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or three years just renting planes [and not growing my skills]. You can really get into trouble without your instru- ment rating by inadvertently getting caught in some weather, cloud layer, marine layer, or whatever.”
Even though Holland admitted that traveling at roughly two hundred miles an hour in the Mooney was a big step up from renting Cessna 152s, his mission demanded a more capable airplane. Like so many others, these demands were for increased speed, range, and payload.
“As I kept on going, we were doing more trips that were band-oriented and covered more distance. So, I bought a King Air C90B in 1999, which I flew for about two hundred hours. It’s such a comfortable airplane that feels roomy on the inside, like you are inside a giant SUV or RV. There’s a lot to love about the King Air, and I really liked flying it, but I felt like I needed more speed. After about a year, I stopped at the Cessna factory in Wichita while we were on tour and test-flew a Citation. I mean, it was like, come on! I was hooked right away,” Holland recalled, almost at a loss for words.
“I love all airplanes, and there is a real character to each of them. And it’s not like there are cool ones or bad ones, necessarily. But there’s just something about a jet when you get into it. There is power. It feels quiet and smooth. And it’s fast.”
There were several suitable options available to choose from at the time, but there was one that immediately stuck out to him as the best. Since his first time in that aircraft, Holland has owned three models of Citation aircraft and four different serials.
“Citations were just so well known. I felt that they had a really good rep- utation as owner-flown airplanes, which it does. Right? People will sometimes affectionately call them ‘Slowtations,’ but they’re plenty fast. For the handling, simplicity of the de- sign, and how relatively easy they are to fly, I chose to purchase a Citation.”
“I bought a Citation CJ1 in 2000, at the time that they were just switching over to that model from the original CitationJet. They were just talking
about putting the CJ2 on the market at that time, which I traded up to in 2003. I loved that aircraft and flew it around the world once, which was a really great time.”
Holland noted that he desired to transition to the Collins avionics sys- tem, which was a hallmark feature of the CJ1+. So, he traded his CJ2 for a slightly smaller airframe. Then in the early 2010s, he stepped away from turbine ownership for a few years.
“I decided that after some time, though, that I really did miss flying a jet and aircraft values had come down again, which was great. So, I bought another CJ1 in 2016 and have had that one ever since. I really love the plane and like that it has a glass cockpit, which was brand-new tech- nology when it first came out. I have spent the last twenty years on that system, so I’m very comfortable with the Collins Pro Line system.”
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