October 4, 2024 • 37 mins
Today, we're interviewing Jimmy from Jimmy's World inside a beautiful 373 ✈️ about everything from abandoned aircraft to the Elvis Jet!
Jimmy shares his story about how he got into aviation, got his first GA aircraft, and became the airplane enthusiast we know today. We get Jimmy's perspective on buying aircraft with or without brokers, and some of the things he learned along the way. We also have quite a bit of fun in this episode, talking about some of Jimmy's craziest projects and his upcoming event plans with Elvis Presley's Private Jet ✨.
Episode Highlights:
✈️ How Jimmy found his way into aviation
🛡️ Why using a broker saves you from a world of trouble
😲 A wild story about a buyer who almost crashed a plane
💸 Why spending more on a well-kept plane saves you in the long run
🎤 Elvis Presley’s private jet turned into a road-drivable masterpiece with red velvet interiors!
🤯 From auction drama to a Boeing 737 nightmare—how a church got more jet than they bargained for!
✅ “If it’s not a heck yes, it’s a no!” Jimmy’s golden rule for buying planes.
Link to Elvis Jet: https://www.SaveThe310.com
Link to Emergency Support Initiative for North Carolina: https://wingsofcompassion.com/donate/
Thanks Jimmy for joining us on this episode of the Ultimate Jet Guide!
🤝 Join our FREE Private Online Community for aspiring Jet Brokers: https://circle.jetlifeaero.com
Being a Private Jet Broker is a life changing opportunity for those seeking a career in an industry that has low competition and extremely high commissions.
Let's book a call so you can discover how to get your FIRST SALE and start a new career in Aviation - https://www.theultimatejetguide.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
planes.
Not a lot of people have realworld experience with them on a
regular basis.
On their second one, they doyeah, their first one.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You go into it all glazed eyed like, wow, look at
the material, look at thispillow, the tvs come up.
And the second one they're like, all right, tell me about this
valve on a hydraulic thing,because it'll be stranded us for
three days in Des Moines, iowa,in February.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello and welcome.
My name is Tom Lelio.
You're at the Jet Life podcast.
I'm your ultimate jet guy.
Today we're pulling back thecurtain on aviation with Jimmy
from Jimmy's World.
Jimmy, thanks so much for beinghere.
Man, thanks so much forinviting me over.
I'm excited.
So I've seen your channel andyou're not the typical jet buyer
that I'm working with, butwe're here today in this
beautiful jet that you'relooking at.
(00:52):
Maybe we could do somethinghere, and so, before we talk
about this specific jet, I'dlove to just hear more about
your story, how you got started,and we'll talk a little about
some of the buys that you'vemade over the few years and what
we can learn from them asaspiring jet brokers or jet
buyers ourselves.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, thank you for that and again, the opportunity
to come check this thing out isfantastic.
It is amazing.
So my story I was not intoaviation until about four years
ago probably too okay, yeah, soI got into aviation because I
had to travel from tampa tojacksonville once a month and
(01:31):
that drive is terrible.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
yes, this might be going from sarasota orlando
today.
Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yes, and a buddy of mine.
He just said well, instead ofdriving the four hours through
all the speed traps right there,why don't you just get a little
airplane and fly?
It's only an hour flight in alittle GA airplane.
I'm like, well, that's a lotbetter.
So that's what I did.
I bought an airplane before I'dever even been in a small GA
airplane and then got all myflying lessons, my license and
(02:02):
stuff like that in five monthsback in 2020, when the whole
world was down, gas was cheapand the sky was mine, and really
, I guess the only way you couldtravel would be on something
like this at that time, becauseall the airlines were shut.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
So what was that like for youas a first-time buyer, not
having anything?
Did you use a broker or justlearn on your own?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
No, a buddy of mine gave me just basically a cheat
sheet.
He said you want to find anairplane with no damage history,
all the log books, from new,and it needed to have less than
mid-time hours on the engine,the propeller and the critical
components and it needed to becurrent flying and for me, my
(02:41):
training needs, it needed to bethis one of these three make and
models and have at least thislevel of avionics in it.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So, even though you weren't using a broker, you
still had a guide to workthrough that.
Oh Lord, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I would have no idea what.
Yeah, because the risk ofbuying the wrong one is a
catastrophic financial decision.
So the old saying is you buy anengine, you get an airplane for
free.
Yeah, I like that In anairplane world, the most
(03:17):
expensive part.
I guess even on jets like this,the engine is far and away the
most expensive part.
So buying a good engine andthen figuring out what airplane
will go behind that engine isreally for me what I look for.
And when I go to look at all myairplanes, whichever ones I'm
considering buying, the firstthing I look at is corrosion.
I mean, well, it has to passthe first test filter of okay,
(03:42):
what's the logbook history,what's damage history, what's
the price point, the generalconditions from pictures and
stuff like that.
You can filter out 70% of themthrough that first filter and
never leave the computer.
So then when I get therephysically, what I'm looking for
is corrosion is number one youcan't fix a lot of that stuff.
Or if you do fix it, it ismassively time consuming because
(04:05):
an engine is just expensive butyou can pull it off, put
another one on, you getcorrosion issues.
That's a whole different deal.
I mean, you're talking majorintrusive surgery and all kinds
of stuff.
So the first thing I look at iscorrosion and rust, that kind
of thing.
And then the next thing is theengine.
So I go with the criticalness.
So corrosion, you can't fixthat a lot of thing.
And then the next thing is theengine.
(04:25):
So I go with the criticalness.
So corrosion, you can't fixthat a lot of times.
So you just want to figure,find it what it is, and then go
to the engine, cause that'sreally what you're buying, and
then from there then go to thegoodies, the interior, the
avionics, some of that stuff,cause a lot of that you can
upgrade and personalize andthings like that.
It's expensive, but it's it's.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
You can control the budget on that how many planes
do you think you've looked atover the past three, four years?
Looked at like thousands.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Okay, I have bought and I've had in my possession 14
airplanes in four years.
Okay, that's a lot yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So I guess kind of what I'm getting at is for a
buyer, that's a lot of timespent.
Not everybody has the time,energy or expertise.
You obviously had to learn theexpertise, but how much time,
like, just to get to the firsttest.
I mean you're spending a lot oftime looking into when you have
a project, when you're like,okay, it's time for our next
project.
That's a lot of hours thatyou're putting into it yeah,
(05:23):
yeah, for yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
For me, I have the luxury.
This is all I do.
Right, well, that's just it, andthat's why brokers and or
someone in a position that thisis all they do, now what I will
say is I've sold a couple ofairplanes and I've found more
value in a broker selling theairplane because of all the tire
kickers, all the thousands ofemails and questions and phone
(05:46):
calls and you're only going toclose one person, but you have
to be on the other side of allthat research to get to that one
person that's actually going toclose and for me to pay the
broker fee six, eight, four,whatever the changes based on
their price level and stuff likethat.
So, whatever that fee is, it'sworth its weight in gold.
(06:07):
Yeah, just so I don't have todeal with all of the stuff.
Yeah, of all the emails, allthe phone.
Then they want to come out andinspect it, oh, and then they're
just going to.
Oh well, I got to go talk to mywife and I got to oh, my gosh,
are you going to buy it or not?
Yes, for yes for me, and I'mmoving on to my next acquisition
.
So for the selling part, Iactually use brokers and people
(06:27):
to sell it on those few that Iactually sell it right, um, and
then that their weight is worththeir weight in gold, just so I
don't have to deal with all thethe running around, have any
crazy buyer stories where you'rejust like oh my gosh, this fire
is bananas.
Oh, well, one, and that's.
It was immediately after thatwhen I decided to start using a
(06:48):
broker.
The guy almost killed himselfand his son twice in the same
day test flight.
Yeah well, they already paidfor the airplane.
Oh, and it was trying to.
How can I share the storywithout giving away too much?
I mean the lawsuit still no, no, no, there's never there's
never any lawsuit or anything.
But it was a big airplane pilot,20 000 hour pilot that hasn't
(07:14):
been in this one, buying a verylow power general aviation
airplane, the airport it was on.
I made a video about it and I'mso glad that it kept as a video
and everything turned out okay.
So, spoiler alert, nobody gotseriously injured or died or
anything.
But it was a very soft field,short, underpowered airplane on
(07:36):
a very hot day with this guythat said he knew all this stuff
, he had the, you know the.
I've got 20,000 hours.
That's a puny little airplane.
This is no problem.
And I'm like you have no ideawhat you're doing, you're going
to kill yourself.
