Labour of Love: Dustin Dryden, Volare Aviation

Volare Aviation has revolutionised the acquisition and operation of business and personal use aircraft. The company prides itself on being one of the only global aviation businesses able to buy any helicopter or business jet into stock within seven days of valuation. Gideon Ewers went to find out more about the man behind the mission.

Volare’s Dustin Dryden says that while he did build a few model aeroplanes in his bedroom as a boy, that was not what fomented his interest in aviation. Rather he says it was the frequent trips his family took from their home in Cape Town to visit Dryden’s grandparents, who lived in Zimbabwe. “One of the great differences between Africa and most parts of the world is that in Africa aviation is seen as a transport necessity rather than a luxury, so from a young age I was flying between the two in aircraft that can be best described as leftovers from the Second World War! South Africa didn’t have much of a choice in aircraft suppliers in those days. I found it very exciting. It might have been a nerve-racking experience for other passengers, but I loved it.”

One of the great differences between Africa and most parts of the world is that in Africa aviation is seen as a transport necessity rather than a luxury.

Doing business

Dryden’s next step was to form his own company, which was appointed the UK dealer and Channel Islands dealer for Cirrus and Hawker. “It was a good business but I also spent time flying corporate in King Airs and Corporate Jets,” he says. That dealership morphed into a company called Hangar 8. “Hangar 8 did a lot of logistics operations principally in Africa and Kazakhstan as well as other regions,”?he says. In the early 2010s, Hangar 8 was successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange, and by the time Dryden moved on from the company in 2015 it had a market capitalisation of US$200 million. It was during the Hangar 8 era that Dryden was able to rekindle his love of helicopters, using them for both business and personal use. “I had an R44 which I loved and enjoyed very much, then I replaced that with a Bell 206L,” he says. “When I got the Long Ranger it was a pile of parts, but we restored it and upgraded it with a C20R engine as well as new paint and interior.

“It was a labour of love, but it was a thing of beauty when it was finished, which I was able to use for business and leisure for a number of years.” Labour of love it may have been, but it was sold on when Dryden encountered the type that was to be the “love of his life”. “A pilot friend of mine, who was also doing some flying for Hangar 8, told me that once I tried a AW109 I’d never want to fly anything else. I told him not to be ridiculous, that I couldn’t afford to operate a 109 so there was no point in trying one. But he kept the pressure up and I relented. To cut a long story short, a week later I’d bought one!” This was the beginning of a slippery slope for Dryden, and since that time he has owned 14 examples of the type – the most recent being a tranche of seven 109s that Volare acquired from Babcock earlier this year for refurbishment and reconfiguration.

“They came from a variety of expired governmental contracts Babcock had operated, most on an SAR contract in Spain, but there was one in France and another in Portugal. We brought them to Oxford – some we flew back and others came by truck.” Once back at Volare’s Oxford Airport base, the aircraft were stripped back, all maintenance items completed and then VIP interiors added. Finally they were completed with a new paint job. “It’s been a very good deal for us,” says Dryden. “The aircraft were transformed to something that was desirable for the second-hand VIP market. But the joy of buying from someone like Babcock is that they have been maintained to the letter and without thought of budget. They are one-owner machines with very good component times. You end up with a very nice aircraft, with a very good history.”

The joy of buying from someone like Babcock is that they have been maintained to the letter and without thought of budget.

Surge in demand

In the past 18 months, Volare has seen the same surge in demand for aircraft that other sectors of the industry have reflected. Dryden puts the surge in demand in the business and private sector down to two factors – security and time management. “The fact is that people have lost two or even three years of their lives. I think that has made it easier for people to justify things that buy you more security, that buy you a little more time. I don’t think there is anything on earth that will buy you more time than a helicopter. “The capability to be here in Oxford, say, get in a 109 and visit a building site in Stroud then hop over to your business in Sussex, see clients in London for lunch and then stop by a supplier in Luton and still be home in time to pick up your kids from school – it’s just not possible without a helicopter. And once people with the resources get used to having one, they are very hard to give up.”

Turning to the other factors that have prompted the change in attitudes, Dryden points to changes in society and aspirations. “There is a perception of helicopter use that it’s considered ‘Who do you think you are to turn up in a helicopter?’ This seems to be a northern European thing, it’s certainly a British thing. In other parts of the world – the US or in Africa, for example – people aren’t so hung up about it. Indeed, they applaud your success. It’s like the scenario if you pull up outside a restaurant in Italy in a Ferrari, people will tend to admire it and acknowledge the owner for being able to own it. In the UK someone will more than likely key it to take you down a peg or two.” But today there is according to Dryden a trend away from those concerns as “young” money enters the market with its aspirational mores compared with the older money generation.

Environmental factors

While those positives have displaced the more traditional reluctance to take on helicopter ownership, there are other considerations that were not a factor 10 or 15 years ago. Chief among these are, inevitably, environmental concerns. “There are a lot of pressures on both high-net-worth individuals and companies to demonstrate they are doing something to reduce their carbon footprint,” says Dryden. “You can’t get away from it – helicopters are very ‘in your face’. They are obvious as they come and go.”?While the fuel consumption and emissions of a helicopter are a fraction of those of a corporate jet, the image of environmental profligacy is a hard one to shift. Even with the advent of initiatives like sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). “Even though it does cost around six times the price of conventional jet fuel for our fleet at Volare, we are moving toward all-SAF operations in the next few months, not least because the fact that your helicopter has a smaller carbon footprint than your car is a powerful statement.”

The next big thing

Dryden anticipates that the continued pressure to “do the right thing” will help drive the evolution toward eVTOL operations, arguing that if you compare the expected performance of the first wave of #evtol proposals and compare them with the mission profile of the average private user of a helicopter, there isn’t a huge variance. “If you look at the first wave of eVTOLs and their expected capabilities, they are not a long way from what the private user expects of their helicopter today. If you’re looking at a less than 100-mile sector to the office or between city pairs with low frequency, then many of the proposals appear to fit the bill.”?Although Dryden says the migration to eVTOL operations is inevitable for certain sectors, what is harder to determine is how far that is in the future. “It could be in two or five years or longer – it will come. Though I don’t think the immediate future will equate to the pitch of many eVTOL companies. They foresee a world with millions of eVTOLs and drones flying in and out of our cities.

There are a lot of pressures on both high net-worth individuals and companies to demonstrate they are doing something to reduce their carbon footprint.

That’s not going to happen in the near or medium term – we don’t have the infrastructure or regulatory framework to support it.” With so many competing programmes in the market, it’s hard to determine which will carry the day considering what Dryden thinks are the factors that will be the hallmarks of the successful programme. He says: “What we are going to see is something like the Lilium project that is flown by a pilot, is VFR- and IFR-capable, is VTOL-capable.”

Dryden says he uses the Lilium Jet?as a benchmark because it ticks a lot?of boxes. “I use Lilium as an example because as an aircraft operator I like the fact that, bluntly speaking, there is not all that much new technology in the airframe. Instead, there is a lot of proven and existing technology, like the flight control system, the flight management system all, almost off-the-shelf kit. “I like the fact that the company is well-funded. This is aviation and in this sector funding leads. I like that they are coming at this from an aviation company perspective. From a salesman’s point of view, which is what I am, I like it because it looks good – I can see one at the bottom of my garden. It’s quiet, I think it’s less than 70 decibels, and they have the right price point.”

Summing up, Dryden says: “I don’t think there is anything about the future of helicopters or vertical lift that keeps me awake at night – and I don’t know how it will turn out. I think it’s going to be interesting journey.” ?

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