21 visits, 12 stops, 4 states, 3 days
Talk to a business owner who uses a company-owned aircraft and you’re certain to hear about a deal team members made or saved because they could reach a client in a single day, or an epic multi-stop trip that took just three days instead of two weeks.
Herman & Kittle Properties, Inc. of Indianapolis has a few of those stories, including a trip to evaluate a possible multimillion dollar portfolio acquisition. The 12-stop tour included 21 on-site visits over three days—a feat that would have been impossible with a car, commercial airliner or train.
HKP develops, builds, manages and owns multi-family rental housing and self-storage facilities in ten states throughout the Midwest and Gulf regions of the United States. The company will fly about 700 hours this year, mostly to transport team members to current and prospective properties.
In 2012, HKP upgraded from a King Air 200 to a new King Air 350i. Soon after taking delivery in the winter, HKP took two teams of officers from Indiana to tour the portfolio in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The properties were all within 60 to 80 miles of each other.
“The King Air was like a time machine on this trip. We had a lot of short legs, with each about a 12- or 13-minute flight. The team would hop out, get in a rental car and drive about 10 or 15 minutes to the property. Then they’d come back, and we’d be off to the next location.”
- Joe Montagna, chief pilot
“The King Air was like a time machine on this trip,” said chief pilot Joe Montagna. “We had a lot of short legs, with each about a 12- or 13-minute flight. The team would hop out, get in a rental car and drive about 10 or 15 minutes to the property. Then they’d come back, and we’d be off to the next location.”
“There’s no way we could’ve effectively evaluated this property portfolio without private aviation,” said Jeffrey L. Kittle, president and CEO of HKP. “Some of the runways we landed at were as short as 3,000 feet – which a jet wouldn’t have been able to do – and we had some weather conditions that would’ve been difficult in a piston. With the King Air, we left on a Monday, and I got home in time to have dinner with my family on Wednesday night.”