Two G650's - and the freedom of flight.

stratobee

stratobee

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Dec 18, 2011
Messages
1,112
Display Name
Display name:
stratobee
About a week ago I flew up to Monterey from LA. Coincidentally, it was my first ever IFR flight solo (I only messed up a little). What I didn't know was that it was the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance car show in Monterey that week - a known stomping ground for the ridiculously rich. A Ferrari sold for $38 million at one of the auctions I later found out.

The place was rammed. I've never seen more private jets in my life in one spot! As I taxied in I noticed not only one, but two Gulfstream G650's sitting side by side, as well as a private 757 (I kid you not). I'd never seen a G6 in the flesh before, let alone two. Very impressive looking birds. One was some Bahrain registered thing (A9C-BAH) and the second was venerable Brit digger manufacturer JCB's M-JCBB from the UK. Monterey Jet Center had room for me to park, but just barely. The others didn't. My old steed was ingloriously pushed into the farthest corner as the very helpful ladies at the front desk informed me of how crazy busy this week had been. I was oblivious.

Anyway, after our little tourism excursion to the Aquarium in town, I filed my second solo IR flight plan ever. As I taxi out JCB's G650 fires up and taxies out after me. I must have missed their clearance delivery, so didn't know where they were heading. As I do runup, tower ask me if I can expedite and depart before the G6. Sure thing I say - I was pretty keen not to add wake turbulence to my second IR departure ever by departing after him - so, off we went into the marine layer. As I broke out on top at around 2500ft (as the sun was setting), I could hear the G6 depart right after me. We both got vectored around a little by Oakland App - me with my broken Svenglish, and he in his perfect British. Nice and calm night flight home.

Only today did I check where JCB's pretty jet went. And it just reminded me of that sense of freedom that the idea of flight can trigger. M-JCBB flew direct from Monterey to LFTH on the Cote d'Azure, France. And it did it in 10hrs 18 minutes. I don't know why that captures my imagination, but it does. It's very exciting to know that maybe in my lifetime, there will be aircraft that we might be able to afford that could give us the same sense of freedom and speed. Maybe. That ability to connect two completely different cities, on different continents and in different time zones.

Aircraft are truly time machines in that regard.

Here's the flight M-JCBB took:

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MJCBB

I forgot to take pictures of most aircraft on the ramp, but I did manage to snap a quick shot of this brand new looking Citation X firing up.
 

Attachments

  • citaionx.jpg
    citaionx.jpg
    182.3 KB · Views: 199
Last edited:
The neat thing about the G650 is you start to get some serious legs and you can still get into the "smaller" airports like SDL and TEB that restrict sizes. It's a beautiful plane inside and out.
 
Did the air smell like money? Jes curious....
 
Great story - and remember, they may drive bigger iron - but you're still just as much a pilot!
 
It did smell of money.

I have to say, inside at the FBO there were some funny types waiting for their jets to get ready. There was one particular gentleman who was wearing some kind of creased white shirt with crystals or diamonds encrusted into the seams. He was also clutching a younger woman and was obviously dyeing his hair black. The roots betrayed him - you could see his hair was actually as white as snow. Very vain. Permatan, of course. He whisked the girl towards his jet in his terribly expensive but butt ugly designer jeans with more crystals encrusted.

My god, money certainly doesn't buy taste. But hey, he rides a jet and I don't. He has a twenty-something girlfriend and I don't. More power to him.:D
 
Last edited:
I have a picture of a couple of the cars. We arrived the night before and I was surprised to find the FBO staffed with more the one person at 2 am. Even the CSR was there. She said they were still cleaning up from the party that evening.

We were not there for anything that had to do with this event. In fact I didn't know it was going on until we got there.

 
Here's a shot from the World Cup in South Africa a couple of years ago. Talk about full ramp! It wasn't quite as bad as this at Monterey, but not that far off.
 

Attachments

  • WorldCupjets.jpg
    WorldCupjets.jpg
    111 KB · Views: 137
I thought all British registrations began with G, not M?
 
Fast cars,jet planes,gets fast young women. Sometimes slower is better.
 
stratobee said:
Here's a shot from the World Cup in South Africa a couple of years ago. Talk about full ramp! It wasn't quite as bad as this at Monterey, but not that far off.
Click to expand...

