Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Mark Monsma: On the aviation side, we move senior corporate execs around the family around with long range Gulf Streams G650, G5.
And then we have a Boeing 767. We move the team around in. And we also have the Houston Astros as a client. So we're flying the Houston astros in the 767.
[00:00:24] Intro: Welcome to Hangar X studios where where former fighter pilot and host John Ramstead takes us on a journey across aerospace as it enters an historic period of innovation and transformation.
Our guests include aviation experts, pilots, financiers, military leaders and innovators of all types.
Buckle up for another episode of Hangar X.
[00:00:54] John Ramstead: Okay. Welcome to the Hangar X Podcast. We are here live at Verticon and this is where disruptors and innovators and doers come together, where we get to learn the information before the rest of the world. And today we have Mark Manso from Fertitta on. And Mark, welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:08] Mark Monsma: Thank you. It's nice to be here.
[00:01:10] John Ramstead: So before we get started, tell us a little bit about Fertitta and what Fertitta Industries does and why they have such a.
Why aviation is so important to what you guys do.
[00:01:20] Mark Monsma: Well, so fortita Entertainment, we own or the boss owns 600 restaurants, eight or so casinos and entertainment business.
[00:01:31] John Ramstead: You also own the Houston Rockets.
[00:01:33] Mark Monsma: And the Houston Rockets. Yeah, so. So that's also entertainment. Right.
But on the aviation side, we move senior corporate execs around the family around with the long range Gulf Streams G650, G5.
And then we have a Boeing 767. We move the team around in. And we also have the Houston Astros as a client. So flying the Houston astros in the 767April is going to be very interesting because we have both seasons going on.
[00:02:04] John Ramstead: Both seasons going on. See, I'm a Rockies fan, but you know, maybe you can be a little late with the. The Astros here in that. Right.
[00:02:12] Mark Monsma: And then also I feel pretty strongly the Rockets are going to make the playoffs this year. And so that's going to make May very interesting because we'll be doing Astros and flying the playoffs with the. Right. So we'll be doing some empty legs once in a while. We'll probably charter a jet to if we have a same day.
[00:02:31] John Ramstead: If you got a big gap.
[00:02:32] Mark Monsma: Yeah.
[00:02:32] John Ramstead: Because you got. Well, you got the 767. But now tell us a little bit about your. That you told me before we got started. You've wanted to be a pilot since you were six.
[00:02:39] Mark Monsma: Six years old.
[00:02:40] John Ramstead: So tell me about your whole journey up into aviation. Because right now you get to fly from 767s to helicopters to Gulf streams. So I want to hear a little bit about this journey.
[00:02:49] Mark Monsma: Yeah, predominantly I'm in the Gulf streams, but yeah, you know, when I was little, I lived in Africa. My. My parents were missionaries and we used to go to boarding school in the small Piper Aircraft.
[00:03:04] John Ramstead: Okay.
[00:03:04] Mark Monsma: They had a Apache and a Cherokee 250, I think. And I just thought that was the neatest thing to leave the earth. And. And ever Since I was 6 years old, I'm like, I'm going to be a part. I had no idea.
[00:03:16] John Ramstead: It was just like a sense of freedom. Like I could go kind of go. I can go do anything, go anywhere.
[00:03:20] Mark Monsma: Yeah, kind of. And especially, you know, you would take a one hour flight versus two days on the bad roads in Nigeria and.
[00:03:30] John Ramstead: Wait a one hour flight versus two days.
[00:03:32] Mark Monsma: Two days.
[00:03:33] John Ramstead: That's the difference.
[00:03:34] Mark Monsma: Well, back then, yeah, you know, this is back in the 70s. They all dirt roads and you know, during rainy season, it was just a mess.
But anyway, that's. I just had that passion. I had no idea how I was going to become a pilot. You know, most pilots, their parents or grandparents or, you know, they. They have some family member that was a pilot. That just makes it so much easier to have that mentor to. To show you where to. Where to go.
[00:03:59] John Ramstead: Yeah.
[00:04:00] Mark Monsma: And. But my mom stood behind me and we, we figured it out. Went to college, Laturnal University.
Graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science in aviation technology.
And just kind of worked my way up, working the line, riding along, flying with anybody I could. Bought some of my own airplanes.
Flight instruct.
And my first, I would say real job was Martinola Gas in 1988 flying a B100 King Air.
[00:04:30] John Ramstead: Oh, no kidding. Okay.
[00:04:31] Mark Monsma: And just kind of went from there.
[00:04:33] John Ramstead: And tell me about your. Because I know you guys have added helicopters to the. To the mix.
[00:04:38] Mark Monsma: Yes.
[00:04:38] John Ramstead: What. What role does helicopters play, first of all?
[00:04:41] Mark Monsma: So, so I was flying a citation for Mr. Fertitta. He took Landry's public and it was June of 1993, and you know, Houston has quite a bit of traffic.
[00:04:56] John Ramstead: Yeah.
[00:04:57] Mark Monsma: And. And he just had a passion for, you know, flying to his ranch and flying to Galveston. And we would, we would. He would drive out to the airport, we get in a little citation and fly it to Galveston. And just a helicopter just made a lot more sense for that. Yeah, but the biggest thing with a helicopter in a large metropolitan area is you have to have a place to land it right or it doesn't make any sense.
So he's like, fine, find me a place to land and then please go find me a helicopter.
And our first helipad in Houston was Star Motors.
So I cut a deal with the owner. He ate for free and we painted his helipad once a year.
And that was our. Now we had a place we could land a helicopter.
[00:05:41] John Ramstead: So if I build you a free heliport, I can eat at any of your restaurants for free, Is that the deal?