And I told him veryspecifically when you get out
here, you have to go touch thebushes on this side, put one
(07:58):
notch of flaps in.
You got to put your feet on thebrakes, run that thing up,
count to 10 to let all thepowers and everything build up,
and then you let go of thebrakes, have full power and
you're full aft on the yoke toget it in ground effect as soon
as you can, because it's realsoft, sandy grass where it was.
So it was real soft and it wasonly like 2,000-foot runway and
(08:20):
there was trees at the other end, right, yeah.
And so, and because I've landedin there a bunch of times in
this airplane, so I knew thetechnique of how to do it and I
knew the airplane Well, hedidn't.
And they taxi out and it's himand his son and they're a little
heavier people.
So, again, it's an anemicairplane to begin with.
(08:41):
So we already know performanceis lacking.
So they get out there, theydidn't even go to the end of the
runway and they just turn andwarm power up and I'm like, and
I'm, and I can't do anything butwatch, and I'm just going in my
head.
I'm like, oh, my goodness, thisis going to be on a different
youtube channel.
Yeah, like, oh my gosh.
(09:02):
And thankfully, thankfully,they got midway down the runway
and I heard the power stop andI'm like, oh, thank you Jesus,
oh my gosh.
And then he comes back in andhe's like this airplane is
defective and this and that.
And I'm like, no, you didn'tfly it at all.
Like I told you how to fly thething, and so he was like I'm
(09:23):
not.
I'm like fine, yeah, I'll meetyou at a 4,000 foot paved runway
and it's right over there.
Take my car, you don't fly thisout of here.
I was like, hop out.
And I hopped in it, with himwatching and I think his son was
with me.
Whoa, did it?
Power up?
Yep, okay, pull back.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, and up andoff, off.
(09:46):
We went Full lap in the pattern.
Everything was working fine,come back.
And I landed and I'm likenothing's wrong with this
airplane.
And he's like, wow, so wedidn't.
So I'm like, okay, well, I'llfly it over to this bigger
airport so that you have a lotmore, uh, air room, so that you
can be all cocky and not be aschilled.
(10:10):
Well, he did the same thing atthe other airport.
He got up and I'm like you haveto hold it and wait because
it's it's an anemic airplane.
It takes a while for the powerto build on this thing.
It's not a high power airplane.
And he gets there warm andagain it's like 94 degrees,
right, so it's really hot.
And he's pitching up and I'mlike, oh my gosh, he's way too
(10:30):
slow.
I was waiting.
Then he got up and barelycleared the trees and I'm just
like I'm waiting for the wing todrop and it to stall spin.
And then I'm like, oh my gosh.
And he turned North and got outof the area and I thought it
was over at that point.
He came back and landed and he'slike, yeah, there's something
is broken on this airplane andI'm like I'm gonna wire your
(10:52):
money back.
Yeah, we're done, we're done.
I was like I don't want to readabout you in the news in a week
, yeah, when you kill yourselfand your son.
Yeah, because clearly you'renot taking any information that
people are trying to give you.
You're not the right person forthis airplane.
Yeah, this is not the rightairplane for you.
That's a great point.
So I'm like here's your moneyback, go buy, right.
(11:17):
So I mean, that was the scariesttime that I've ever had and
what I realized after that wasto vet and filter the buyer,
mostly because of my liabilityon it on the other end as a
general aviation.
So I had an opportunity to buya really fantastic Lancer.
(11:38):
It's a fast two-seater airplane, really sporty airplane and it
was donated to a museum and justa beautiful airplane, and I
went there with the intention ofbuying it.
I paid for it, all that andthen I found the log books and
inside the the folder was astatement that said never to fly
or to sell.
So the museum, after we foundthe paperwork, they weren't
(12:00):
actually allowed to sell it.
Oh wow.
But I didn't discover that untilthe video had already posted
and the son of the, the personwho donated it, got a hold of me
, oh, and he said that's myfantastic airplane.
I'd love to see it in the airagain.
But I'm curious how you wereable to get it to fly and I'm
like you just kind of fly it.
You know you're registering.
He's like no, we specificallytold the museum they were not
(12:23):
allowed to do that because wewere afraid of liability down
the road, because if somebodycrashes that airplane, lawyers
are lawyers they're going tofind whoever is the richest
person in line that they can getsome money out of.
And for me that becomes becauseit's Jimmy's world and because
of that I now and that was thereason I decided not to sell my
(12:46):
silver bullet, the three 10,that polished 310.
It's a fantastic airplane but Ihad to have a layer of
protection.
So I took it to the number onetwin Cessna shop in the world
and unfortunately they did findquite a few things, but not any
major somebody who's going todie kind of thing, but it was
(13:06):
enough to where I was notcomfortable selling it.
So I'm like you know what?
I'm not selling it because Idon't want to.
Even 10 years, three ownersfrom now, if that plane crashes
and kills somebody.
That was a Jimmy's Worldairplane.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
And you know, since I deal witha lot of older aircraft from
the 70s, 80s and 90s, I mean Isold planes that have belonged
to astronauts, celebrities andthat sort of a thing, and you
know it's important to realizewhat you know.
That line, you know we, we asbrokers, try to put as much
paperwork in front of owners tokind of sever that.
(13:39):
But, like you said, it's alitigious society.
But at least, working with aprofessional, you're aware of
those landmines and how you wantto navigate them.
Yep, so you're looking to buystuff what's, what's something
that you mentioned Like theseare.
These are kind of the mainfilters that you go through.
What's kind of like, what areyou looking for?
Are you looking for stuffthat's fixable?
(14:02):
Are you looking for stuff thatjust has an interesting story?
Are you looking like what'skind of going through your mind
when you're thinking about yournext project?
What's kind of?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
going through your mind when you're thinking about
your next project.
Each mission is different.
When I bought the 421, themission for that so it's
twin-sesson pressurized cabinclass yeah, I mean the best of
the best type of piston twinairplane, golden Eagle, the
Golden Eagle.
And it takes a gold, pile ofgold to keep them flying Because
(14:30):
you get into all the systemsand things like that.
It gets expensive With thatairplane.
The mission for that airplane isto fly myself, my crew and my
family around to Atlanta orwherever we got to go to film
the other videos.
Thankfully this one was righthere in my backyard so I just
drove here this morning.
But that airplane, the missionfor that one, is to fly much
(14:53):
further, possibly going oversome large bodies of water.
I knew I was not going to findan airplane I had to fix up.
So that was an airplane Iwanted to make darn sure had
good records.
I wanted to make darn sure thatall of the engines because you
(15:13):
buy engine you get airplane forfree, and now we've got two very
expensive engines on it thosewere in tip top condition, the
avionics.
You know that basically thatairplane needs to be 100% dialed
and have a really good pedigreeand background, or else I'm not
taking the risk of putting myfamily in, putting myself
traveling long distances andstuff like that, because I'm not
(15:35):
buying that airplane to createcontent.
I'm buying that airplane, yes,we create a little bit of
content with it, but it's reallyit's to be used for another
mission.
So the requirements for thatairplane were much different
than, say, trading two brokenPorsches for a kid's box on the
in the back corner of a hangarRight.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Very different missions, um the um, have you
developed any like tricks ortools, or like a sixth sense, or
like rules of thumb that youknow over the years like to find
oh?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
yeah, yeah, man.
So one is did it have a lot ofowners?
Okay, what does?
that tell you that tells youthere's don't touch that
airplane.
Okay, a lot of owners means alot of different people have
worked on it.
Yeah, they've had differentexpectations for it.
Why were there so many owners?
That's the biggest one, like,what's wrong with this airplane?
(16:28):
That's?
How many people are going toown this thing?
Yeah, yeah, and so it's a story.
It tells me everything I needto know about it.
If you know the past, you'llhave a good idea of the future.
Okay, so if I've had, ifthere's an airplane that I mean
really it's a story.
That's, yeah, I smell the storyand you get a good sense of who
the owners were and how thatairplane was cared for in during
(16:51):
its life.
So if you get a super cheap oldguy, don't touch that airplane
because he would have deferredmaintenance, deferred
maintenance, deferredmaintenance.
If you get a mechanic, don'ttouch that airplane.
As a mechanic, I can tell you,never buy a mechanic's car.
It's the worst car in theparking lot it is.
(17:13):
It's full of duct tape.
If they say A&P, ia owned nextairplane, just move on to the
next airplane, because it'seither a fix and flip, where
they bought it wrecked and theyfixed it up because they have
the skills and knowledge to dothat, or it was so bad that they
couldn't get the money out ofit to sell it to somebody that
(17:34):
would use it for what is you?
