By Douglas C. Wattoff • Millbrook Jet Strategies, LLC
I’m seeing a pattern that should make every aircraft owner pause:
Owners are looking for ways to reduce costs looking potential charter revenue. Your pilot doesn’t want to answer to a certificate holder or a legitimate management structure, so they “recommend” a dry lease arrangement. On paper it looks clean. Attorneys review it. The FAA has a copy of it, Money starts moving and your pilot is a hero.
And then something happens—an incident, an accident, a ramp check, a disgruntled passenger, an insurance dispute—and the music stops.
Here’s the problem: a document doesn’t determine legality. Operational control does.
If the owner is effectively calling the shots, the owner owns the exposure—whether they realize it or not.
Common tells you’re not actually “dry”:
- The pilot is being paid directly by the owner (or there are side deals off the books)
- The pilot answers to the owner’s preferences and priorities—not the “lessee’s” control structure
- Trips are being arranged like transportation (“we’ll handle it, just send the details”)
- The owner can’t clearly explain who has operational control and how it’s exercised day-to-day
- Your pilot manager sets up an LLC to receive payments for piloting the aircraft. (If your pilot is flying the airplane you’re likely in operational control)
If you’re the owner, ask two fundamental questions:
- Who truly controls the flight—crew, dispatch decisions, maintenance decisions, and go/no-go authority?
- If your loved one was on the flight, how hard would you fight to show the aircraft owner was in operational control. (It’s easier than you think)
And here’s the real-world gut check:
If your airplane is in Montana with a maintenance issue, who makes the call?
Are you comfortable with someone deciding to spend $30,000 to get it flying two days earlier… or would you require it to remain AOG until the part can be overhauled and you save $20,000?
That decision—speed vs. cost, risk tolerance, and maintenance standard—is operational control in the real world, not in the lease paperwork.
Dry leases can be legitimate. But when a dry lease is used to bypass real oversight, it often benefits the pilot in the short term while placing the owner in the blast radius long term.
Now the part owners often miss:
A legitimate certificate holder has a statutory duty to exercise operational control over the flights they conduct. That means documented systems, accountable supervision, and a defensible chain of command—especially around crew, maintenance, dispatch, and go/no-go decisions.
In plain English: a reputable certificate holder isn’t just “extra overhead.” They can be a real buffer between you and a financial abyss—because when something goes wrong, there’s an established compliance structure (and responsibility) sitting between the event and your personal balance sheet.
Dry leases can be legitimate. But when a dry lease is used to bypass real oversight, it often benefits the pilot in the short term while placing the owner in the blast radius long term.
Where Millbrook Jet Strategies fits
Most owners don’t need “more paperwork.” They need someone who can look past the paperwork and pressure-test what’s actually happening operationally.
Millbrook Jet Strategies helps owners make defensible decisions before the FAA, insurance, or a plaintiff’s attorney is the one asking the questions. We assess the real-world operational control picture, flag hidden exposure in lease/charter structures, and help you build a structure that matches your mission without betting your balance sheet on assumptions.
If you’re considering a dry lease—or you’ve already been presented one as a “simple solution”—I’m happy to be the independent sounding board before you commit.
Because it’s never a problem… until it is.
Not legal advice—just the reality of how operational control gets assessed when it matters most.
About the Author
Douglas Wattoff is the Founder of Millbrook Jet Strategies, LLC and an adjunct professor of Business Aviation at Bowling Green State University, home to one of the nation’s top-ranked aviation programs. A retired U.S. Air Force officer, he is type-rated in numerous turbojet aircraft with more than 10,000 flight hours. Douglas holds an MBA from the University of Colorado, previously built a 25-aircraft management company from the ground up, and founded, certified, and operated a worldwide Part 135 air charter company—starting and scaling the operation on his own.
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