Phenom 100

“The first time I saw it in person, I was immediately impressed with the door. I knew a lot of engineering thought and pride was behind it. I was right.”

“The Phenom 100 is a phenomenal entry-level business jet that offers remarkable performance for a substantially lower price than its competition. It is beauty and the beast in one powerful plane,” stated Gabriel Ruz, Jr. of Miami, Florida.

“The first time I saw it in person, I was immediately impressed with the door. I knew a lot of engineering, thought and pride were behind it. I was right. From the entrance to the class-leading cabin, its Maserati seats, the clever lavatory design, and extra seating, I felt that the Phenom 100 meant business. As an experienced pilot, I have found that everything is much easier in the Phenom than in any other platform. It’s a much simpler airplane to fly single-pilot. Besides, you have the peace of mind of almost centerline thrust, which is fantastic.”

Mr. Ruz purchased his 2012 model in the first quarter of this year and has already racked up nearly 150 hours in it. Before this aircraft, the entrepreneur had owned a handful of others, most of which were purchased in the last few years.

“I started flying in 1997. I was an IT consultant back then. I had a client at Hollywood/North Perry Airport with a flight school, a flying club, and a testing center. They asked me to build their [IT] infrastructure, so I did. One day I went by to pick up a check and met with the owner. A family was returning from the Bahamas in a Cherokee Six, and I commented how cool it was.”

“So, he said, ‘Why don’t you go up with one of our instructors? Take a ride!’ I said that he was out of his mind. But I went up for an intro flight and logged the time. I was not impressed. That was it for me that day, but I kept my logbook in my car and kept going back there to do work.”

Mr. Ruz ultimately changed his mind about flying when the same flight school owner later asked if he would like to go to the Bahamas for a weekend in the Cherokee Six. He says that experience made him fall in love with aviation and he quickly earned his private pilot certificate after the trip. However, after acquiring a Cessna Cardinal with three partners and flying it for a while, “life got busy, and I stopped flying.”

While continually thinking about ways to get back into aviation, Mr. Ruz spent twenty years out of the cockpit. He explained that a meeting in 2019, five and a half hours from his house, was the catalyst for returning to the air. His neighbor had a Mooney and reintroduced him to general aviation, emphasizing the time savings of owning an aircraft.

“I was then off to the races. I got current again and then bought an Archer. I got my IFR rating in California, where I did a condensed two-week course. That was some of the best training I ever had because I was in the soup every morning, in real IMC conditions.”

Mr. Ruz continued to set his eyes on the next step in his aviation journey, asking himself, “What is the next step up? What should I buy?” A direction would soon become apparent.

“Then I sold half of my company to private equity in 2019 and started talking to Dick Rochfort about which plane I should buy next. He said that I should buy a turbine. I told him he was out of his mind, questioning going from a fixed-gear low-wing to a turbine aircraft. I spoke to a few other people who said he was right and that flying a turbine aircraft is much easier. So, I went for a demo flight in a Piper M500, fell in love with the plane, and acquired an M600.”

He noted that he flew this PT6A-42A-powered bird for about 800 hundred hours, all over the country – to most major airports. Anywhere Mr. Ruz traveled, he flew the M600 until stepping up into a TBM 910.

Just as with the Piper, he loved this plane but expressed that the ultimate goal was a twin-engine jet. However, his aviation experience thus far had only included single-engine operations, an obstacle to overcome before transitioning further into the flight levels.

“You need to buy a Baron,” Mr. Ruz was told by his mentor pilot Tom Rau. “Buy a true, twin-engine airplane and fly it for a hundred hours, and then you’re ready,’ he advised when I asked him about my next move. I got a Pilatus [PC-12], then went backward after that and got a Baron.”

“After the hundred hours I needed, the first cross-country trip was to Utah. I sold the Baron there and didn’t fly it back to Florida. With the 100-hour mission accomplished, I started looking at jets. The Phenom 100 fit my profile and had everything I wanted. We acquired mine in March of 2023 when I simultaneously bought a 2019 Cirrus SR22T that I also fly for local trips.”

Mr. Ruz noted that transitioning to the Phenom and getting his first type rating was a great experience.

“I reached out to Tom and Mary Beth at Norton Aviation and gave them my profile. Based on it, they said we would do four days back-to-back [flying], or seven or ten days, based on your schedule and pace. I had several business trips during training, so we went up to the Northeast a few times. Insurance asked for 75 hours before carrying passengers, which I did and got my type rating in two or three weeks,” he recalled.

“I felt very comfortable in the plane right away and never felt behind it because of my G1000 experience. I had about 600 hours on that platform and probably 700 hours with the G3000. I was never intimidated by that aspect or approach speed because the REF speed is very similar to the TBM. Your rotation speed is also very similar, and the main difference is that you have two engines.”

Of course, some of the differences between the aircraft and others he flew were points of extra attention during his initial training.

“I think that the only thing that kept me up at night is that ‘pain in a landing gear.’ The torque link needs to be removed prior to towing and reattached prior to departing. That’s the only thing about the airplane I’m still trying to get my head around because it’s bizarre. Being a systems guy, though, I love learning new things, and the mental challenge of it is stimulating. I enjoy it.”
For Mr. Ruz, the jet is capable and operationally similar, or even superior, as far as costs are concerned to his previous aircraft.

“I encourage you to spend the money on a jet instead of a similarly priced twin-engine piston or a single-engine turboprop. Acquisition costs are right in line. After I got into the Phenom, I talked with my mentor pilot again, and he noted that it was almost the same price he had paid for his M600. Until our conversation, he had never realized that operating costs are virtually the same because you are going nearly twice as fast. It’s fascinating. You don’t know what you don’t know, and this is one area that people don’t venture into because they don’t know.”

Mr. Ruz expanded on this concept, showcasing a key benefit he has personally experienced in his Phenom.

“I will tell you that several mentor pilots I have flown with would not go up to 41,000 feet because they say the plane is slow to climb there and the fuel burn could be better there. I argue that that is not true. The book published speeds and fuel consumption figures are on point, in my opinion. For example, I flew to Indianapolis non-stop from Miami and went up to 41,000. I couldn’t have made that trip if I had only gone up to 37,000 feet,” he began.

“The difference between those altitudes is significant. When you get higher, you burn roughly 275 pounds per side, which is nothing. When you run that calculation, you are at 80
gallons an hour. I am right at the same burn as a TBM, but in reality, probably less since the TBM is going slower. With a 100-knot headwind in a TBM, you are going 220 knots [groundspeed], whereas, in this jet, you are going over 300 knots. So, if you get up to altitude, you are actually at the same fuel consumption then.”

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Ruz is more than thrilled with his ownership experience so far. And why wouldn’t he be? Getting into a twin-engine jet was a long-term goal for the detail-oriented entrepreneur.

“As far as I am concerned, the Phenom 100 is a smooth, solid, and reliable entry-level business jet. It is fast and agile, and it is easy to start and fly. It doesn’t hurt that this bird is loaded with some serious ramp appeal and never goes unnoticed. It is an amazing platform with a fantastic network. There is no comparison,” he strongly concluded

You can follow along with Gabriel Ruz, Jr.’s Phenom journey on Instagram @chief.flying.officer.