So find the very best airplaneand spend up.
Spend out, spend up yeah, I oncecried, once kind of a thing oh
my gosh, yeah so spend up now orelse you're gonna forever be
spending up and for the mission,like the21,.
I spent up and it's at TA, thenumber you know, the best twin
shop in the world and I saidthey still have it.
(17:56):
And I said I want you to put atleast 10 hours on that airplane
to find all of the little stufffor stuff, just to look for
stuff, because when I get it Idon't want the downtime.
Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, exactly,I want this to be the ready to
go on.
This airplane needs to be there, so I'll deal with flying
(18:16):
commercial.
I wish I could find somethinglike this, but I'll deal with
flying commercial and that stuff, just so that I don't have to
worry about the downtime andgetting there doing a pre flight
and being like, oh, this thingis not there, so now I have to
scramble for my plane, my plansto be changed on how to get
there.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, um does low air , are you?
Do you like low airframe timecompared to the rest of the
fleet?
I don't, okay, Cause somepeople are like, oh my, my
plane's only got, you know, 3000hours.
Everybody else is used.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
You've got to have it be used now.
So there's a sweet spot, right.
So for me and I go back to the421, cause I think that's
probably going to be moresimilar to your clientele of
what they're looking for I don'twant a high time and I sure as
heck don't want the one that wasused for training, okay.
So definitely not any of that.
I want one that had an owner,that had an open checkbook.
(19:09):
They knew it's expensive.
They spend money when they hadto spend money and they didn't
cry about it.
So, doctors, attorneys, youknow better to do.
Business owners and businessowners, yeah, you know they're
probably going to be piloting itthemselves, but are they an
experienced pilot?
Was this their first twinengine airplane?
(19:31):
I don't.
If I want to find out about thepilots who flew the airplane
was were they a pilot for hire?
Cause, ironically, I learnedthat the pilots for hire, they
treat it like a rental, sothey're running the engines a
little bit harder than whatprobably an owner would run them
at.
Yeah, so for you know thatairplane, they're probably
running them at 75% powerbecause the owner wants to get
(19:52):
there and the pilot doesn't care.
It's not his bill that he hasto pay and owner's probably
running in at 55% power, takingit easy, not putting a
significant amount of stress onanything because they got to pay
the money to fix it.
So it's the story.
I try to learn as much about theairplane, the history of the
pilots, the owners.
(20:18):
Where was it?
Was it someplace in the Bahamas?
A lot that's to look for stuff.
Was it, um, in the Northeast orsomething like that?
You're just looking for theseplaces where moisture, humidity,
uh, salt, you know that kind ofstuff, um, is it parked inside
outside?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Oh, but I love what you're bringing to the
conversation.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you, so much Is thatyou're?
You're bringing an eye ofcritical thinking to the
transaction.
You know a lot of people justkind of see it as going like car
shopping, like autotradercom orhouse shopping, like it's just
like one thing, kind of wrapyour head around it, but planes
not.
A lot of people have real worldexperience with them on a
regular basis.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
On their second one they do yeah, their first one
you go into it all glazed, like,wow, look at the material, look
at this pillow, the tvs come up.
And the second one they're likeall right, tell me about this
valve on a hydraulic thing,because it stranded us for three
days in des moines, iowa, infebruary.
(21:12):
You know a hundred dollars andwe've been spending, yeah, but
then you know, for the companyand everything, it was just a
huge debacle.
So, yeah, their second airplane.
They know what to ask for.
Yeah, and you know I've had 14.
And you know now, granted, yes,my channel, you know my.
I get a lot of them becausethey're so terrible.
Yeah, then they make reallygood content, yeah, which is why
(21:33):
I call it here.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I mean, this is why you're here today.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
The first airplane I did was weeds.
I mean six, six foot tall weedsand it was a bonanza that had
been sitting there for at least20 years in the bushes, that of
this airport that had moved, andchances of disaster I didn't.
You could take your hand andput through the wing.
That's how corroded all thecontrol you're doing that.
(21:58):
We were just trying to get itstarted.
I put fuel in it and it'spoured out all over the ground
because it just went rightthrough.
The bladders were toast.
I ended up taking a fuel jug,strapping it to the wing with a
fuel line that went directly tothe engine and a battery that I
connected and had to sit thebattery in the cockpit with me
(22:18):
with a set of jumper cables toget this thing started.
But it eventually started up.
I was shocked, but you know thatone we knew was never going to
fly right, and then all the wayto the other end of the spectrum
with the 421.
So that's my channel.
So each airplane is very unique, but for me it truly is about
(22:39):
the story, the Elvis jet.
I mean I bought Elvis Presley'sprivate jet, the kind of
redheaded stepchild of the Elvissuite, right, yeah, and.
But it was all about the storyand it was about the ownership
history and I knew what we weregoing to do with it before I
ever bought it, so I had a planfor the whole time there and
it's turned out fantastic.
Yeah, we're actually taking itto the concourse de elegance in
(23:03):
hilton head, south carolina, innovember.
We've been invited to theconcourse d'Elegance like the
most pinnacle, uppity, pinky up.
People Like we're talkingFerrari GTO, multi-million
dollar Ferrari GTOs, and they'relike we love the Elvis jet, can
you bring it?
And I'm all right.
So I'm the comic relief of theparty.
(23:25):
I get it.
That's fine, it's a lot of fun,that's cool.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
But yeah, I'm excited to have you here on this one.
I mean, this is, you know, aninteresting story.
I mean so I started talkingwith the owners about a year ago
and they were looking at a, amidsize jet.
They had a mission.
It was a church.
They wanted to fly a chunk oftheir people, uh, to Nicaragua
or just all over for missionwork.
I'm like, okay, great, let'stalk.
(23:49):
Here's my book.
I wrote a book about it and wewere going to work together.
You know, I was going to be theacquisition broker and then
about three months later I got acall from them.
They're like guess what, what?
We bought a 737 and I was likewhat jumped in on the d?
Yeah, I was like, dude, whatare you doing?
Like I didn't know this on yourradar.
What did you?
Oh, we got it at auction.
It's great.
We got a deal of a lifetime,yeah we only paid 50 grand for
(24:13):
this thing.
It's right, exactly what, andand so, and.
Then it got to the point wherelike but when we, when we bought
and brought it back, we triedto run it up, we figured this is
going to cost way too much forus to operate.
Yeah, operate.
The cheapest part is the buyingpart.
Now and now they just so.
So we had it out there and whatwe found out was again not
being a part of the acquisition.
(24:34):
Now we're stuck with, like,what do we do with this thing?
Come to find out.
Well, the parts are not in, in,in strong demand from parts
companies who can't part it out.
Anybody else who has a $2million budget.
This is going to require workto get done, because when they
bought it it was distressed.
They're not buying this one.
So here we are, like, who do wecall?
I called a bunch of otherYouTubers and say give Jimmy a
(24:55):
call.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And here we are.
Here we are the nicestabandoned airplane video I've
ever made, by far, by far.
Nicest abandoned airplane videoI've ever made, by far, by far.
Yeah, yeah, no, this the tvscome up out of the credenzas
like what is that?
This is good and it worked.
And he already had fired up theapu in the back and everything
I was like, and it didn't catchon fire.
(25:17):
Nothing like a boring video.
If I'm honest with you, well,this is not the typical Jimmy's
World video where we have tohave the fire truck on standby.
I wish that was a joke, butit's not.
Oh man, no, yeah.
So this one, you know, it justcame to me as you were talking
about broker and what they didand they realized, I think, as a
(25:40):
broker in an airplane, it'sreally more about education, yes
, and then it's about okay, well, it's one thing to buy it, but
then where do you park it?
That's a whole thing to itself.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
We thought about doing that for you.
We have nowhere for you to takeit.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Right.
So then where do you park it?
And then maintenance do we havethe right people that know
these airplanes?
That's a whole different thing.
So you know, whatever, eachairplane is kind of its own
unique thing, right, it's gotits own special quirks and a
feature.
You know it works differentlythan every other airplane.
So, like for this one, a Boeing737, do you have Boeing 737 on
(26:20):
the field where it's parked at,because things break?
That's just part of welcome toowning something complicated.
Stuff is going to break, so whodo you have that's going to fix
it?
So having the maintenance partof it there, and then they
probably looked at insurance,and now with a class of airplane
like this, you're way differentthan a part 91 type of thing.
(26:40):
So you get into a completelyyeah, a whole different level of
stuff.
So I think really it's justabout education and what for me
and I spent the better part of ayear and a half just trying to
find the 421.