Nice of that second jet in the pic to actually park ON the runway. :rolleyes:
 
I had the same kind of epiphany back in the late 70s but on a much smaller scale. Not long after getting my ticket I took my young GF from San Diego up to her family in Novato, north of San Fran. We could have taken my Fiat, at a blistering 55MPH or a bit more, and taken more than 9 hours enroute. A whole day gone.

Rather than that, we took a Grumman AA5, and with one stop we left at just after 6 in the morning, and landed before 10. Along the way, we were treated to a nice morning view of Oakland, and San Fran across the bay. All this freedom to go where and when we want. The money to exercise our freedom and the enjoyment of time in the sky on our own.

It was one of the most liberating things I've done. Since then, never given as much thought to it, but maybe we take it for granted a bit too much. I know I rail against the new limits, and I'm afraid for my offspring not getting the same wanderlust that we had just one generation ago.

The other thing I think about is that I was plenty happy with that Grumman. I saw faster planes back then, and now I could afford a much faster plane(no G650 for sure) but I'm still plenty happy with my SEL for my mission. Guess if I had to go to France on a regular basis I'd have to move up!
 
stratobee said:
It did smell of money.

I have to say, inside at the FBO there were some funny types waiting for their jets to get ready. There was one particular gentleman who was wearing some kind of creased white shirt with crystals or diamonds encrusted into the seams. He was also clutching a younger woman and was obviously dyeing his hair black. The roots betrayed him - you could see his hair was actually as white as snow. Very vain. Permatan, of course. He whisked the girl towards his jet in his terribly expensive but butt ugly designer jeans with more crystals encrusted.

My god, money certainly doesn't buy taste. But hey, he rides a jet and I don't. He has a twenty-something girlfriend and I don't. More power to him.:D
Click to expand...

Well, At least you don't have to worry about giving up half your fortune to that 20 something. It's amazing what people would do for money! (Talking about the 20 something year old)
 
you probably didnt hear their clearance, because they can have it sent digitally to their flight computers and not ever have to call.
 
ntbjounin said:
you probably didnt hear their clearance, because they can have it sent digitally to their flight computers and not ever have to call.
Click to expand...

Cool. How can I get it beamed into my clown plane?:)

The Isle of Man registration is pretty new. It's been a tremendous success, as it's a tax haven, but also because you can maintain your aircraft to either FAA or EASA standards, and can crew that way too. Unfortunately, it's not open to anything but jets unless you actually live there. If it were, the G-reg would literally empty overnight.
 
NJP_MAN said:
The neat thing about the G650 is you start to get some serious legs and you can still get into the "smaller" airports like SDL and TEB that restrict sizes. It's a beautiful plane inside and out.
Click to expand...

I just saw an ad for the new King Air 350i and I realize that is a 5 million dollar airplane. I searched www.aso.com and you can buy an older Gulfstream with that amount.....I would go with the Gulf.
 
The older Gulf's will eat you alive with fuel. We're talking close to 600gals/hr here for the earlier models. Plus they face stage 4 noise upgrades if you want to use them anywhere.

That's why they're cheap.
 
I once had to divert to TEB for weather a few years ago (N07 was not an option, CDW just went below minimums and the ILS was out of service at MMU). Came back the next day to pick up the plane, simply couldn't believe how much money was on that ramp.

I shouldn't have been surprised with it being TEB, but even so...

MRY seems to have a track record of surprising GA pilots. My first solo XC was to MRY. The Blue Angels were parked on the ramp, I actually did a slip to get a view of them on the way out :)
 
FloridaPilot said:
Well, At least you don't have to worry about giving up half your fortune to that 20 something. It's amazing what people would do for money! (Talking about the 20 something year old)
Click to expand...

:lol: FBOs are only a glimpse, get on a yacht on the Coté d Azure sometime.:rofl: BTW, you finance it all through consumerism fiat currency (a large source of revenue for these guys) and simple interest, you just don't get to enjoy it.
 
193275_big.jpg



:drool:
 
Henning said:
:lol: FBOs are only a glimpse, get on a yacht on the Coté d Azure sometime.:rofl: BTW, you finance it all through consumerism fiat currency (a large source of revenue for these guys) and simple interest, you just don't get to enjoy it.
Click to expand...

Explain this a bit further....
 
stratobee said:
The older Gulf's will eat you alive with fuel. We're talking close to 600gals/hr here for the earlier models. Plus they face stage 4 noise upgrades if you want to use them anywhere.

That's why they're cheap.
Click to expand...

If I had 5 Mil to spend on an airplane 600/ Gals an Hr wouldn't be a problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top