what the???...travolta buys qantas 747

[FL000]

Alright, Welcome Back Kotter was popular in its time 25 years ago. Pulp Fiction was a cult classic, but was his comeback venture and I'll bet he didn't get paid all that much for it. Everything since has flopped. Where on Earth is this guy getting his money? Grease and SNF royalties? He's gotta have these things on leaseback somewhere. But then again, as paranoid as he is, probably not. Better start auditing those CoS records.

from the Drudge Report

Travolta Buys 440-seat Jumbo Jet
Sat Mar 23 2002 18:00:26 ET

Hollywood legend JOHN TRAVOLTA has spent over $84 million on a 440-seat jumbo jet, according to reports.

The star will use the Boeing 747 to fly to film premieres around the world.

His spokesman says: "He believes this investment will save him loads of time over the next few years and of course he gets to choose who gets on board with him."

The 47-year-old - who bought the plane from Australian airline QANTAS - has been obsessed with airplanes since childhood, and even named his nine-year-old son JETT.

 

[sydeseet]

Actually Travolta is part of the $20 million dollar club in Hollywood. (as in $20 million per movie) And yes, he still gets royalties on the Grease stuff (at least according to E Hollywood Network, can you tell I was furloughed?) He has owned a bunch of jets over the years all the way up to a DC-9 and currently a 707. He also owns a GII, Lear 25, and an old grumman fighter. His dummy corp. "Atlo Inc." is the holding company for all of his aviation stuff. Look it up at landing.com to see his latest holdings. Let's not forget that his wife is also a star, and a hottie for that matter, so I don't think they are hurting for cash.

 

[Huck]

As I recall, he did a good job a few years back - total power failure in a G-II in IFR, made it into National by going out over the water and descending real low. Of course he had a pilot with him, but still a pretty good piece of work....

 

[FL000]

I wouldn't question his piloting skills. Everything I've read about him seems to indicate that he takes it very seriously, and knows his personal limitations.

 

[Jetstone]

The rest of the Story

The rest of the story, as is pretty common knowledge among GII operators of the time ( about 7 yrs ago) is: JT has a gen failure and gang bars the remainig gen and TR leaving the jet without ac or dc power' nothing but peanut gryo. So his good work was to overcome a problem of his own creation. It has been a while since I have been in the machine, but I believe if you gang bar the BATT and gens you cannot recover the remaining good gen. GII guys correct me if I am wrong.

 

[flydog]

How about the time he buzzed his house at Spruce Creek with the 707

 

[jaybird]

I was on a night cross-country a few months ago and some guy was on the radio wanting to do a low approach into Fernandina Beach (near JAX) and he had some prob. with his flight plan. Well they got it sorted out and the guy ask's approach if they want to know what all the fuss was about. Approach said they didn't care, but now that he brought it up they said to tel. The guy said Mr. Travolta wanted to check the place out to buy a house there. Fernandina is similiar to Spruce Creek for anyone that cares. I'm just assuming Travolta was the pilot that night.

 

[Diesel]

Here is a little interesting story when i worked in the backwoods of maine. We used to fly kelly preston around quite a bit.

One day an old lady on an island called isle boro calls Bangor FSS (because it's a free call) and tells the guy on the other end there is an airliner buzzing the island.

He laughs and says it's probably just a small little plane mam you must be wrong but he's curious. He calls boston center and asks them if they have an airline out there doing anything.

They reply "nope but we do have a 707 doing multiple passes" So by now somebody has a video camera and is recording the 707 below the cliffs on isleboro.

It makes it to the news and the 707 lands in BGR where it usually did.

The feds try to go after JT but the problem is he filed his fltplan through a private company out of houston. That means that through the freedom of information act the company does not have to reveal who the pilot was.

Nobody admits to flying to the 707 so the feds go after the other crew and finally JT fesses up it was him and the feds get him some crappy charge.

He was also banned out of rockland, ME for flying his G2 at 2am because he did it constantly that's why he moved to Isleboro.

He also tookoff on a taxiway in LAS thus the squiggly lines on the taxiways that say "TAXI ONLY"

The list goes on and on. Basically the pilot that flys with him as his safety pilot puts himself into some really bad position by letting JT do all this.

 

[FL000]

nevermind my last post.

 

[Av8trxx]

Jeez, for that price he shoulda got a BBJ! What a rip off. He must like those ex-QANTAS jets.....

 

[bigr]

John Travolta went thru American Airlines Flight Academy some years back. I guess his skills don't reflect to much on AA.

 

[Vik]

Why buy a BBJ when you can buy a 747?

I hope he bought a 747SP.

 

[chperplt]

He still flies that GII into RKD.. Saw it there a month or so back.

 

[flyboy]

About a year ago, he got into some trouble at Orlando Sanford airport. He frequently takes his 707 in there. Well, He is leaving there one day and on takeoff, he has some engine problems. He closes the throttles and taxis back to the ramp. As he pulls in, there are some FAA guys standing around and they go to meet him (just to see what went wrong). In the process, they realize that he is the ONLY one on board, no FO no FE, just him. Of course, the 707 requires 3 pilots. His license was temporarily suspended. Obviously, the guy has brass balls, but come on, is this guy really safe? From what I've heard here in FL and what is on this board, he sounds pretty dangerous.

 

[BBJPILOT]

Let's see him and his "instructor pilot" dead stick this into TEB

 

[snoopy_1]

I'm sooooo confused..........
Isn't that what Vinnie Barbarino used to say?
I bet he could pass the captain ride on an erj 145 at eagle, and If he reads what you said about him I bet he would say to you "Up your nose with a rubber hose"

 

[dsaviation]

As a pilot for Travolta, I can tell you that most of this information is false. I wont bother with all the details, its impossible to keep up with all the rumors, but I do want to clear up a few things.

He does own a 707, GII, and ultralight. He is NOT buying a 747.

The GII power loss was unavoidable. It was a bad RCR (which most GII pilots never check, they just turn on both generators at once after start) compounded with a generator failure. Because of the bad RCR, there was no way to disconnect the failed generator from the electrical system and it drained the battery and would not allow the TR or the other generator to power the DC side of the system. With his wife and infant baby on board, he made safe recovery on standby instruments into DCA.

He has been flying since he was 16 and absolutely loves all things related to aviation. With all that experience (he's 47 now), he is a very good pilot and all those crazy stories are false (he's never "buzzed" anything with the 707 or tried to fly an airplane without the required crewmembers). It is amazing how people will inflate a story about a guy just because he is famous and it sounds cool to know the "scoop" in a forum like this.

It is an excellent job, probably one of the best corporate jobs out there. Since the boss is so in-tune with aviation and specifically knows the limits of his airplanes, there is never any pressure to push things or take an airplane that is not absolutely safe to fly. It takes a lot of work to keep a 707 flying and his plane is absolutely the best example of how to keep an old girl flying.

 

[jaybird]

Thanks for clearing things up. Is the Fernandina thing true, or was it even him flying that night? I think it was the end of November. The flight did terminate in Spruce Creek.

 

[UM#1]

I bet he could pass the captain ride on an erj 145 at eagle,

Whatever, if he could we'd never know, he hasn't bothered to achieve anything past his private certificate, plus Buying a few types from Simuflight and Flight Safety......and plus the fact he has a suspension on his record from the FAA....I put him in the category of Doctor pilots...nothing but money buying flying...

 

[Dorkpilot]

Sounds like JT could make some big money now for slander lawsuits.....I read in a paper that he was in trouble for buzzing his house with the 707....are you "sure" he didn't buzz his house??????????