​

 

Foreword By Jay Mesinger, President/CEO

Mesinger Jet Sales, Boulder, CO

 

Pat Gordon has been a great friend for many years. We first met when Pat was heading up a large flight and management company in Abu Dhabi, UAE (The Middle East). I was invited by his company to begin to help them explore a transition for a very sophisticated fleet of business aircraft. This was a rapidly expanding region of the world that had a very robust aviation segment that was exploding in growth. As I read this book, I learned the experiences and beliefs that shaped the many very likable and trustworthy traits that I so enjoyed about Pat, including his younger years, his passion towards aviation, his passion towards people, and his rich philosophies about how to be transparent in business. This was really refreshing to me.

 

Coming into this region of the world for the first time, Pat’s years of life and business experience were instrumental in guiding me and shaping my success doing business with all of the cultural and interpersonal differences. His passion for aviation and his attitude of working to smile when you talk will carry you through this life adventure of Pat’s journey to put his love for flying out ahead of all things rich in his life.

 

In book one of Pat’s journey in aviation, the reader will come along through his early years as a pilot, almost taking on a barnstorming adventure. Watching Pat’s journey through the clarity of hindsight, you begin to see why he is so qualified to pen his life’s passion. Whether flying a Stearman, he named Betty, to Oshkosh or delivering an F-27 to Rangoon, Pat literally keeps you grounded in his adventure while soaring to new aviation heights as a student of flying, and eventually a seasoned, qualified pilot. In Pat’s early years, as he worked diligently to raise the money to stay ahead of the cost to learn to fly, Pat relates a life lesson that kept him not chasing the dollars, but in fact sticking to what he loved, and learning that the dollars will chase him. 

 

As you travel with Pat, you soon realize that the bigger the world became through his passion of aviation, the harder it became for him to stay grounded in his hometown, state, or even country. Pat takes on a global fixation, one that will no doubt shape the rest of his aviation career. So, buckle up and prepare to take off for an adventure.

 

When Pat asked me to write the foreword for his first book, I was flattered as well as thrilled. I have been involved in aviation, starting what is now a 48-year-old family aviation brokerage and consulting business. Aviation has been my passion for a lifetime as well. Surrounding myself daily with my wife and business partner, as well as my two sons, as we create opportunities for others through aircraft ownership, fulfills my passion and allows me to meet and work with the likes of Pat Gordon.

​

Jay Mesinger