And and I learned now this isonly because of my background
(27:03):
and I've made a lot of mistakes,so a lot of this is expensive
education, just wait until and I, so I actually I do all my
research for what I need to do,what I need to find, and then I
put my number to it, I look atthe market and figure out where
my number's at and then I gosearching and I have a saying
(27:24):
that says if it's not a heck,yes, it's a no and for me, yeah.
So I'm like it needs to meetall these plus.
So these are my basics and I reI do not negotiate on those
things that it needs to meet andthat's just part of it.
Sometimes I mean that firstairplane, and that was when the
market was really soft, rightwhen COVID hit and everything
(27:46):
shut down and people were justdumping stuff.
I mean, I still spent probablythree months looking for that
airplane.
But when I found it I'm likeyep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep,
yep, yep.
And I gave him the money beforeI ever saw the airplane,
because it's a heck.
Yes, you know it, you get allthe warm fuzzies.
You're not getting some dudewith gold chains and a spray on
(28:11):
tan and like with that New Yorkaccent.
You know the fast, slick dealerguy, right?
Nope, it was a regular guy.
I knew the history on it andhad the story lined up, perfect.
I said here's the money, yeah,and then I bought the airplane
before I ever even seen it.
And those are the best dealswhen it's a heck, yes.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I think that's an interesting note from you as a
buyer's perspective and I thinkit's educative to both brokers
and buyers.
And what I mean by that is forus as brokers.
Sometimes we want to work withsomeone like yourself, but if
it's not a heck yes, right now,like we're trying to, always
trying to find another deal.
So I think it's good forbrokers to stay in touch with
buyers like you, because I willalways sit on my brokers.
(28:50):
If someone calls you and theysays they're going to buy a
plane, they will buy a plane atsome point.
But you have to build thattrust and build that
relationship so that whenthey're ready and it is a heck,
yes, they call you and notsomebody else or do it on their
own potentially find themselvesin, in, in, in hot and hot water
.
And so I think that's veryeducational for brokers and for
buyers too.
I would say, like, listen ifit's, if you want help with that
(29:13):
, like brokers will help you.
Just set the expectation.
Hey, listen, like I want to buy, I want to work with someone
because I want someone elselooking out for me.
I'm not going to do it on myown.
Let's establish thisrelationship with that
understanding.
And some guys want to go do iton your own, and I get that.
That's totally fine, but itcould be mutually beneficial as
long as there's communication.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Sure, and as a buyer, sometimes I don't even know
what I want.
Yeah, I just know that I wantan airplane, yeah, but I don't
know anything past that.
I know that I want to get fromhere to there in as short amount
of time as possible, and that'sreally the only reason you buy
an airplane and you can say toyour friends I've got a private
jet, right, that's really whatit is, and but beyond that, the
(29:54):
rest of it is fuzzy.
I don't really know, I'll knowwhen I know it's kind of what it
is, and it doesn't turn intothat discipline until you've
done it more than a few timesand then, after your first
couple of whatever it is whetherit's an airplane or motorhome
or exotic car or something likethat right, because these all
(30:15):
fit into that same category,these are luxuries, they're not
necessities and so buy itemotionally and then you justify
it with your brain yeah, uh,and.
But you know, for me, I knowthat going into because I've
done it so often and uh, but Iknow that when I was first, even
(30:39):
still now, sometimes I don'tknow what I don't know and I
don't even know what to ask.
Yeah, no, the expectation on meas the ignorant buyer might be
unrealistic.
So you want to buy private, yetawesome, why, yeah, oh, no,
because, uh, I want to go toaspen in december or whatever.
We go skiing, we love skiing,but we moved to kansas.
(31:00):
Yeah, okay, that's cool.
uh, tell me more, right yeah,it's a conversation yeah for me,
if I, if I was on that endhaving a broker, they would
probably need to be really goodlisteners, yeah, and not trying
to just close a deal.
I don't want any transactionand also this could be one of
(31:21):
the more expensive things, so itmay take me a while.
That's great.
You're looking at severalmillion dollars typically and by
this time, if you're gettingD-Care, you've probably flown
first class.
You've got other people aroundyou that have jets, so you've
flown on their thing and youlike the experience and stuff
like that, their thing and youlike the experience and stuff
(31:47):
like that.
And uh, yeah, I would.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
You know what you want but you don't really know
what it.
Yeah, it is, but I think thatspeaks to what I would encourage
brokers to do is have a heartof a teacher.
We're not a salesman, we're nota car guy.
You're an educator.
You draw stuff out ofindividuals, you build
relationships with them, and italso, I think, takes the
pressure off of brokers whenthey think like them.
And it also, I think, takes thepressure off of brokers when
they think like well, I need toknow everything about the plane,
like to the point where you canfly and say, no, I don't, you
don't need to be, it's not aboutthe plane.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
It's never about the plane.
Yes, it's never about the plane.
The plane is a tool, it's a,it's a thing.
It's it like I'm looking at theprivate jet right now.
Right, that guy I'm assuming aguy could be a girl.
Yeah, go back to Sierra, right?
So it's not about the plane.
Yeah, it's about the person andthe feeling that they want,
(32:33):
whenever they can, hop into hereand have 15,000 movies with a
TV that comes up here and havetables that fold out there for
no reason whatsoever.
Right, just because you can.
Yeah, uh, yeah, and and and,frankly, when it becomes that,
if they're that well to do,they're going to build it
(32:54):
themselves.
They just want to find the, theright fuselage shell and
they're going to customize itthemselves.
So then that would be where thebroker would be like I've got
this guy that can do all yourinterior.
I've got this guy that can dothe avionics package for safety,
you know.
And this guy for all that stuffPaint We've got some fantastic
(33:16):
paint, why not?
You bought it.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Might as well.
Jimmy, this was an amazinginterview.
I really appreciate your time.
Um, is there anything you wantto share with the audience, just
kind of where they can get toknow you better, where they can
see your videos or any projectsthat you work on?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
you want to shout out well, thanks so much, and again
, this is awesome to be able,like we were sitting in these
chairs.
You know, they, they do all thestuff, right, right, this is
crazy.
We were talking it's Hungry,hungry Hippos, where they just
do this.
So, no, I'm having such a blast.
Thank you for inviting me outto check this thing out, jimmy's
(33:53):
World.
Just do a search on Google,youtube, whatever, you'll find
it.
All those projects, and are you?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
doing any merch right now or something?
The Elvis jet right.
You guys have the opportunityif they want to commemorate the
Elvis show.
What's that going on?
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah, that's right.
So when I bought ElvisPresley's private jet the wings
we knew it would never fly again, so we turned it into a road
going, drivable vehicle.
Oh, okay.
So the whole fuselage and theinside is red velvet.
It's the most amazing thingyou've ever seen.
And but it was abandoned for 40years in the desert and it's a
time capsule.
We have only ever vacuumed itand wiped the dust off of the
(34:32):
wood.
That's all we've ever done tothe inside.
No, it's amazing.
The whole reason I bought it wasfor the interior of this and
it's bright, red velour, velvet.
I mean it's amazing.
And so that was the wholereason that we bought it and
saved it.
Uh, was for the interior andthe story elvis presley
connection, something like that.
So we put it on top of a class,a diesel pusher motorhome and
(34:56):
you drive it from the pilot seatcome on, not kidding it so.
And we even kept the yoke as asteering wheel and integrated
the speedometer and stuff insidethe instrument panel.
So it kind of looks like aninstrument in there and stuff.
It's fantastic.
And the whole bottom is chromeand so it's reflective and the
idea was so that it looks likeit's flying as it's driving down
(35:18):
the road.
It's awesome, but we weren'table to use the wings and that's
how we're paying for it.
So what we did was we cut thewings up into little ovals and
had them laser engraved serialnumber and the whole bit and you
can buy a piece of the elvisjet.
Both.
You can say you own somethingthat elvis presley owned and for
(35:39):
this crazy thing right here,and it's a locking jet star, the
most like over the top, youwant private jet of private jets
, four jet engines on the backthat were just loud and so
obscene.
I mean frank sinatra, I think,had one.
Of course elvis had actuallyhad two of them.
(35:59):
This was the second one.
Um muhammad ali had one.
I mean, yeah, it was the likethat was the peak of private
jets in the 60s was the lockheedjet star and it was designed by
the same guy that did the sr71and the, the u2 spy plane
johnson, I think, is his name,yeah, kelly johnson.
(36:20):
So designed by the same guy andyou can tell it's awesome, very
pointy, yeah.
So we, we cut those up and wesell those with a certificate of
authenticity and with a pictureand with a bill of sale, a copy
of the FAA bill of sale whereElvis bought it.
