G_LCDH ...the ultimate private plate ? who else ?

[lebesset]

http://www.airteamimages.com/aviation_news.php?id=101

not being a great follower of the social media I have only just noticed that lewis carl davidson hamilton has invested some spare cash in a nice runaround ..no cessna citation's for lewis !
do any of the other F1 drivers have their own jets ? I remember reubens lent his to jenson to go home after brazil 2009 but are there other drivers with one ? and what about the teams ?
bernie clearly has one , and I would be surprised if McLaren didn't ...the factory is spitting distance from a suitable airstrip [ my nephew is a member of the flying club there ...london transport !! ]

any information anyone ?

[Richard]

https://twitter.com/LewisHamilton/statu ... 8064794624

[Blanchimont]

[Moose]

At least Sauber, Caterham and Force India have them. I believe Hamilton is the only driver to own one, but he has actually owned that jet since last year. In days of old it was much more common. Barrichello had an Embreyer Legacy; Senna had an HS125, A King Air and an Esquilo Helicopter; Nelson Piquet had a Citation X; Schumacher had a Falcon 800. Also on the list of past owners... Graham Hill, Nigel Mansel, Juan Pablo Montoya, Gerhard Berger, Keke Rosberg, Thierry Boutsen, Alain Prost, Eddie Irvine, Niki Lauda (who actually used to own an airline).

[lebesset]

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-p ... 928164.jpg

sadly on sale ; although isle of man registered that will probably change with the ownership

[astracrazy]

Most drivers use private jets which are most likely the teams anyway as a lot have them. So i guess the need to buy them is less now a days

[SectorOne]

At least Sauber, Caterham and Force India have them. I believe Hamilton is the only driver to own one, but he has actually owned that jet since last year. In days of old it was much more common. Barrichello had an Embreyer Legacy; Senna had an HS125, A King Air and an Esquilo Helicopter; Nelson Piquet had a Citation X; Schumacher had a Falcon 800. Also on the list of past owners... Graham Hill, Nigel Mansel, Juan Pablo Montoya, Gerhard Berger, Keke Rosberg, Thierry Boutsen, Alain Prost, Eddie Irvine, Niki Lauda (who actually used to own an airline).

Mr Lauda still has his, he flew Lewis home after the Chinese GP.

Bombardier Global 5000



Vettel also rented a jet to fly him around for two-three races in 2012.

[PlatinumZealot]

Does anyone know how much money you need to own and operate one of these jets?

[Leon]

What about Jenson Button and HondaJet?

[langwadt]

Most drivers use private jets which are most likely the teams anyway as a lot have them. So i guess the need to buy them is less now a days

I know a guy who at one point was looking at buying a jet, buying the jet is self wasn't the biggest problem
but to have any hope of complying with rules and paper work to be able to fly it you basically need a full commercial
operation with several full time mechanics and a pilots

[Gaz.]

Does anyone know how much money you need to own and operate one of these jets?

A quick search shows that something like a LearJet 45 over 200 hours a year would cost £500k per year, not including the cost of the plane or chartering it out to generate a subsidy or income- if you can have 550 hours hire time then that will pay for all of your costs and your 200 hours a year are free- assuming nothing breaks.

[lebesset]

one of my friends that made it big ended up as a tax exile and ran his as a business as stated by deadheading as well as renting it out when he wasn't using it
the principle is that if you have a small party travelling it can be as cheap than buying seats on a commercial flight , I once took a group from the UK to Italy for the day and renting a biz jet was cheaper than commercial seats ; on top of which we could fly to a regional airport within 10 minutes of our final destination ; it was also rather good for the morale to have the captain ask...what time do you want to go back sir ?[ the answer was the latest to get back into the regional airport we had come from which closed at night ...because of headwinds the captain got permission to cross the snow covered alps at his maximum altitude of 43,000 ft , a view I will never forget !

as an example , what did hamilton do for abu dhabi ? arrived wednesday and his red machine sat there until monday to take him home ? or did he put it in the hands of a broker like ELjet and it did a couple of trips elsewhere ? bet there are plenty of people would like a ride in his mean machine ! and does the fact that it is red mean he has decided he won't ever be going to ferrari ?

[astracrazy]

it would prob sit there until he flew home monday. it would make little sense to fly back to europe for a short haul flight then fly all the way back - for example. If he rents it out he will most likely do it when he is at home (relatively speaking) himself.

I know a guy who at one point was looking at buying a jet, buying the jet is self wasn't the biggest problem
but to have any hope of complying with rules and paper work to be able to fly it you basically need a full commercial
operation with several full time mechanics and a pilots

really? A quick search in google and there are management companies who take all this on for you. You won't need full time staff at all. They organise the crew and maintenance when/if needed at the location the plane is at (it may even be done during the stop over). They also organise renting the plane out if needed.

[Richard]

Super yachts are similar. You build you own yacht to your personal specification then get someone else to pay for it by renting it out when you don't need it.

[adrianjordan]

Fairly sure Button has a private jet...my tutor was saying that he knows a guy who's a broker for people buying private jets and that he was did a deal on one for Button - don't know when though...