By ANN Correspondent Rob Milford
There I was…65
feet over Orlando Executive…the engine was out, and
I’m staring at a billion dollars worth of business aircraft
parked on the ramp where I have to make my landing…
Good thing I was in a scissor lift, taking pictures of the
assembled multitude of aircraft, well more than 100 on display,
that set all kinds of speed and distance records flying into the
NBAA this year.
The field was screaming
on Wednesday afternoon, every size and shape of aircraft (a
surprising number in white) headed out to the active runway, to
show off to another bunch of prospective buyers.
Think things were busy? At the Gulfstream hospitality tent (the
size of an average 5 bedroom house), there was so much traffic that
the front doors were coming off the hinges.
The sponsored water barrels were constantly being refilled, and
the temp was in the mid-80’s…humidity to match, and
you couldn’t help but pity the executives or sales types who
ignored the weather, and thought they could walk across the ramp in
a suit and tie and lace-up oxfords.
Well, the static ramp takes up a large chunk of Orlando
Executive (ORL). Coming through the welcoming tent, you’re
struck by how large business jets have become, evidenced by the ABJ
and BBJ (two of each) and the Challengers, Global Expresses and
Gulfstreams.
You’ve got Bombardier and their Lears on the left,
Dassault on the right, followed by Embraer, then on the left,
Raytheon, with their Hawker and Beech lines. It really is awesome,
or maybe just awe-inspiring.
This is the ultimate “big boy” toy store, and the
people in the aircraft sales and brokerage business all echo the
thoughts of Dave Gambacorta of AvPro, who said “I’d be
happy to take the bus home if I sold this G!” Of course,
he’s looking at commission on a $10+ million sale, so he
doesn’t need to call Greyhound anytime soon, but he told
Aero-News “The market’s firming, we’re seeing a
lot more traffic here, and the timing is good for large cabin
aircraft.” This particular 1988 G-4 has been used by
Cher for the last year or so on her never-ending “Farewell
Tour”.
Jerry Edwards working just down the ramp says “I knew
there would be a lot of white airplanes, so what better to stand
out than a purple helicopter.” He’s talking about the
Bell 430 that has been lovingly flown and maintained, and is priced
to move. (And about the purple…deep, lustrous, just off of a
dark blue).
There are some “stand out” planes. The Ibis
“Spirit” in bright zinc chromate and ruby red primer,
and the Extra 400 and 500, flanking their smaller brother the 300,
and then the MiG-15Uti trainer, in bright gloss red, repping a
JetWarbird training center in Santa Fe, New Mexico (more on them,
later).
Cessna has their huge line of aircraft wrapping around one
entire end of the ramp, along with a big tent, and then Gulfstream,
that seemingly brought everyone and everything down from Savannah,
including a G-550 that came in to Orlando after a 7,300nm non-stop,
14 hour flight from Seoul, South Korea! (how many box lunches
is that, anyway?)
And to give another idea of the traffic and popularity…
by noon on Wednesday, they had gone through 100 dozen embroidered
baseball hats!
The Piaggio P.180 Avanti is in a prime location, but no signage
indicating that that aircraft snagged a world speed record on
Sunday, coming from Chicago to Orlando in little more than 2 hours
and change…something that would make Southwest or Delta
envious.
We should make note of the efforts of all the companies to
present a great show, and make things comfortable. In addition to
the water tubs, they were pumping tons of air conditioning into the
aircraft being shown, and the portable “facilities”
were on par with what you find in your high dollar steak houses,
not your normal airshow outhouses.
If you’re getting this a little late to walk through by
3PM on Thursday… get out to ORL anyway, they will be pumping
about 200 planes out in a three-hour period, starting right after
the show closes. It will be a very expensive aircraft ballet, with
tugs and pre-flighting and fueling trucks and all those clearances
to be filed, and multi-million dollar jet after jet after turbo
prop, screaming off into the sky, their natural environment. What a
show!