Intro Tweet! GAV Air Capital (GAVAC) - The innovative aviation finance and inv platform created by veteran investors/entrepreneurs - CEO Bob Allen @OMD_SkyDog, CIO Marc King @kingmarcum8, COO Taylor Brown @taylorbrown233 along with CTO Ed Fanning is live!
Famous in Japan! 🤣 Love seeing my @Nomadic_OMD in media that I can't even read.
Being a global company, we market Nomadic via a large social media presence. My partner @JTTsteve with his YouTube channel "Cockpit Casual" @speedtapefilms and my TikTok "Captain Bob", entertain millions and show our company in action to potential clients.
My first flying job was flying skydivers in 50's era C182's out of Lackey Airfield, a grass strip outside of Berea, KY.
83-84 while I was in high school, I spent every weekend flying skydivers. It was the wildest group of people that I had ever seen and the most fun I'd ever had to date!
Some of the weekend personalities would eventually become notorious figures that would be memorialized in books and movies. Read "The Bluegrass Conspiracy"....if you want to really get the view.
One of them, Drew Thornton, a few years later, unknowingly fed the Cocaine Bear (recent movie) the cocaine when he tossed it out of the plane, had hired me at the jump club and opened my eyes to a world I had no idea existed! I was mesmerized by their larger than life lives and wild flying stories. Smugglers, gun runners, lawyers, politicians, fancy cars, cash, expensive meals and beautiful women were my new view of the world!
Growing up in the Mormon church, I was fairly naive and had never been around adults who were having this much fun! I was hooked on the adrenaline and being accepted into this world of very interesting people. Needless to say, I didn't end up going on a Mormon mission!
Summer of 1983 I learned how to really fly airplanes. Old oil covered airplanes that required 3-4 quarts every 45 minute flight. In/out of grass strip in a variety of conditions. Learned to takeoff and land on an unlit grass strip at night with no lights while they practiced low level night jumps! Why were they teaching me such skills? 😂
That summer we all faced death, up close and personal. A skydiver who was part of the "inner group" had jumped out of my plane and was killed when his chute failed to open. The lessons learned about people's emotions, including my own, and death itself are fodder for another story...
We are excited to add another platform company to the GAV Holdings portfolio!
https://t.co/HDmHehcOXM
PREO ISR will change the way law enforcement departments procure aircraft and ISR platforms.
https://t.co/KYg5eVOkxi
Operating @Nomadic_OMD is much more than the public view of pilots flying airplanes. It takes a very experienced team and detailed planning to make these flight ops happen and turn a profit. Decades of trial and error by @JTTsteve and myself have created a very efficient flight ops platform, one that has survived some very challenging economic cycles over the last 2 decades.
Here is a little view into the business side of Nomadic:
Flights are planned and quoted months ahead of time. At this stage we est costs which are based on market rates and historic cost data that we have tracked for over 20 years.
We maintain accurate data on line items such as:
•Fuel
•Ground Handling/Parking
•Permits
•Overflight and Navigation Fees
•Customs Import/Export Fees
•Flight Crews
•Travel/Lodging
Those costs are variable on a trip by trip basis.
Other costs that we have to consider are the fixed costs:
•Employee Salaries (Project Managers, Dispatchers, Bookeeper, Accountant, Travel Managers)
•Insurance
•Flight Planning Software
•Project Mgt and Internal Communications Software
•Legal Fees (We use 3 different Attys for various uses)
•CPA
•Phones, Computers, Satellite Comm and other hardware required to stay in comms and operate worldwide.
Nomadic is considered a small business, but it is far from being ran like a flying club or mom and pop business. Aside from the business side, we also have an operational side of the business which is equally important .
I use the proven frameworks we have developed at Nomadic and use them to build the businesses we grow @GAVAIRCAP
@girdley@HoldCoConf@acquanon We acquire platform companies in niche aviation verticals and grow them with our operational exp and network. We also have a finance co that leases aircraft and equipment to scale those companies. Cash flow is used for short term fin deals 2 boost returns
We hold equity in various flight ops, including aerial firefighting, law enforcement, parabolic micro-gravity and airborne launch platforms to name a few. GAVAV leases aircraft and equipment into these entities which creates cash flow for short term lending that boost returns
Investors get excited about eVTOL, flying taxi drones and electric airplanes, but the reality is that it will take decades before any of those companies make revenue and many will not survive.
Investors get excited about eVTOL, flying taxi drones and electric airplanes, but the reality is that it will take decades before any of those companies make revenue and many will not survive.
We only invest in companies that have proven out the market, have the ability to cash flow fast and have a distinct unfair advantage in a niche area of aviation.
Corporate governance: not sexy, but essential
Failures in corporate governance can be fatal when you're:
- building your own business
- directing an organization (incl. family offices)
- conducting due diligence on a target company
13 corporate governance red flags: 🚩
NBAA welcomes two bipartisan bills recently introduced in Congress that aim to close a shortfall in pilots and other aviation workers: https://t.co/Ydsr7WIZOV #BizAv
Our investment thesis:
Provide strategic investment with a focus on aviation businesses or opportunities that return cash, equity, and have the potential for exponential expansion through M&A.
GAVAC partners Ed Fanning and Bob Allen will be attending @AviationWeek#AvMRO this week in #ATL. We look forward to meeting some of our investors, vendors and portfolio company friends.