I might have to put that on my to do list because I love. Del Frisco's is one of my favorite places in Denver.
[00:05:52] Mark Monsma: Del Frisco's is good?
[00:05:53] John Ramstead: Yep.
[00:05:53] Mark Monsma: Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:55] John Ramstead: Tell me about your own personal transition as a fixed wing pilot to helicopters, because that's something I'm looking at doing this year myself. What's that? You go both ways.
[00:06:03] Mark Monsma: Yeah, helicopters and jets.
So we bought this first helicopter. It was an A Star. And I'm going to tell you why we went with an A Star over a Bell.
[00:06:17] John Ramstead: Okay.
[00:06:17] Mark Monsma: I, I would have preferred a Bell product. We're right here in Dallas, we're in Houston.
But at the time the kids were young and smooth visibility, even flight, single pilot. I had taught my boss how to fly. He could get to the front, which he couldn't do in the Bell product. But the most important thing was a 30 second cooldown versus two minutes. Oh, when you have kids on board and you're stopping those rotors, that's the longest two minutes of your life.
[00:06:46] John Ramstead: Right.
[00:06:46] Mark Monsma: Versus 30 seconds. So that's what put us into the A Star to start with.
[00:06:52] John Ramstead: That's interesting. That's an interesting. You know, I wouldn't have thought of that before. And now, you know, we're looking around here and there's. As Verticon has expanded and we're seeing some of the EV tolls, there's a lot of excitement about this. Does this fit in at all with your aviation needs or, you know, as you guys are looking in the next two, three years, what are some of the things that you're looking for?
[00:07:11] Mark Monsma: That's a very good question. And we're here sponsored by XTI and we're in discussions with them.
The problem is, I see with evtol right now, for us, they don't have the speed, they don't have the range. Right. I think there's going to be some great opportunities for them in those metropolitan areas, you know, like Manhattan to Newark or, you know, short runs or in my case, a little two seat evtol that I could take from my house to Hobby would be great.
[00:07:43] John Ramstead: Yeah, right.
[00:07:43] Mark Monsma: As long as it wasn't too expensive.
But I think our primary Houston trip is Lake Charles, Louisiana with six passengers. I need to get 110 nautical miles at or faster than 150 knots or. It doesn't make any sense.
[00:08:01] John Ramstead: Doesn't make any sense. Right.
[00:08:03] Mark Monsma: And then our next one is Fredericksburg. Well, that's 180 nautical. So you're, you're really pushing what an EV talk can do. Now will they get there?
[00:08:09] John Ramstead: Actually they can do that. They can't with reserves and everything. I think their effective range is probably 60 miles currently. Right, right.
[00:08:16] Mark Monsma: They're not there. But when Tesla first came out with the cars, they were 100 miles.
[00:08:21] John Ramstead: Yep. And now they're a 300 plus.
[00:08:23] Mark Monsma: Right. So will they get there eventually? Maybe. Yeah. I'd sure like to see them.
[00:08:28] John Ramstead: Yeah.
And now you mentioned XTI and the Trifan 600. How does that, how do you see that possibly fitting into your, the aviation business model for Tita?
[00:08:39] Mark Monsma: Well, I could replace all my helicopters with two or three XTIs.
I could fly off the yacht. I could do any trip, you know, let's say 500 nautical miles or less out of Houston.
You leave right from the top of the Postdoc hotel in, in, in Houston or our centrally located helipad and Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, you get there quicker. Yeah, right. Even with a, even with a helicopter due our current helicopter, that's only 150 knots.
You can do Fredericksburg hour and 10 minutes. It's quicker than driving to the airport, taking the jet from the airport to another airport to get in a car to drive, you know, to the residence.
[00:09:23] John Ramstead: Well, yeah. Well the airplane you're talking about, that would be 20 to 30 minute flight, correct?
[00:09:29] Mark Monsma: Yeah, yeah. So we could have three of those very easily. And, and when you start talking about operating all around the world off the back of a yacht, that makes a lot of sense.
[00:09:39] John Ramstead: It's nice to go inland five or six hundred miles. It, it, it expands. What, what you could just go do and enjoy and meetings you could have and. Correct, correct.
[00:09:47] Mark Monsma: So, but, and we've discussed most high net worth individuals. They want to see something physical, they want to see it flying. It's going to be difficult for some of these guys, my boss in particular, to invest in a presentation. They need to see it fly.
[00:10:07] John Ramstead: Yeah.
[00:10:08] Mark Monsma: They need to touch it, they need to be able to ride in that. So that's where we need to get to.
[00:10:12] John Ramstead: Yep. That's true. Yeah, the whole. I mean, look at the. Well, some of the things we're looking at right here.
[00:10:17] Mark Monsma: Exactly.
[00:10:18] John Ramstead: Still not certified, still not flying, but I understand it. Well, as we wrap up. Mario, this has been great and love to have you back on for a longer interview, you know, back when we get outside of Verticon. But just as we wrap up, what just final thoughts of what you're looking for here at the show. What are maybe some you've been seeing?
[00:10:34] Mark Monsma: Well, it's, it's making acquaintances with everybody we deal with throughout the year.
Insurance support with, with the Airbus products we have, also networking and last but not least, seeing where all the EVtols are going.
[00:10:53] John Ramstead: Right. See what the capabilities are.
[00:10:55] Mark Monsma: Right, right. It's exciting, exciting times. We just need to keep pushing the envelope on the performance to where they're going to make sense for somebody like us.
[00:11:03] John Ramstead: Yeah. Well, that's awesome. Well, Mark, thank you so much for your time and everybody, thank you for tuning in. And we have a lot more great stuff coming from Verticon, so we'll talk to you soon.
[00:11:13] Mark Monsma: Thank you.
