00:25:40 · Israel Slodowitz, Molly O'Shea
[00:25:40] S0: It's pretty quiet. [00:25:41] S1: There's pilots in the cockpit. You just walk through the different types of financing and ways to fly private. But what is the most economical way to fly private? [00:25:55] S0: On a friend's airplane. Okay, [00:25:58] S1: it's free. How do you find these friends? [00:26:02] S0: That's the key question. I think like, the the truth is, like, flying private is not economical. There is no real economical way to do it. It's a very expensive thing. And it's really a matter of, like, priorities if it's something that is important to you if you see, like, the utility of it as important to you in life. But flying private isn't cheap. There is no there is no cheap way to do it. [00:26:24] S1: Yeah. Last year in 2025, I think it was publicly reported that Alex Karp spent around $17,000,000 on flying, and it if you if you kind of, like, do some of the math on the price and the per per hour, it came out to around three months in the air.
00:26:24 · Molly O'Shea, Israel Slodowitz
[00:26:24] S1: Yeah. Last year in 2025, I think it was publicly reported that Alex Karp spent around $17,000,000 on flying, and it if you if you kind of, like, do some of the math on the price and the per per hour, it came out to around three months in the air. [00:26:42] S0: Yeah. Yeah. I I think I I saw that that report, and it's probably like the I think they have, like, two airplanes. I think maybe the way they they leased it back from to the company, they they they did some they they probably structured it as, a dry lease or something. But, yeah, that's it sounds like they're in the air a lot. I mean, you see, like, SpaceX, Elon Musk, like, they're he's flying, like yeah. I I'm sure you've seen that clip of, like, you know, one year of his flights. Like, you just there's just things you can't do without private aviation. You just can't do it. Like, what we're doing today, just being able to go to San Francisco for the night, have a few meetings tomorrow, then come back when we're done. You just can't do that. [00:27:18] S1: LA is the best commuter place for people in San Francisco. If you don't live in LA, you don't get it, but it's very beautiful. Okay. I have a really fun question. Who do you think flies more? Elon Musk, Alex Karp, Jeff Bezos, Taylor Swift, or Jensen Huang? [00:27:37] S0: I think if the answer is easy, Elon Musk. Elon? Absolutely. [00:27:40] S1: Even though it's mostly domestic? Yeah. But I
00:27:40 · Molly O'Shea, Israel Slodowitz
[00:27:40] S1: Even though it's mostly domestic? Yeah. But I [00:27:42] S0: mean, I I think first of all, he flies international as well, but, like, I mean, he's running what? How many companies? A lot. Going between each company, and he, like, goes in office and and is there in person. I remember when I was, like, just get get like, starting to starting to fly out of Hawthorne Airport. I see his plane come in and land and see him get off and on, and it was just, very inspiring. [00:28:01] S1: So Preston makes a lot of content around the financing of private aviation. What does he mostly cover? Like, what should people be reading? [00:28:10] S0: Yeah. So so Preston Holland, he has a podcast. He talks about aviation finance in general. He's a broker, so he's good. If you're looking for if you're looking to buy a plane, you're looking for a loan, he'll help you find a bank. Financing a plane is kind of like financing a car. Right? The bank a bank will want to securitize the aircraft. They'll file a lien on the airplane, and then they'll also want to look at your personal financials and make sure you have the ability to repay the loan. Financing fractional is a little bit more difficult. So if you go to, NetJets, for an example, they have their own in house financing department, so you can get a loan there. But most other fractionals, there's only a select few banks that will that will do finance. Actually, a a fun fact is that only 30% of aircraft have loans on them. [00:28:56] S1: Really?
00:28:57 · Israel Slodowitz
[00:28:57] S0: Yeah. 70% of people close in cash. And a lot of it has to do it's just very difficult to go through the process, get a load. A lot of people don't wanna, like, personally guarantee these loans and how they just close in cash. Don't don't wanna deal with the hassle. I'm working on a company right now called Radar, which is focused on providing financing for people who wanna do complete asset backed, like, no PG, nonrecourse type loans for aircraft, cause they are really good assets to finance against. So what are the biggest mistakes people make when they're buying a plane? It's a great question. A lot of times people think that they'll find like a better price on the market for a plane. So sometimes people won't sign an exclusive with a broker, like a reputable broker, though they won't sign an exclusive. And they'll say, you know what? Whoever brings me the best best price, I'll buy their plane. And what ends up happening is you have all these sort of, like, back to back shady transactions that happen sometimes where where somebody will bring you an airplane and they buy it for much cheaper and they flip it to you and you don't really know what's going on. When you have a reputable broker that you have an exclusive you sign with, they will they will tell you if you're overpaying for the plane. Right? Because they're, like, interest is making sure you get the best airplane for the best price. So a lot times people think that they're gonna save some money, and they're gonna, they're gonna find some some good airplane. They find some, like, off market airplane they think is a really good deal. They buy it, and they realize there was, like, forced transactions before. So I think that's, a pretty big mistake people make.
00:30:23 · Molly O'Shea, Israel Slodowitz
[00:30:23] S1: What questions should they be asking in any of these processes from chartering to buying, whether it's the year of the plane, what kind of inspections they should be looking for, insurance, that kind of stuff. [00:30:34] S0: I think corrosion is like really the big thing that gets you when it comes to buying airplanes. There's nothing that would be more expensive than corrosion because sounds terrifying. It is very terrifying, financially terrifying, because like if you discover corrosion in an airplane, sometimes they will have to reengineer an entire component for an actual part of the plane that could take months and cost, like, hundreds of thousands dollars. There's probably nothing that will cost you more money on an airplane than a problem with regard to corrosion, especially with regard to the engines. [00:31:07] S1: What about insurance? Like, what are you or inspections and that kind of stuff. Like, what are you Yeah.
00:31:07 · Molly O'Shea, Israel Slodowitz
[00:31:07] S1: What about insurance? Like, what are you or inspections and that kind of stuff. Like, what are you Yeah. [00:31:11] S0: I mean, aircraft have engine insurance. It's called engine programs, they're what they're called, where the manufacturers insure the engine. I've heard stories of people not enrolling in these programs. I think David Sachs said that he wasn't enrolling his aircraft in engine programs. I guess if you have the balance sheet and you wanna and you're willing to withstand, you can afford a pretty big event if something happens and you're willing to if you could afford a few months of downtime, you could do that. But, really, you know, the these engine manufacturers, they really have a monopoly on the supply chain of the engines. So if you're not on a program and something happens, you get to the bot you go to the bottom of the list for the parts. It is a big issue. And the companies like us and other companies that can get together and they have some negotiating power can go to these these manufacturers and get they have some leverage. But if you're buying you're a single person buying an airplane on your own, a single airplane, you don't have a lot of leverage, and things can get very expensive. We're in a cockpit. [00:32:11] S1: Okay. You were talking [00:32:12] S0: Or as we call it nowadays, flight deck. [00:32:15] S1: You were talking about wait. Really? Yeah. They changed it. They changed it? Well, I guess. Why'd they change it? [00:32:20] S0: I don't know. Maybe it's, like, a little bit more politically correct.