[Rhodes22-list] Potential real estate investment

[Brad Haslett]

Warren,

Building a private fly-in community has been a fascination of mine for a
long time.  I've had neither the time or money to pursue it but dreaming
costs nothing.  Spruce Creek in Florida is one of the earliest and most
successful.  One of my co-workers built one just south of Memphis that is
doing well.  I know of another from the Beechcraft list that is embroiled in
lawsuits (we'll visit that issue later).  Right now I'm knee-deep in my
investment in construction equipment and we have about 12 more months of
"rough sledding", but,  after that we own everything debt-free but for our
building.  I'd  most definitely  be interested in investing if  our company
got to build it - and we have the  talent and equipment to do that!

Like any community, the fly-in properties that seem to succeed are the ones
that are well planned with clearly understood restrictions on the
front-end.  Anticipating issues rather than solving them after  they appear
is crucial.  We're not  re-inventing the wheel here.  I  think doing
due-diligence investigations of fly-in properties that run smoothly is
absolutely essential.

As to the liability issues, I don't have a clue.  If someone wants to
"pierce the corporate veil" they can certainly find an attorney willing to
try (John Edwards comes to mind) and you can't afford to buy enough
insurance to protect against all possible litigation.  Marinas face the same
issues and that may be a good industry to study.  The US General Aviation
industry has almost been ruined by frivolous lawsuits and overly sympathetic
juries.  I have an understanding with Fan that if I kill myself in my 59
year old airplane, I died doing what I loved no one but me is responsible.
Don't sue!  As to the Kentucky case, it sounds like a stretch but I'll
withhold full comment until the final NTSB report comes out.  As a result of
that accident, I've changed the way I use the heading bug on the CDI and
strongly suggest to my students that they do likewise.

Have your buddy get in touch with me.  I'd love to discuss the project.

Brad

On 9/1/07, Foy, Warren <Warren.Foy at masonandhanger.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Brad,
>
> I have a contact, through my work, with an Air Force Reserve F-16 pilot
> that says that in his retirement, he wants to build a community centered
> around a general aviation air strip, similar to a golf course, fishing
> lake, etc.  FWIW, he's building his own airplane, I don't know the
> details.  He's also looking at buying vintage Air Force fighters (who
> would want to live there aside from me).
>
> He's located in Ft. Worth but is apparently open for locations anywhere.
> He asked about my ability in helping design such a community and I'm
> pretty sure I could but, from a liability standpoint, see this:
>
> http://www.kentucky.com/169/story/161182.html
>
> If you think you might have any interest, contact me and I can put you
> in contact with Baghdad.
>
> Warren
>
> Happy now Ed? :)
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