So you can kind of have some ofthat provenance to it.
And there's only only we'reonly able to cut 2,167 of them.
(36:43):
We've already sold about 500 ofthem, and so when they're gone,
they're gone.
Yeah, there can never beanother one.
And every one of them isdifferent because they're made
from actual pieces of theairplane.
Yeah, so they're all different.
That's cool.
Go to save the 310.com for that, or just go to elvisjetcom.
You can find it either wayperfect.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, thanks for that , thank you.
Thank you very much everybodyfor for joining us.
We appreciate it.
And uh, did you do that onpurpose?
Speaker 2 (37:08):
what's that?
Thank you very much.
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Thank you very much I did not, I did not, but thanks
a lot, everybody and we'll catchyou later.
planes.
Not a lot of people have realworld experience with them on a
regular basis.
On their second one, they doyeah, their first one.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You go into it all glazed eyed like, wow, look at
the material, look at thispillow, the tvs come up.
And the second one they're like, all right, tell me about this
valve on a hydraulic thing,because it'll be stranded us for
three days in Des Moines, iowa,in February.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello and welcome.
My name is Tom Lelio.
You're at the Jet Life podcast.
I'm your ultimate jet guy.
Today we're pulling back thecurtain on aviation with Jimmy
from Jimmy's World.
Jimmy, thanks so much for beinghere.
Man, thanks so much forinviting me over.
I'm excited.
So I've seen your channel andyou're not the typical jet buyer
that I'm working with, butwe're here today in this
beautiful jet that you'relooking at.
(00:52):
Maybe we could do somethinghere, and so, before we talk
about this specific jet, I'dlove to just hear more about
your story, how you got started,and we'll talk a little about
some of the buys that you'vemade over the few years and what
we can learn from them asaspiring jet brokers or jet
buyers ourselves.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, thank you for that and again, the opportunity
to come check this thing out isfantastic.
It is amazing.
So my story I was not intoaviation until about four years
ago probably too okay, yeah, soI got into aviation because I
had to travel from tampa tojacksonville once a month and
(01:31):
that drive is terrible.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
yes, this might be going from sarasota orlando
today.
Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yes, and a buddy of mine.
He just said well, instead ofdriving the four hours through
all the speed traps right there,why don't you just get a little
airplane and fly?
It's only an hour flight in alittle GA airplane.
I'm like, well, that's a lotbetter.
So that's what I did.
I bought an airplane before I'dever even been in a small GA
airplane and then got all myflying lessons, my license and
(02:02):
stuff like that in five monthsback in 2020, when the whole
world was down, gas was cheapand the sky was mine, and really
, I guess the only way you couldtravel would be on something
like this at that time, becauseall the airlines were shut.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah.
So what was that like for youas a first-time buyer, not
having anything?
Did you use a broker or justlearn on your own?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
No, a buddy of mine gave me just basically a cheat
sheet.
He said you want to find anairplane with no damage history,
all the log books, from new,and it needed to have less than
mid-time hours on the engine,the propeller and the critical
components and it needed to becurrent flying and for me, my
(02:41):
training needs, it needed to bethis one of these three make and
models and have at least thislevel of avionics in it.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So, even though you weren't using a broker, you
still had a guide to workthrough that.
Oh Lord, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I would have no idea what.
Yeah, because the risk ofbuying the wrong one is a
catastrophic financial decision.
So the old saying is you buy anengine, you get an airplane for
free.
Yeah, I like that In anairplane world, the most
(03:17):
expensive part.
I guess even on jets like this,the engine is far and away the
most expensive part.
So buying a good engine andthen figuring out what airplane
will go behind that engine isreally for me what I look for.
And when I go to look at all myairplanes, whichever ones I'm
considering buying, the firstthing I look at is corrosion.
I mean, well, it has to passthe first test filter of okay,
(03:42):
what's the logbook history,what's damage history, what's
the price point, the generalconditions from pictures and
stuff like that.
You can filter out 70% of themthrough that first filter and
never leave the computer.
So then when I get therephysically, what I'm looking for
is corrosion is number one youcan't fix a lot of that stuff.
Or if you do fix it, it ismassively time consuming because
(04:05):
an engine is just expensive butyou can pull it off, put
another one on, you getcorrosion issues.
That's a whole different deal.
I mean, you're talking majorintrusive surgery and all kinds
of stuff.
So the first thing I look at iscorrosion and rust, that kind
of thing.
And then the next thing is theengine.
So I go with the criticalness.
So corrosion, you can't fixthat a lot of thing.
And then the next thing is theengine.
(04:25):
So I go with the criticalness.
So corrosion, you can't fixthat a lot of times.
So you just want to figure,find it what it is, and then go
to the engine, cause that'sreally what you're buying, and
then from there then go to thegoodies, the interior, the
avionics, some of that stuff,cause a lot of that you can
upgrade and personalize andthings like that.
It's expensive, but it's it's.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
You can control the budget on that how many planes
do you think you've looked atover the past three, four years?
Looked at like thousands.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Okay, I have bought and I've had in my possession 14
airplanes in four years.
Okay, that's a lot yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So I guess kind of what I'm getting at is for a
buyer, that's a lot of timespent.
Not everybody has the time,energy or expertise.
You obviously had to learn theexpertise, but how much time,
like, just to get to the firsttest.
I mean you're spending a lot oftime looking into when you have
a project, when you're like,okay, it's time for our next
project.
That's a lot of hours thatyou're putting into it yeah,
(05:23):
yeah, for yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
For me, I have the luxury.
This is all I do.
Right, well, that's just it, andthat's why brokers and or
someone in a position that thisis all they do, now what I will
say is I've sold a couple ofairplanes and I've found more
value in a broker selling theairplane because of all the tire
kickers, all the thousands ofemails and questions and phone
(05:46):
calls and you're only going toclose one person, but you have
to be on the other side of allthat research to get to that one
person that's actually going toclose and for me to pay the
broker fee six, eight, four,whatever the changes based on
their price level and stuff likethat.
So, whatever that fee is, it'sworth its weight in gold.
(06:07):
Yeah, just so I don't have todeal with all of the stuff.
Yeah, of all the emails, allthe phone.
Then they want to come out andinspect it, oh, and then they're
just going to.
Oh well, I got to go talk to mywife and I got to oh, my gosh,
are you going to buy it or not?
Yes, for yes for me, and I'mmoving on to my next acquisition
.
So for the selling part, Iactually use brokers and people
(06:27):
to sell it on those few that Iactually sell it right, um, and
then that their weight is worththeir weight in gold, just so I
don't have to deal with all thethe running around, have any
crazy buyer stories where you'rejust like oh my gosh, this fire
is bananas.
Oh, well, one, and that's.
It was immediately after thatwhen I decided to start using a
(06:48):
broker.
The guy almost killed himselfand his son twice in the same
day test flight.
Yeah well, they already paidfor the airplane.
Oh, and it was trying to.
How can I share the storywithout giving away too much?
I mean the lawsuit still no, no, no, there's never there's
never any lawsuit or anything.
But it was a big airplane pilot,20 000 hour pilot that hasn't
(07:14):
been in this one, buying a verylow power general aviation
airplane, the airport it was on.
I made a video about it and I'mso glad that it kept as a video
and everything turned out okay.
So, spoiler alert, nobody gotseriously injured or died or
anything.
But it was a very soft field,short, underpowered airplane on
(07:36):
a very hot day with this guythat said he knew all this stuff
, he had the, you know the.
I've got 20,000 hours.
That's a puny little airplane.
This is no problem.
And I'm like you have no ideawhat you're doing, you're going
to kill yourself.
And I told him veryspecifically when you get out
here, you have to go touch thebushes on this side, put one
(07:58):
notch of flaps in.
You got to put your feet on thebrakes, run that thing up,
count to 10 to let all thepowers and everything build up,
and then you let go of thebrakes, have full power and
you're full aft on the yoke toget it in ground effect as soon
as you can, because it's realsoft, sandy grass where it was.
So it was real soft and it wasonly like 2,000-foot runway and
(08:20):
there was trees at the other end, right, yeah.
And so, and because I've landedin there a bunch of times in
this airplane, so I knew thetechnique of how to do it and I
knew the airplane Well, hedidn't.
And they taxi out and it's himand his son and they're a little
heavier people.
So, again, it's an anemicairplane to begin with.
(08:41):
So we already know performanceis lacking.
So they get out there, theydidn't even go to the end of the
runway and they just turn andwarm power up and I'm like, and
I'm, and I can't do anything butwatch, and I'm just going in my
head.
