This was not my first flight on a business aircraft, but again it was a new experience. Jack asked if I wanted to sit in the cockpit with him during the flight. The airport is minimalist, it is really just a runway and aircraft hangers (no tower). There is an automated gas station and a bathroom.
The taxi dropped us in front of Jack's hanger. The Learjet is a small aircraft, really the size of a large (but narrow) SUV. Jack has owned the aircraft for nearly 15 years. He bought it from his father-in-law, who bought it from Learjet.
In 2020, the aircraft was having its third-ever heavy maintenance (Jack told me that it cost nearly $300k), and he took the opportunity to refresh the interior of the aircraft including replacing all electrical and electronic systems. The aircraft cockpit and interior are indistinguishable from a modern aircraft. Jack said that the new electronics alone were nearly $200k. Aviation is an expensive hobby (although for Jack he uses it for work).
Learjet was known as the Ferrari of the sky. Pocket rockets that cruise at 45,000 feet. Since it was only the four of us, the air was cool, and 11 am is a quiet time of the day. We climbed to our cruising altitude in less than 10 minutes. Jack kept an eye on the aircraft (autopilot) and listened to the radio with one ear (about 40,000 feet in its uncontrolled airspace), we benefited from a nice tailwind that increased our ground speed by nearly 80 knots.
It was as in the movies, as he stopped the engines an SUV came to the aircraft, and we disembarked with luggage and everything. Between the time we landed, taxied and parked and the time we left the airport, it took exactly 12 minutes. The plane touched down at 11: 48 exactly. At noon we were on the road to our first destination, a tradition for Jack and his wife, a restaurant in Vail called the Mountain Standard. Which is about a 10 minutes' walk from their condo where we left the car and luggage. This is Vail as Jack explained, everything is valet including their condo.
Jack knows where we rented our skis (it was his suggestion we use that store) because it's across the street from his selected restaurant. Again they will bring the skis to the condo locker, we just take our boots. The condo is right next to a nice hotel that has a decent restaurant, and in the morning we ski right to the gondola maybe 200 meters away...should be fun.
The condo complex is exactly what you would expect from an outrageous purchase that Jake made in 2009 during the financial crisis. The location is about as good as you can get because we are above and to the south of town so it is quiet. Jake bought the entire complex out of the receivership. He sold one building to a friend making back his initial investment on the purchase of the entire complex. Their condo is enormous, not only is it five bedrooms, but each has its own bathroom and walk-in closet. On the ground floor in addition to the ski lockers, there are a sauna, a steam room, a pool a plunge pool and a laundry room. Jack says that the units for rent are occupied almost 10 months of the year. I think that Jacks' fund owns other properties in Vail but he didn't really talk about it, he sure knew a lot about Vail's real estate market.
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