Piaggio Avanti Words of Recognition
Like many pilots I’ve been working my way up the aviation food chain for a number of years. As Covid 19 had the country in lock down I finished a hot section on my TBM 850 and thought that was the perfect time to sell it. I had always planned to move up to a jet airplane and began spreadsheeting the likely suspects but also began reading a Beechtalk thread started by my friend Adam Frisch about Piaggio Avanti’s. I discovered an airplane with a cabin the size of a mid-sized bizjet with the speed of a jet, a pressurization system better than all of them, a 41,000 foot max cruising altitude, a cabin quieter than a jet and operating economics that are a fraction of jet costs.
Intrigued I started building a spreadsheet of every plane for sale in the world and soon had a list of prospects. Seeing one the flesh my wife Sharon loved it so I called my friend Neal Schwartz and asked if he’d help me buy one. Neal is a United Airlines captain and one of the hardest working people I know selling over 40 airplanes a year on the side. He’s friendly, smart, absolutely honest and highly knowledgeable. We’ve worked together on a number of transactions on both sides of the deal and there isn’t anyone else I’d rather work with. He likes working with me because I do my homework and can make decisions quickly. We focused on two Texas planes and within a few weeks I owned N228BE, the lowest time Avanti II in the fleet. Today I have a terrific partner Michael White, and entrepreneur from Dallas, and we have a terrific Captain Mike Denton who manages the plane for us.
I no longer have any interest in jets as a potential owner.
