only needs one maybe two planes, I would just go with a charter. It seems to complicated for a plane or two.
Having said this, one thing that was not discussed was safety. The service we used and we knew them well said many companies did not service planes as well as they should and did not get the best of pilots. It was hard to believe until about 6 years ago someone I know told me that her husband had to take over the controls from a recently retired military pilot. They were taking off (or landing) and the military pilot would have crashed the plane into the mountains. My friend’s husband told the other guy to change course but he did not and even after he took over the controls the guy did not get it for a period of time. The owners of the plane did not realize that there was even a problem.
I am not sure how you judge safety and maint. from a provider of these services standpoint but my guess is that your guest would know.
Take care and thanks again for two great programs.
Ron
June 27, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Jim,
I really enjoyed the 2 sessions on Company planes. Since I was in the aerospace and defense business my entire business career, I was vary familiar with the various topics that Dave Norton presented and discussed. I was very impressed with his breath of knowledge and insight in a very complex and highly regulated industry. I remember the many times I attended the NBAA shows and conferences in the United States. I also remember many of the corporate and buz jet manufacturers exhibited their latest aircraft at the air shows in Paris, Farnborough, Germany, Singapore, and now China and Russia. Ask Dave if his firm provides legal counsel to some of the manufactures or just the potential buyers. Finally, I remember our corpration had a few Lear Jets and Cerssna Citations which we where able to use out of Grand Rapids even those they where based elsewhere. The decision was based on a formula involving the number of people traveling from our site and the total cost of commercial flights/rental cars/hotels. Many times we could make a one day trip for major customer meetings/program review that would normally take 2 days. We could fly to Dallas in the early morning, meet with 1-2 key customers and be home for the evening news and dinner, very productive business tool.
Ron Modreski