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Aviator Profiles : A Plane For All Reasons

For real-estate developer Gary Lotano, going up in the air means avoiding east coast congestion.

By: Nick Kolakowski
May/June 2007 , Page 42

The next time you’re jammed in bumper-to-bumper traffic somewhere, consider Gary Lotano, who’s lucky enough to employ the fantasy method of clearing highway congestion: He flies over it. “I hate driving,” laughs the New Jersey– based builder/developer, whose current project involves a 160-acre commercial property in his state’s Middlesex County. | As a real-estate developer and commercially rated pilot of both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters, Lotano uses his planes to travel to meetings, look at property and take family trips. His projects can get immense: Six years ago, he developed and built a major medical complex and surgical center in Ocean County; he’s currently working on a five-story mixed-use building in Toms River.

At the stick of his twin-engine Cessna 340, which he flies about 200 hours a year, it takes him a mere 16 minutes to commute to a meeting that could take an hour and 40 minutes by car.

Practicality aside, Lotano’s interest in flight goes back decades to his childhood in north Jersey. “Right after high school, I jumped out of a plane,” he recalls. While on the airfield preparing for that first jump, “I saw those little planes up close.” He was hooked for life.

Six years ago, Lotano added a second weapon to his arsenal: a Bell JetRanger helicopter. Though he recently sold that chopper, he plans to purchase another soon to benefit another of his aviation interests: He voluteers for Angel Flight, a nonprofit that uses private aircraft to fly patients and their families to potentially life-saving medical care. “It’s a fast way to get people from New Jersey to Man-hattan,” he says. “Those kind of things are rewarding.”

As for his Cessna, Lotano, a member of Private Air’s Rater squad, plans to move to the next level. “My plan is to get a Lear 60 — upgrade either to that or something smaller or turbocharged,” such as a Cessna Conquest or a King Air. The aircraft you choose needs to be versatile, he says. “Everything deserves 100 percent of your attention, be it maintenance or weather — it’s all important.” After that, it’s a matter of flying over four-wheelers to get to your destination on time.