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PrintFlying Solo
For some local execs, piloting their own planes pays big dividends personally and professionally
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Todd Lloyd was relaxing in his Birmingham home one Saturday after a busy week running one of the nation’s largest event linen services, when a frantic phone call suddenly altered his weekend plans. A customer in Indian-apolis had somehow failed to place a customized linen order for a wedding to be held that afternoon.
Within half an hour, the 46-year-old entrepreneur jumped in his car, picked up the necessary table linens and chair covers, drove to Oakland/Troy Airport, and flew his plane to Indianapolis.
“It may not have been the most cost-effective move,” he says, “but a wedding is one of those lifetime events you have to get right. You can’t quantify the goodwill that emergency service created. Sometimes I wonder how many business relationships we would’ve built if I didn’t have my plane.”
The most popular site for the use of private corporate aircraft in Michigan is Oakland International Airport in Waterford Township, where Fortune 500 companies fly top executives from the second-busiest landing field in the state, second only to Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Romulus.
Operating in a challenging economy, many larger companies no longer own planes. Some have opted for fractional ownership of aircraft, while others either lease, use blocked time, make charter arrangements, or simply fly commercial, says Ralph Margulis, an aviation attorney with Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer, and Weiss in Southfield.
“Despite the economic downturn, there will always be a need for private aircraft, both for ease of flight, the avoidance of wasting time with commercial flight, the ability to get into smaller airports closer to clients, and also just because you want to have that luxury,” says Margulis, who advises individuals and corporations on owning or leasing an aircraft.
“If they want to purchase a plane, I ask my clients if it’s to satisfy their ego or whether it’s to satisfy an important business purpose,” Margulis says. “Regardless, I encourage them to examine the economics of the transaction, and if it turns out not to be a good business decision to purchase, [then I] suggest they look at alternatives like fractional ownership, blocked time usage, or chartering.”
Joe Borgesen, president of Oakland Air, a large flight operations company at Oakland International Airport, says more business executives have been taking flying classes in recent years as congestion has risen at major airports. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association operates a helpful Web site to get started at www.letsgoflying.com. “You really have to be dedicated to get your pilot’s license; it may take six months or two years, depending on your situation,” Borgesen says.
Although it’s a given that the great majority of top executives who fly on private aircraft aren’t in the cockpit, it’s not hard to find business owners and executives like Lloyd who prefer flying their own plane and being able to combine their work with their fancy for flight. “It would be much rarer to find a businessperson flying their own cabin-class jet aircraft for work, but there certainly are executives who fly turbo props or smaller planes to conduct business, and I know several of them,” says David VanderVeen, Oakland County’s director of central services, which oversees Oakland International Airport.
Here we profile five local executives who operate their own plane for business, whether to help oversee far-flung operations or to better balance their corporate and personal life:
Mark Foster
When Mark Foster, of South Lyon, obtained his pilot’s license at age 22, he dreamed of one day owning a plane and being able to use it for business. “I liked the idea of combining something I love to do with something I need to do; that was always my premise,” says Foster, co-owner and president of Applied Geometrics Inc., which provides mechanical-engineering training and consulting for companies in several states.
Two years after getting his license in 1986, Foster, now 44, bought a Beechcraft Debonair, but when his employer at the time refused to let him fly it for business trips, he decided to start his own company.
Foster, who keeps his aircraft at New Hudson Airport just six miles from home, recently upgraded to a faster model — a four-seat Mooney Ovation plane he uses at least once a week for business trips that take him to Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Florida.
Foster points out that his upgrade was feasible because he flies the aircraft 95 percent of the time for business purposes and was thus able to take advantage of tax write-offs. “As a businessman, time is money, and I can’t afford [to be] sitting inside an airport to find out if the flight’s going to take off on time. Plus, I’m not at the mercy of an airline’s schedule,” says Foster, who flies between 200 and 300 hours a year. “I always know where my bags are, the flight never leaves without me, and I get to carry my own pocketknife,” he says with a chuckle.
Foster can easily rattle off numerous examples where his plane has been strategically used to his business advantage. He often has meetings in Nashua, N.H., which would normally require a commercial flight to Boston and renting a car for another hour-and-a-half drive.
“The airports I can get into are much closer to my ultimate destination than typical commercial airports,” he says. “I’ve done enough cost-benefit analysis to prove to myself that I could not serve my clients as efficiently if I didn’t have my aircraft as a tool.”
As Foster flies into many smaller airports throughout the country, he often runs into other executives flying their planes for business. “It’s more common than you might think,” he says. “For instance, I have a dentist friend who has an office in South Lyon and also a practice in West Branch, where he flies every Thursday.”
Foster’s latest dream is to someday build a home in Linden (in southern Genesee County), where he bought a vacant lot at a residential airpark subdivision built around a runway. The next step is to build a home. “I absolutely love to fly, and there would be nothing better than to live where my airplane is,” he says.
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