If I ever got that wealthy, a private jet would be the ultimate luxury. The ability to overnight to Europe, land, do business, then fly back by dinner in say, NY, is amazing.
Cool site with several pics of Schmi's plane spotted all over the world. What's the range on that jet? Seems like with the far-flung tracks all over, he would want something that wouldn't need to stop-over to refuel. http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?®search=HB-JEG&nr_of_rows=24&first_this_page=0&page_limit=15&sort_order=photo_id+DESC&nr_pages=2
The Falcon 2000EX is capable of flying for about 3, 800 nm nonstop. Off the top of my head, other higher classed Falcons aside, only Bombardier Challenger 605s and Global jets can fly farther. Click on the link above.
I have a picture of Schumacher picking his nose after the race, but I can't seem to "dig it out"... Greg?
Nice. So it sounds like it can reach the tracks non-stop. Wonder what kind of interior set-up he has.
How many of these planes are actually owned by the drivers and how many are leases? The cost of ownership and operation of some of these jets is astronomical. While MS can easily afford the cost, a lot of other F1 drivers don't strike me as making that kind of bank. I suspect that quite a few of them are on some kind of lease deal.
David Coulthard being a notorious Penny Pincher, said the samething, it is better to Lease than buy them. Recently he has been flying coach....
I know that when MS flew to the US this year his jet stopped in Bangor, Maine both on arrival from Europe and after departing from Indy. The Bangor airport is a stopover for most private jets before going across the pond..................
I read somewhere that his retainer at Red Bull is $1 million plus incentives. I am sure that is a far cry from his days at McLaren and not even remotely close what he would need to fly via private jet. I hope his hotel is doing well...
You can overnight to Europe and other parts of the land to do business now with just a plane ticket, no boat required!
True. Can you do that quickly on a commerical plane, with the wait, customs, luggage? Interesting note on that link with Schmi's plane I posted is the jet was in Amsterdamn all weekend during the race in Italy this year.
We recently flew on a Lear to the race in VIR and had a Lear pick us up from Montreal after a race. The comfort is excellent compared to "regular" travel. No lines at airports, no luggage checks, no waiting for the flight, be there 1 1/2h before the flight, the immigration agent comes to your plane while you are fueling. It saves hours and makes you get there relaxed, ready for a full day. I am a strong believer that private jets are the true future. If you travel with 4-7 people and have to get from A to B and back to A on time, there is no better way that to fly private jets. Timeshare is for the semi-rich, owning your jet for the realy rich. Either way is just fine!
A 1 1/2 hr before for a private jet? With the new low-price jets (still a million+ dollars), it could be the future. The timeshare of the "semi-rich" are more as the mid-level to executives for business by companies. Think it will ever go any "lower" in the marketplace? Or will it always be the truly "rich" that own the jets outright?
Does Michael actually have to fly his own jet, I mean if I were that rich I would let someone else fly while I sleep in the back. I wonder if Michael is as aggressive in the air as in his car, imagine him weaving through planes on the runway, must be hard for him to drive such a "slow" vehicle on the ground.
no not 1 1/2 for the private jet. For that I did not have enough time to park the car, and that was literally next to the jet. They saw us pulling in and crancked the engine. by the time we had the luggage out of the rear, I parked the car and got in, door closed and we were rolling. Very very convenient.
Actually I'm not at all surprised - there's a guy I know who has three jets, and he has nowhere near the money or need for three. Now, jets are his hobby so I guess that makes a difference. He's not too big on the cars though - he drives a Corvette. Anyway, he has a couple Gulfstreams and just picked up a Global Express - this isn't it, but it looks like this: Image Unavailable, Please Login