I'm like, oh, my goodness, thisis going to be on a different
youtube channel.
Yeah, like, oh my gosh.
(09:02):
And thankfully, thankfully,they got midway down the runway
and I heard the power stop andI'm like, oh, thank you Jesus,
oh my gosh.
And then he comes back in andhe's like this airplane is
defective and this and that.
And I'm like, no, you didn'tfly it at all.
Like I told you how to fly thething, and so he was like I'm
(09:23):
not.
I'm like fine, yeah, I'll meetyou at a 4,000 foot paved runway
and it's right over there.
Take my car, you don't fly thisout of here.
I was like, hop out.
And I hopped in it, with himwatching and I think his son was
with me.
Whoa, did it?
Power up?
Yep, okay, pull back.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, and up andoff, off.
(09:46):
We went Full lap in the pattern.
Everything was working fine,come back.
And I landed and I'm likenothing's wrong with this
airplane.
And he's like, wow, so wedidn't.
So I'm like, okay, well, I'llfly it over to this bigger
airport so that you have a lotmore, uh, air room, so that you
can be all cocky and not be aschilled.
(10:10):
Well, he did the same thing atthe other airport.
He got up and I'm like you haveto hold it and wait because
it's it's an anemic airplane.
It takes a while for the powerto build on this thing.
It's not a high power airplane.
And he gets there warm andagain it's like 94 degrees,
right, so it's really hot.
And he's pitching up and I'mlike, oh my gosh, he's way too
(10:30):
slow.
I was waiting.
Then he got up and barelycleared the trees and I'm just
like I'm waiting for the wing todrop and it to stall spin.
And then I'm like, oh my gosh.
And he turned North and got outof the area and I thought it
was over at that point.
He came back and landed and he'slike, yeah, there's something
is broken on this airplane andI'm like I'm gonna wire your
(10:52):
money back.
Yeah, we're done, we're done.
I was like I don't want to readabout you in the news in a week
, yeah, when you kill yourselfand your son.
Yeah, because clearly you'renot taking any information that
people are trying to give you.
You're not the right person forthis airplane.
Yeah, this is not the rightairplane for you.
That's a great point.
So I'm like here's your moneyback, go buy, right.
(11:17):
So I mean, that was the scariesttime that I've ever had and
what I realized after that wasto vet and filter the buyer,
mostly because of my liabilityon it on the other end as a
general aviation.
So I had an opportunity to buya really fantastic Lancer.
(11:38):
It's a fast two-seater airplane, really sporty airplane and it
was donated to a museum and justa beautiful airplane, and I
went there with the intention ofbuying it.
I paid for it, all that andthen I found the log books and
inside the the folder was astatement that said never to fly
or to sell.
So the museum, after we foundthe paperwork, they weren't
(12:00):
actually allowed to sell it.
Oh wow.
But I didn't discover that untilthe video had already posted
and the son of the, the personwho donated it, got a hold of me
, oh, and he said that's myfantastic airplane.
I'd love to see it in the airagain.
But I'm curious how you wereable to get it to fly and I'm
like you just kind of fly it.
You know you're registering.
He's like no, we specificallytold the museum they were not
(12:23):
allowed to do that because wewere afraid of liability down
the road, because if somebodycrashes that airplane, lawyers
are lawyers they're going tofind whoever is the richest
person in line that they can getsome money out of.
And for me that becomes becauseit's Jimmy's world and because
of that I now and that was thereason I decided not to sell my
(12:46):
silver bullet, the three 10,that polished 310.
It's a fantastic airplane but Ihad to have a layer of
protection.
So I took it to the number onetwin Cessna shop in the world
and unfortunately they did findquite a few things, but not any
major somebody who's going todie kind of thing, but it was
(13:06):
enough to where I was notcomfortable selling it.
So I'm like you know what?
I'm not selling it because Idon't want to.
Even 10 years, three ownersfrom now, if that plane crashes
and kills somebody.
That was a Jimmy's Worldairplane.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
And you know, since I deal witha lot of older aircraft from
the 70s, 80s and 90s, I mean Isold planes that have belonged
to astronauts, celebrities andthat sort of a thing, and you
know it's important to realizewhat you know.
That line, you know we, we asbrokers, try to put as much
paperwork in front of owners tokind of sever that.
(13:39):
But, like you said, it's alitigious society.
But at least, working with aprofessional, you're aware of
those landmines and how you wantto navigate them.
Yep, so you're looking to buystuff what's, what's something
that you mentioned Like theseare.
These are kind of the mainfilters that you go through.
What's kind of like, what areyou looking for?
Are you looking for stuffthat's fixable?
(14:02):
Are you looking for stuff thatjust has an interesting story?
Are you looking like what'skind of going through your mind
when you're thinking about yournext project?
What's kind of?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
going through your mind when you're thinking about
your next project.
Each mission is different.
When I bought the 421, themission for that so it's
twin-sesson pressurized cabinclass yeah, I mean the best of
the best type of piston twinairplane, golden Eagle, the
Golden Eagle.
And it takes a gold, pile ofgold to keep them flying Because
(14:30):
you get into all the systemsand things like that.
It gets expensive With thatairplane.
The mission for that airplane isto fly myself, my crew and my
family around to Atlanta orwherever we got to go to film
the other videos.
Thankfully this one was righthere in my backyard so I just
drove here this morning.
But that airplane, the missionfor that one, is to fly much
(14:53):
further, possibly going oversome large bodies of water.
I knew I was not going to findan airplane I had to fix up.
So that was an airplane Iwanted to make darn sure had
good records.
I wanted to make darn sure thatall of the engines because you
(15:13):
buy engine you get airplane forfree, and now we've got two very
expensive engines on it thosewere in tip top condition, the
avionics.
You know that basically thatairplane needs to be 100% dialed
and have a really good pedigreeand background, or else I'm not
taking the risk of putting myfamily in, putting myself
traveling long distances andstuff like that, because I'm not
(15:35):
buying that airplane to createcontent.
I'm buying that airplane, yes,we create a little bit of
content with it, but it's reallyit's to be used for another
mission.
So the requirements for thatairplane were much different
than, say, trading two brokenPorsches for a kid's box on the
in the back corner of a hangarRight.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Very different missions, um the um, have you
developed any like tricks ortools, or like a sixth sense, or
like rules of thumb that youknow over the years like to find
oh?
Speaker 2 (16:07):
yeah, yeah, man.
So one is did it have a lot ofowners?
Okay, what does?
that tell you that tells youthere's don't touch that
airplane.
Okay, a lot of owners means alot of different people have
worked on it.
Yeah, they've had differentexpectations for it.
Why were there so many owners?
That's the biggest one, like,what's wrong with this airplane?
(16:28):
That's?
How many people are going toown this thing?
Yeah, yeah, and so it's a story.
It tells me everything I needto know about it.
If you know the past, you'llhave a good idea of the future.
Okay, so if I've had, ifthere's an airplane that I mean
really it's a story.
That's, yeah, I smell the storyand you get a good sense of who
the owners were and how thatairplane was cared for in during
(16:51):
its life.
So if you get a super cheap oldguy, don't touch that airplane
because he would have deferredmaintenance, deferred
maintenance, deferredmaintenance.
If you get a mechanic, don'ttouch that airplane.
As a mechanic, I can tell you,never buy a mechanic's car.
It's the worst car in theparking lot it is.
(17:13):
It's full of duct tape.
If they say A&P, ia owned nextairplane, just move on to the
next airplane, because it'seither a fix and flip, where
they bought it wrecked and theyfixed it up because they have
the skills and knowledge to dothat, or it was so bad that they
couldn't get the money out ofit to sell it to somebody that
(17:34):
would use it for what is you?
So find the very best airplaneand spend up.
Spend out, spend up yeah, I oncecried, once kind of a thing oh
my gosh, yeah so spend up now orelse you're gonna forever be
spending up and for the mission,like the21,.
I spent up and it's at TA, thenumber you know, the best twin
shop in the world and I saidthey still have it.
(17:56):
And I said I want you to put atleast 10 hours on that airplane
to find all of the little stufffor stuff, just to look for
stuff, because when I get it Idon't want the downtime.
Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, exactly,I want this to be the ready to
go on.
This airplane needs to be there, so I'll deal with flying
(18:16):
commercial.
I wish I could find somethinglike this, but I'll deal with
flying commercial and that stuff, just so that I don't have to
worry about the downtime andgetting there doing a pre flight
and being like, oh, this thingis not there, so now I have to
scramble for my plane, my plansto be changed on how to get
there.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, um does low air , are you?
