Bravo to Roger Federer and to NetJets

On a weekend when Americans were celebrating the most nervous Independence Day in 70 years, I spent much of my weekend like a lot of folks, in front of the television watching grown men and women batting a little yellow ball back and forth. For me the Wimbledon fortnight is a guilty pleasure, one that I've enjoyed since I was a kid watching the then-limited coverage of the big show and seeing my heroes, Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe, Johnnie Mac and Martina wielding rackets in the summer sun. (And I do still miss the serve-and-volley game and the wood rackets that allowed it.) And thanks to NetJets, all the while I was watching tennis, I kept on thinking about airplanes.

This year's Wimbledon turned into a different kind of tournament than expected, with Roger Federer enjoying a respite from playing against his arch nemesis Rafael Nadal, who was out with an injury. Roger was in search of his 15th Grand Slam title, a remarkable achievement by any standard. Federer is a true champion, a graceful, intelligent, resourceful and supremely talented player who has risen to the ranks of one of the two or three elite athletes in the world.

And, as were reminded on a very regular basis, he is also a NetJets owner.

Quite unexpectedly, the final turned into a classic, as American bad boy Andy Roddick took the champ to the limit and then beyond, pushing Federer into historic territory before bowing out, with Federer taking the title in a five-set victory, winning the ultimate set 16-14.

The NetJets' ad that ran on NBC and ESPN throughout the tournament showed Federer hauling his many Grand Slam trophies to his waiting NetJets plane, with the tag line that NetJets congratulated Roger on his record-tying 14th Grand Slam victory. Upon the long awaited win on Sunday, NetJets had a new ad at the ready, congratulating Roger on his 15th and record setting victory. They then showed him relaxing comfortably in flight in his jet along with his trophies.

The messages were unstated but impossible to miss. Private jets are a great way to travel. They are comfortable, convenient and fast. And people like Roger Federer, who have reached the pinnacle of success deserve such things. And they should have no qualms about it.

And I have to congratulate NetJets for spending the money to make that statement and then making it unapologetically. Good for them. (Here's Roger speaking at length on NetJets site about why he has a share.)

And Roger deserves a lot of credit too. At a time when the use of private jets has come under unprecedented scrutiny, he was there to say it, that he flies a private jet and not only does he deserve it; it has helped to drive his success.

Comments

[Jerry Zsenyuk]

Dittos

[Sean Donnelly]

It's a sad day in north America when a company or person has to "hide" the fact that they use a private aircraft. Not only are they a great way to travel but you are also secure and productive onboard. (Try holding a business meeting on a commercial flight) With any public company that I invest in,I want the CEO to use his time wisely. That means not waiting in in crowded terminals wasting 3 days to get your business done when you could do it in 1 with private aircraft. The bottom line is that if you can use one, your ability to get things done greatly improves. That speaks for itself.

[Marc Coan]

The next major problem we'll have with defending GA is the issue of fuel burn/carbon footprint. The fact is, nearly all airplanes are amazingly inefficient forms of transport compared to ground transportation or even airline flying.

So, what's our plan for defending the "You're using more than your share of the fuel and producing more than your share of carbon?" questions? I don't have a good answer...do you?

[Tom Rogers, Instrument Pilot]

The discussion on general aviation is missing a few good points.
- Business Aviation is generally a cost savings when considered in light of the cost of executive time. A Thousand dollar per hour biz jet flight actually saves companies money when it saves travel time for executives who represent thousand's of dollar per hour in company cost; more when they travel together and keep working in a private, productive environment.
- In my case, my family of four travels farther, faster in our Mooney than we can in the family Explorer. At about 15 miles per gallon of avgas, we may not have quite as good mileage, but the savings in time, frustration and a good 75% off commercial air fare can't be beaten.
- Finally, general aviation is patriotic Americana. We fly because we dream we can, we work for and we achieve it!

We have work to do, certainly. We need better, more environment friendly fuels. But instead of panning the industry, the government should be investing some stimulus money in improving GA and preserving the millions of jobs and billions of GDP associated with the industry!

My $.02

[joe grimes]

"Your using more than your share of the fuel...".

Green/smeen. Gimme the avgas.

[Andreas Hausler]

I am puzzled how thickheaded (or empty-headed) some us aviators can be (and, sadly, Mac isn't getting it either). We are and remain general aviation's greatest enemies as long as we defend those who insist on flying an oversized luxury jet on short distances for personal reasons rather than purchasing shares in a fractional ownership operation such as NetJets, CitationShares, ExecJet, etc., especially when they represent corporations who have had to be bailed out. Pepsi and IBM have gotten rid of their flight departments years ago but their employees and executives travel regularly on fractional jets. It only makes sense. This is the age of car pooling and jet pooling. And guess what: it puts more qualified pilots to work under well organized, safe conditions with decent pay, benefits, insurance, flying well equipped, well maintained aircraft on reasonable schedules. No need to go flying for Continental Express for 20K /year and commuting halfway across the world to pick up a run. It makes good economic and social sense.
Aviation is and has been on the forefront of making transportation more fuel efficient, quieter, reducing the carbon footprint. We must support the efforts of industry to come up with environmentally friendlier fuels and engines. On the manufacturing front, we're way ahead of everyone else. Lets' broadcast these facts more widely.