Page 9 - Volume 15 Number 3

Experience CountsThirty five years of serving General AviationScope Aircraft Fi- nanceHalf Page4/C AdPhoto courtesy of Pilatus Business Aircraft LTD / Photo by Jon Youngblut Photography140 E. Town Street, Suite 1400 • Columbus, Ohio 43215-1400 (614) 221-5773 • Fax: (614) 221-2411email: scope@parknationalbank.com www.ScopeAircraftFinance.comMember ofNational Aircraft Finance Association National Business Aviation AssociationIn 2003 Berg bought N62LL, a 1958 500A Commander that in 1963 was converted to a 500B by replacing the Lycoming IO-470M engines to IO-540-B1Cs. A year or so after buying it, Berg had it repainted with a ocean-blue curling wave cascading across the fuselage midsection. The airplane is equipped with long-range tanks (210 gallons), good for seven hours or more of flying. An STC allows surfboards to be stowed in the tailcone, allowing him to take up to six surfboards on his trips.“It has the right combination of payload and performance,” Berg said. “We’re loading up people and boards and equipment, and often camping equipment as well, and flying over a good bit of water and into short desert strips. The high wing helps, too, for exploring and doing aerial photography. The extra clearance also is good when operating into and out of dirt strips.”Early in 2010 Berg doubled his fleet when he bought a Commander JetProp 1000. “I got the disease – more speed and range,” he said. “I looked at all the alternatives, and given where I go and what I do, there was nothing that could touch it for the money.”A professional investor who has a long track record of creatingsuccessful upstarts, Berg founded the investment firm Matador Capital Management in 1993. Today, Berg focuses his energy on surfing. He calls Ft. Pierce, Fla., home, but he also sets up camp in San Clemente, Calif., during summer swell season, and flies wherever good surfing takes him.“Surfline is cataloging and databasing pretty much all the surfbreaks in the world,” Berg said. “That means cataloging most of the beaches in the world. And there is no better way to do that than with an airplane.”Berg’s decision to start flying is working out quite well. “I plan to just keep flying and learning and enjoying it,” he said. “I want to keep becoming a better pilot, keep getting utility out of the planes.”MARCH 2011 ­TWIN & TURBINE • ­7