Executives realize the value
in earning their wings.
At about 3,000 feet above Lake Erie, Allen Warner turned the yoke to the right and felt the single-engine plane begin to do the same. He was overcome with emotion. Warner looked out the window and saw tiny rows of houses dotting the landscape, and at that moment he realized he was flying.
Though he's only had his private pilot license for three years, Warner dreamt about flying for decades. And while Warner's peers assembled model airplanes, Warner remembers watching the real thing. On Saturdays, Warner would beg his parents to drive out to Brookpark Road outside Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and park the car so he could watch the planes pass overhead.
Today Warner, 48, flies his own plane, a 1999 Beach Bonanza. With a price tag close to half a million dollars, the plane was quite an investment, but worth every penny, says the owner and president of Cleveland-based Perma-Tech. 'You can make it pay for itself through doing business,' Warner says. 'It makes it that much more fun.'
More executives are realizing how such an exhilarating hobby can save their companies time and money, in addition to making their lives a little less stressful.
While it's something most people only dream of, flying a plane is less complicated than it first appears, according to Be A Pilot, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.
'Some people believe that [learning to fly] is equivalent to a college education in time and cost. That's not true,' says Drew Steketee, president and CEO of the educational foundation.
In total, learning to fly — including the price of ground school, flight instruction, medical test, license examine and miscellaneous fees — can cost $6,000 to $8,000, says Ken Gee, owner of Air Sports Aviation.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires a minimum of 40 hours of flying to obtain a license, which usually takes three months to a year. 'People also tend to think you can't be a pilot if you wear glasses,' Steketee says. 'You don't have to be superman or have superb medical health to learn how to fly.' All you really need is the desire.
Launched in 1997, Be A Pilot taps into this desire through its introductory flight lesson promotion, which allows interested prospects to take a flying lesson for $49, about half the regular price for a lesson. The number of people registering for the introductory lesson reached a record 33,614 in 2002, an 8 percent increase over those who registered in 2001. Twenty percent of those who registered said they wanted to learn for business purposes, Steketee says.
Executives of smaller businesses are finding flying especially useful. Mike Kolomichuk, president of American Winds Flight Academy Inc. in Akron, says owners of smaller businesses benefit from lessons the most.
'Smaller businesses usually can't afford to have their key people gone for three or four days at a time [on business],' Kolomichuk says.
Warner is one such small-business owner who has benefited from flying his own plane. Since earning his wings, his company has grown 20 percent. As owner of Perma-Tech, a provider of spray-on bed linings for pickup trucks, Warner would often be gone several days on business, visiting his product dealers throughout the Midwest. Now, he doesn't have to worry about renting a car or staying overnight. He can be back in the same day.
Equipped with air conditioning and MP3 and DVD players, Warner's plane is a dream toy. The sophisticated aircraft also boasts the latest traffic and weather alert systems. On average, Warner flies six to eight times a month for business, but uses the plane for recreational purposes, too.
'Whether it's for business or pleasure, to me they're both for pleasure,' he says. The farthest he's flown is to the Bahamas, a trip that took him only five and a half hours.
Though executives contend that learning to fly has saved their businesses money, it can be pricey. Hangar rental ranges from $200 to $300 a month, but this only applies to those who own their planes, which cost $500,000 to $750,000. If plane rental seems to be a better route, that will cost around $100 per hour of engine time. This means the clock isn't ticking during business meetings or an overnight stay. Air Sport Aviation includes gas in the rental price of its planes, but Gee says some companies have dry leases, in which the renter pays for gas, a tank of which runs around $200. A full tank can last around 900 miles, or five hours in the air.
There are ways to lessen the financial blow of flying lessons. Education loan provider Sallie Mae offers student assistance for those who need a little help in the beginning.
In Ohio, there are 87 flight schools that honor the Be A Pilot introductory flight special. Fourteen of those schools are in Northeast Ohio. The Midwest, in particular, is 'a pilot's dream,' Steketee says.