Do you like low airframe timecompared to the rest of the
fleet?
I don't, okay, Cause somepeople are like, oh my, my
plane's only got, you know, 3000hours.
Everybody else is used.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
You've got to have it be used now.
So there's a sweet spot, right.
So for me and I go back to the421, cause I think that's
probably going to be moresimilar to your clientele of
what they're looking for I don'twant a high time and I sure as
heck don't want the one that wasused for training, okay.
So definitely not any of that.
I want one that had an owner,that had an open checkbook.
(19:09):
They knew it's expensive.
They spend money when they hadto spend money and they didn't
cry about it.
So, doctors, attorneys, youknow better to do.
Business owners and businessowners, yeah, you know they're
probably going to be piloting itthemselves, but are they an
experienced pilot?
Was this their first twinengine airplane?
(19:31):
I don't.
If I want to find out about thepilots who flew the airplane
was were they a pilot for hire?
Cause, ironically, I learnedthat the pilots for hire, they
treat it like a rental, sothey're running the engines a
little bit harder than whatprobably an owner would run them
at.
Yeah, so for you know thatairplane, they're probably
running them at 75% powerbecause the owner wants to get
(19:52):
there and the pilot doesn't care.
It's not his bill that he hasto pay and owner's probably
running in at 55% power, takingit easy, not putting a
significant amount of stress onanything because they got to pay
the money to fix it.
So it's the story.
I try to learn as much about theairplane, the history of the
pilots, the owners.
(20:18):
Where was it?
Was it someplace in the Bahamas?
A lot that's to look for stuff.
Was it, um, in the Northeast orsomething like that?
You're just looking for theseplaces where moisture, humidity,
uh, salt, you know that kind ofstuff, um, is it parked inside
outside?
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Oh, but I love what you're bringing to the
conversation.
I appreciate your time.
Thank you, so much Is thatyou're?
You're bringing an eye ofcritical thinking to the
transaction.
You know a lot of people justkind of see it as going like car
shopping, like autotradercom orhouse shopping, like it's just
like one thing, kind of wrapyour head around it, but planes
not.
A lot of people have real worldexperience with them on a
regular basis.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
On their second one they do yeah, their first one
you go into it all glazed, like,wow, look at the material, look
at this pillow, the tvs come up.
And the second one they're likeall right, tell me about this
valve on a hydraulic thing,because it stranded us for three
days in des moines, iowa, infebruary.
(21:12):
You know a hundred dollars andwe've been spending, yeah, but
then you know, for the companyand everything, it was just a
huge debacle.
So, yeah, their second airplane.
They know what to ask for.
Yeah, and you know I've had 14.
And you know now, granted, yes,my channel, you know my.
I get a lot of them becausethey're so terrible.
Yeah, then they make reallygood content, yeah, which is why
(21:33):
I call it here.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I mean, this is why you're here today.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
The first airplane I did was weeds.
I mean six, six foot tall weedsand it was a bonanza that had
been sitting there for at least20 years in the bushes, that of
this airport that had moved, andchances of disaster I didn't.
You could take your hand andput through the wing.
That's how corroded all thecontrol you're doing that.
(21:58):
We were just trying to get itstarted.
I put fuel in it and it'spoured out all over the ground
because it just went rightthrough.
The bladders were toast.
I ended up taking a fuel jug,strapping it to the wing with a
fuel line that went directly tothe engine and a battery that I
connected and had to sit thebattery in the cockpit with me
(22:18):
with a set of jumper cables toget this thing started.
But it eventually started up.
I was shocked, but you know thatone we knew was never going to
fly right, and then all the wayto the other end of the spectrum
with the 421.
So that's my channel.
So each airplane is very unique, but for me it truly is about
(22:39):
the story, the Elvis jet.
I mean I bought Elvis Presley'sprivate jet, the kind of
redheaded stepchild of the Elvissuite, right, yeah, and.
But it was all about the storyand it was about the ownership
history and I knew what we weregoing to do with it before I
ever bought it, so I had a planfor the whole time there and
it's turned out fantastic.
Yeah, we're actually taking itto the concourse de elegance in
(23:03):
hilton head, south carolina, innovember.
We've been invited to theconcourse d'Elegance like the
most pinnacle, uppity, pinky up.
People Like we're talkingFerrari GTO, multi-million
dollar Ferrari GTOs, and they'relike we love the Elvis jet, can
you bring it?
And I'm all right.
So I'm the comic relief of theparty.
(23:25):
I get it.
That's fine, it's a lot of fun,that's cool.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
But yeah, I'm excited to have you here on this one.
I mean, this is, you know, aninteresting story.
I mean so I started talkingwith the owners about a year ago
and they were looking at a, amidsize jet.
They had a mission.
It was a church.
They wanted to fly a chunk oftheir people, uh, to Nicaragua
or just all over for missionwork.
I'm like, okay, great, let'stalk.
(23:49):
Here's my book.
I wrote a book about it and wewere going to work together.
You know, I was going to be theacquisition broker and then
about three months later I got acall from them.
They're like guess what, what?
We bought a 737 and I was likewhat jumped in on the d?
Yeah, I was like, dude, whatare you doing?
Like I didn't know this on yourradar.
What did you?
Oh, we got it at auction.
It's great.
We got a deal of a lifetime,yeah we only paid 50 grand for
(24:13):
this thing.
It's right, exactly what, andand so, and.
Then it got to the point wherelike but when we, when we bought
and brought it back, we triedto run it up, we figured this is
going to cost way too much forus to operate.
Yeah, operate.
The cheapest part is the buyingpart.
Now and now they just so.
So we had it out there and whatwe found out was again not
being a part of the acquisition.
(24:34):
Now we're stuck with, like,what do we do with this thing?
Come to find out.
Well, the parts are not in, in,in strong demand from parts
companies who can't part it out.
Anybody else who has a $2million budget.
This is going to require workto get done, because when they
bought it it was distressed.
They're not buying this one.
So here we are, like, who do wecall?
I called a bunch of otherYouTubers and say give Jimmy a
(24:55):
call.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And here we are.
Here we are the nicestabandoned airplane video I've
ever made, by far, by far.
Nicest abandoned airplane videoI've ever made, by far, by far.
Yeah, yeah, no, this the tvscome up out of the credenzas
like what is that?
This is good and it worked.
And he already had fired up theapu in the back and everything
I was like, and it didn't catchon fire.
(25:17):
Nothing like a boring video.
If I'm honest with you, well,this is not the typical Jimmy's
World video where we have tohave the fire truck on standby.
I wish that was a joke, butit's not.
Oh man, no, yeah.
So this one, you know, it justcame to me as you were talking
about broker and what they didand they realized, I think, as a
(25:40):
broker in an airplane, it'sreally more about education, yes
, and then it's about okay, well, it's one thing to buy it, but
then where do you park it?
That's a whole thing to itself.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
We thought about doing that for you.
We have nowhere for you to takeit.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Right.
So then where do you park it?
And then maintenance do we havethe right people that know
these airplanes?
That's a whole different thing.
So you know, whatever, eachairplane is kind of its own
unique thing, right, it's gotits own special quirks and a
feature.
You know it works differentlythan every other airplane.
So, like for this one, a Boeing737, do you have Boeing 737 on
(26:20):
the field where it's parked at,because things break?
That's just part of welcome toowning something complicated.
Stuff is going to break, so whodo you have that's going to fix
it?
So having the maintenance partof it there, and then they
probably looked at insurance,and now with a class of airplane
like this, you're way differentthan a part 91 type of thing.
(26:40):
So you get into a completelyyeah, a whole different level of
stuff.
So I think really it's justabout education and what for me
and I spent the better part of ayear and a half just trying to
find the 421.
And and I learned now this isonly because of my background
(27:03):
and I've made a lot of mistakes,so a lot of this is expensive
education, just wait until and I, so I actually I do all my
research for what I need to do,what I need to find, and then I
put my number to it, I look atthe market and figure out where
my number's at and then I gosearching and I have a saying
(27:24):
that says if it's not a heck,yes, it's a no and for me, yeah.
So I'm like it needs to meetall these plus.
So these are my basics and I reI do not negotiate on those
things that it needs to meet andthat's just part of it.
Sometimes I mean that firstairplane, and that was when the
market was really soft, rightwhen COVID hit and everything
(27:46):
shut down and people were justdumping stuff.
I mean, I still spent probablythree months looking for that
airplane.
But when I found it I'm likeyep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep,
yep, yep.
And I gave him the money beforeI ever saw the airplane,
because it's a heck.
