Flying Business Class

Chris Isley soars above his competition. Literally. As owner of International Med-X, a Fort Myers-based medical equipment and supply company that sells and services X-ray machines, MRI and CT scanners, Isley can reach his customers throughout the state of Florida and the Caribbean faster than his competitors can send a FedEx package. Within a day's notice, sometimes less, he can be on site, servicing an X-ray machine at a hospital in Jacksonville, or tinkering with a faulty MRI at a physician's office in the Turks and Caicos. What's the secret to Isley's speedy service? He doesn't rely on commercial airlines or I-75 to get him where he needs to go. Instead, he flies himself, in his own plane.

Isley is among the growing ranks of professionals who've found that by flying themselves from place to place, they save money, time and stress. Very often, they can deliver service or parts much faster than they could otherwise.

Isley first obtained his pilot license in 1982 for the adventure and joy of flying. "I originally got the license for pleasure," he says. "When I realized how much I enjoyed flying, I started looking for business in the places I liked to visit, like the Keys." Isley figured that if he could service his medical clients by way of a half-hour plane flight instead of a six-hour drive, he could do a lot more business in Florida's southern archipelago. "I could respond in a more responsible time frame than the competition," he says. The Keys soon expanded to the Caribbean, and Isley now has clients throughout the Bahamas. "I can leave here in the morning and be back in time for soccer practice in the evening," he says.

Although Isley's flights almost always involve business, "They're all a pleasure to me," he says. "If I had to get behind the wheel and drive to Jacksonville or wherever, I wouldn't be nearly as eager to go as I am in my airplane."

Likewise, Naples attorneys Robin Doyle and Jim Demarest of Quarles & Brady have found that taking to the skies on their own terms makes good business sense, even if that wasn't their first thought. "I got my license for the adventure of learning to fly," says Doyle, "and incidentally I use it for business." Flying is every bit the adventure Doyle anticipated. But as a trial lawyer handling commercial litigation, he can now fly anywhere in the state to take a deposition or attend a hearing. For example, Doyle recently had to go to the Panhandle for business, and he flew himself to Destin. "If I had flown commercially, I would have been routed through Atlanta," he says. Factor in parking at the airport, check-in, lines at security checkpoints and layovers, and one or two hours in the air would have turned into several more hours on the ground. The firm also has a Boca Raton office so close to the airport that, according to Doyle, "the staff can watch the plane land."

Doyle didn't have to look far for flight lessons. While most aspiring pilots sign up with a local flight school for lessons, Doyle just had to knock on a nearby door-his colleague Demarest is a pilot and a certified flight instructor, and taught Doyle how to fly.

Demarest's journey to the skies is a colorful one. Prior to his law career, Demarest graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, where, as a participant in the Soaring Program, he learned to fly gliders and was certified to teach other cadets to fly the motorless aircraft as well. After graduation, he completed the Air Force jet pilot training at Reese Air Force base in Lubbock, Texas, then went on to the prestigious Air Force Fighter Weapons School ("It's the Air Force version of Top Gun, only better," he says). Demarest spent 10 years flying F-15 fighter planes, including service in Desert Storm, where he flew combat air patrol missions over Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

One would think that after flying some of the aviation world's most exciting aircraft, tooling around Florida in a single-engine turboprop might be a little.ho-hum? "My love of flying hasn't diminished one bit," says Demarest, although he admits, "you don't fly a single-seat, high-performance, air-superiority fighter like an F-15 and think that you'll ever fly anything else that remotely approaches it in terms of performance or fun."

Rent, Own or Co-op?

So how is a professional with a pilot license but no plane different from a 16-year-old who just got his first driver's license but has no car? The professional does have a few more options, none of which-at least as far as we know-involves having to borrow the keys to mom's plane. Airplanes can be purchased, rented or co-owned by a group of flying enthusiasts.

Isley and his brother Joe, who owns BoatMaster Trailers in Fort Myers and is also a pilot, own two planes-a single-engine and a twin-engine Cessna. Though they rented planes for the first few years, the brothers found that due to the amount of time they were spending in the air, it made sense to buy. Even with fluctuating fuel costs, the value of his time and that of the other people he works with makes it worth the expense, Chris Isley says.

John Fellows, general manager and chief flight instructor with SafeFlight International Fort Myers, a flight school that also rents airplanes to licensed pilots, explains that within a few years of obtaining their pilot license, many new pilots buy their own planes. "The name of the game is building flight hours," says Fellows. "The more flight hours, the more types of ratings a pilot can acquire, and then they go buy their own plane, usually about three years after getting licensed."

Pilots looking to buy their own wheels-or is it wings?-can expect to pay a minimum of $25,000, explains Nicola Gentil, vice president of Naples Air Center, a flight school and plane-rental operator. "If they do enough flying, this will pay for itself," Gentil explains. "When you think about it, every time they fly with us it's $70 per hour. If they own their own plane, they can go whenever they want, just walk in and take off almost immediately."

Doyle, along with 30-some other local pilots, is a member of the Naples Flying Club. The club, which has operated since the 1950s, shares ownership of two planes that club members can reserve for individual use. "It's an easy way to have access to a plane without the cost and responsibility," Doyle explains. Fellows says that flying clubs are particularly popular with new pilots. "The club owns the plane, the members pay dues and an hourly rental fee, and a portion goes into reserve to maintain the aircraft," he says. It's cost effective and convenient, as well. In the three years that Doyle's been a member of the club, on only one occasion was a plane not available; and he says, "the weather turned bad that day anyway, so I couldn't have flown."

Since he had to leave the keys to the F-15 behind, Jim Demarest rents a plane whenever he needs to fly. Local FBOs-fixed-base operators, as flight rental outfits are known-rent small planes on an hourly basis. Unlike a rental car, where you're paying for the car even if it sits overnight in a hotel parking lot, hourly rates for airplane rentals apply only to time spent in the air. So a day trip to Key West in a four-seater plane that rents for $75 an hour would cost only about $150 there and back.

Although saving time and money, cutting down on stress and having a competitive edge may all be perfectly good reasons for pilots to fly themselves to and from their business destinations, the bottom line is not profit. It's fun. No matter what pilots use to get their wings-whether rented, owned or co-owned-all share a passion for flying. Jim Demarest sums it up for many: "I'm going to continue to fly until they pry the controls from my hands."