'[It] is a spectacular place to fly, in part because it's flat and because there are more general aviation airports in the Midwest than anywhere else,' he says.
The birthplace of aviation takes its flying seriously. Ohio law mandates that each of its 88 counties have a first-class (meaning well-equipped) general-aviation airport. In total, there are 732 landing facilities in Ohio and more than 1,000 airports in the Great Lakes region.
Carl Gedeon is another executive who knows about the benefits of flying. Gedeon began flying a little less than a year ago and is finishing his training for a private license. He was able to complete almost 50 hours of flying for under $8,000.
Needing to fly a minimum of once a week, Gedeon says he's saved at least that amount in commercial airfare so far. As president of MedSpace, which installs diagnostic imaging systems throughout the country, he used to fly commercially, then sometimes drive several hours to destinations not serviced by major airports.
'More and more people are chartering planes, and I just took it a step further,' says Gedeon, who owns a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. He has been interested in flying since he first took off with a friend in a single-engine Piper Cub in the 1960s. While at a boat show last year, he received some information on flying, saw the benefits it would have for his business and signed up for the Be A Pilot introductory lesson.
Now he flies to clients across the country, in addition to frequently flying back and forth between his headquarters in Mayfield Heights and his factory in Indiana.
Besides saving executives time and money, flying also seems to save their sanity as well.
'When you climb above the Earth into the sky, not only do houses get smaller, your problems get smaller, too,' Steketee says. 'You leave them on the ground.'
Warner agrees: 'There aren't many things that take your mind off the business world and everyday life, but with flying, your mind is focused on that.'
Bob Minchak, another executive pilot, says, 'When flying, I don't think about much else than keeping my butt alive.' Minchak, 43, is founder and publisher of JB Dollar Stretcher Magazine, which appears throughout Ohio, New York and western Pennsylvania. He earned his private pilot license in February 2001 and is close to completing his instrument license, which will allow him to operate the plane in conditions of reduced visibility, such as thick clouds or inclement weather.
In addition to his main office in Richfield, Minchak has offices in Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, Canton and Youngstown. Before learning to fly, he was driving from Cleveland to Dayton and back at least twice a week. Tired of this frequent commute, Minchak overcame his fear of flying and made the decision to take lessons. Now he can fly to meet with customers and has a chance to spend more time at home with his family.
'I fly for business so I can go home,' says Minchak, who flies one to three times a week for business. 'Even though the plane goes slower [than an airliner], you don't waste time on the ground,' says Minchak, referring to the hassle of new security measures at major airports.
Learning how to fly also seems to boost executives' confidence.
'Nothing to me is a bigger accomplishment than flying on your own,' Warner says. Gee — whose school has centers at Burke Lakefront, Cuyahoga County and Akron-Canton airports — admits that learning to fly, though not impossible, is a huge challenge.
'When people accomplish that, they see they can accomplish a lot more,' says Gee, who sees 30 percent to 40 percent of his students learning to fly for business purposes. 'They realize they're not bound by roads, traffic jams and orange barrels.'
'There's a little more fun with flying yourself. You have control,' Gedeon says. This control is what attracts a lot of business executives to the hobby. 'Nothing's holding you back,' says Denise Hobart, chief pilot at American Winds flight school.
'You can service customers better, can visit them more often and it costs less money,' she says. 'You look like a hero to the customer. Those little meetings are turning into long-lasting [partnerships] because it wasn't a big deal for you to jump into a plane and go.'
And in recent years, men haven't been the only ones with the right stuff. Gee says 10 percent to 15 percent of his students are women, some of whom are executives.
Carol Dawud, a credit manager at the Streetsboro office of Lafarge North America, hopes to complete her license this year. She says flying is just a passion, but thinks it could be an option for business travel. 'It's about sacrifices,' Dawud says. 'It's what you like.'
Once behind the yoke, most trainees are hooked for life, no matter the cost.
'It's like going on stage for the first time, all the butterflies,' Warner
says. 'You think, How lucky am I to be able to do this.' '