Yes, you know it, you get allthe warm fuzzies.
You're not getting some dudewith gold chains and a spray on
(28:11):
tan and like with that New Yorkaccent.
You know the fast, slick dealerguy, right?
Nope, it was a regular guy.
I knew the history on it andhad the story lined up, perfect.
I said here's the money, yeah,and then I bought the airplane
before I ever even seen it.
And those are the best dealswhen it's a heck, yes.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I think that's an interesting note from you as a
buyer's perspective and I thinkit's educative to both brokers
and buyers.
And what I mean by that is forus as brokers.
Sometimes we want to work withsomeone like yourself, but if
it's not a heck yes, right now,like we're trying to, always
trying to find another deal.
So I think it's good forbrokers to stay in touch with
buyers like you, because I willalways sit on my brokers.
(28:50):
If someone calls you and theysays they're going to buy a
plane, they will buy a plane atsome point.
But you have to build thattrust and build that
relationship so that whenthey're ready and it is a heck,
yes, they call you and notsomebody else or do it on their
own potentially find themselvesin, in, in, in hot and hot water
.
And so I think that's veryeducational for brokers and for
buyers too.
I would say, like, listen ifit's, if you want help with that
(29:13):
, like brokers will help you.
Just set the expectation.
Hey, listen, like I want to buy, I want to work with someone
because I want someone elselooking out for me.
I'm not going to do it on myown.
Let's establish thisrelationship with that
understanding.
And some guys want to go do iton your own, and I get that.
That's totally fine, but itcould be mutually beneficial as
long as there's communication.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Sure, and as a buyer, sometimes I don't even know
what I want.
Yeah, I just know that I wantan airplane, yeah, but I don't
know anything past that.
I know that I want to get fromhere to there in as short amount
of time as possible, and that'sreally the only reason you buy
an airplane and you can say toyour friends I've got a private
jet, right, that's really whatit is, and but beyond that, the
(29:54):
rest of it is fuzzy.
I don't really know, I'll knowwhen I know it's kind of what it
is, and it doesn't turn intothat discipline until you've
done it more than a few timesand then, after your first
couple of whatever it is whetherit's an airplane or motorhome
or exotic car or something likethat right, because these all
(30:15):
fit into that same category,these are luxuries, they're not
necessities and so buy itemotionally and then you justify
it with your brain yeah, uh,and.
But you know, for me, I knowthat going into because I've
done it so often and uh, but Iknow that when I was first, even
(30:39):
still now, sometimes I don'tknow what I don't know and I
don't even know what to ask.
Yeah, no, the expectation on meas the ignorant buyer might be
unrealistic.
So you want to buy private, yetawesome, why, yeah, oh, no,
because, uh, I want to go toaspen in december or whatever.
We go skiing, we love skiing,but we moved to kansas.
(31:00):
Yeah, okay, that's cool.
uh, tell me more, right yeah,it's a conversation yeah for me,
if I, if I was on that endhaving a broker, they would
probably need to be really goodlisteners, yeah, and not trying
to just close a deal.
I don't want any transactionand also this could be one of
(31:21):
the more expensive things, so itmay take me a while.
That's great.
You're looking at severalmillion dollars typically and by
this time, if you're gettingD-Care, you've probably flown
first class.
You've got other people aroundyou that have jets, so you've
flown on their thing and youlike the experience and stuff
like that, their thing and youlike the experience and stuff
(31:47):
like that.
And uh, yeah, I would.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
You know what you want but you don't really know
what it.
Yeah, it is, but I think thatspeaks to what I would encourage
brokers to do is have a heartof a teacher.
We're not a salesman, we're nota car guy.
You're an educator.
You draw stuff out ofindividuals, you build
relationships with them, and italso, I think, takes the
pressure off of brokers whenthey think like them.
And it also, I think, takes thepressure off of brokers when
they think like well, I need toknow everything about the plane,
like to the point where you canfly and say, no, I don't, you
don't need to be, it's not aboutthe plane.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
It's never about the plane.
Yes, it's never about the plane.
The plane is a tool, it's a,it's a thing.
It's it like I'm looking at theprivate jet right now.
Right, that guy I'm assuming aguy could be a girl.
Yeah, go back to Sierra, right?
So it's not about the plane.
Yeah, it's about the person andthe feeling that they want,
(32:33):
whenever they can, hop into hereand have 15,000 movies with a
TV that comes up here and havetables that fold out there for
no reason whatsoever.
Right, just because you can.
Yeah, uh, yeah, and and and,frankly, when it becomes that,
if they're that well to do,they're going to build it
(32:54):
themselves.
They just want to find the, theright fuselage shell and
they're going to customize itthemselves.
So then that would be where thebroker would be like I've got
this guy that can do all yourinterior.
I've got this guy that can dothe avionics package for safety,
you know.
And this guy for all that stuffPaint We've got some fantastic
(33:16):
paint, why not?
You bought it.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Might as well.
Jimmy, this was an amazinginterview.
I really appreciate your time.
Um, is there anything you wantto share with the audience, just
kind of where they can get toknow you better, where they can
see your videos or any projectsthat you work on?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
you want to shout out well, thanks so much, and again
, this is awesome to be able,like we were sitting in these
chairs.
You know, they, they do all thestuff, right, right, this is
crazy.
We were talking it's Hungry,hungry Hippos, where they just
do this.
So, no, I'm having such a blast.
Thank you for inviting me outto check this thing out, jimmy's
(33:53):
World.
Just do a search on Google,youtube, whatever, you'll find
it.
All those projects, and are you?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
doing any merch right now or something?
The Elvis jet right.
You guys have the opportunityif they want to commemorate the
Elvis show.
What's that going on?
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah, that's right.
So when I bought ElvisPresley's private jet the wings
we knew it would never fly again, so we turned it into a road
going, drivable vehicle.
Oh, okay.
So the whole fuselage and theinside is red velvet.
It's the most amazing thingyou've ever seen.
And but it was abandoned for 40years in the desert and it's a
time capsule.
We have only ever vacuumed itand wiped the dust off of the
(34:32):
wood.
That's all we've ever done tothe inside.
No, it's amazing.
The whole reason I bought it wasfor the interior of this and
it's bright, red velour, velvet.
I mean it's amazing.
And so that was the wholereason that we bought it and
saved it.
Uh, was for the interior andthe story elvis presley
connection, something like that.
So we put it on top of a class,a diesel pusher motorhome and
(34:56):
you drive it from the pilot seatcome on, not kidding it so.
And we even kept the yoke as asteering wheel and integrated
the speedometer and stuff insidethe instrument panel.
So it kind of looks like aninstrument in there and stuff.
It's fantastic.
And the whole bottom is chromeand so it's reflective and the
idea was so that it looks likeit's flying as it's driving down
(35:18):
the road.
It's awesome, but we weren'table to use the wings and that's
how we're paying for it.
So what we did was we cut thewings up into little ovals and
had them laser engraved serialnumber and the whole bit and you
can buy a piece of the elvisjet.
Both.
You can say you own somethingthat elvis presley owned and for
(35:39):
this crazy thing right here,and it's a locking jet star, the
most like over the top, youwant private jet of private jets
, four jet engines on the backthat were just loud and so
obscene.
I mean frank sinatra, I think,had one.
Of course elvis had actuallyhad two of them.
(35:59):
This was the second one.
Um muhammad ali had one.
I mean, yeah, it was the likethat was the peak of private
jets in the 60s was the lockheedjet star and it was designed by
the same guy that did the sr71and the, the u2 spy plane
johnson, I think, is his name,yeah, kelly johnson.
(36:20):
So designed by the same guy andyou can tell it's awesome, very
pointy, yeah.
So we, we cut those up and wesell those with a certificate of
authenticity and with a pictureand with a bill of sale, a copy
of the FAA bill of sale whereElvis bought it.
So you can kind of have some ofthat provenance to it.
And there's only only we'reonly able to cut 2,167 of them.
(36:43):
We've already sold about 500 ofthem, and so when they're gone,
they're gone.
Yeah, there can never beanother one.
And every one of them isdifferent because they're made
from actual pieces of theairplane.
Yeah, so they're all different.
That's cool.
Go to save the 310.com for that, or just go to elvisjetcom.
You can find it either wayperfect.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, thanks for that , thank you.
Thank you very much everybodyfor for joining us.
We appreciate it.
And uh, did you do that onpurpose?
Speaker 2 (37:08):
what's that?
Thank you very much.
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Thank you very much I did not, I did not, but thanks
a lot, everybody and we'll catchyou later.
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