Cover article for November 2013 King Air magazine

A MAGAZINE FOR THE OWNER/PILOT OF KING AIR AIRCRAFT

NOVEMBER 2013 • VOLUME 7, NUMBER 8 • $4.50

For the Love of Flying C90GTx fuels Luis Carlos Sarmiento, Jr.’s passion

Flying for Flying’s S Preeminent Colombian banking mogul capitalizes on King Air C90GTx assets

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s the president and CEO of the largest financial conglomerate in Colombia and Central America, Luis Sarmiento, Jr. relies on a trio

of business jets to transport company executives within and between the countries they serve.

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Based in Bogota, Grupo Aval S.A. controls four commercial banks, a merchant bank and a pension fund manager in Colombia and banks in six Central American countries – approximately $150 billion in managed assets and 70,000 employees.

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s Sake

As a private pilot making up for lost flight hours, Sarmiento, Jr. relies on a Beechcraft King Air C90GTx and a vintage two-seat Piper Super Cub to feed his passion. He flies purely for enjoyment, it offers a different challenge than his day-to-day business dealings.

NORTH OCEAN

“Every flight is a new flight and I treat each one like ATLANTIC a learning experience,” said Sarmiento, Jr., who got his private pilot license in 1986 and has accumulated about 2,000 flight hours.

by Melinda Schnyder

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Lessons Learned Sarmiento, Jr. was born in 1961, the only son of self-made billionaire Luis Carlos Sarmiento, Sr., in Colombia’s largest city and capital, Bogota. Sarmiento, Sr. started modestly, building residential and commercial developments in the 1950s. He used his success in construction to acquire real estate, telecommunications and banking interests, which he eventually gathered under the holding company Grupo Aval.

S T A T E S

NICARAGUA LA GUAJIRA

MEXICO

Gulf of Mexico

CARIBBEAN SEA

KFXE

MAGDALENA

ATLANTICO

MYER

CESAR

THE BAHAMAS COSTA RICA

CUBA

TURKS AND CAICOS

PANAMA DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

HAITI Golfo de Chiriqui

BOLIVAR

CORDOBA

VENEZUELA PUERTO RICO

JAMAICA

US

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

ARAUCA ANTIOQUIA SANTANDER

ST KITS AND NEVIS

GUATEMALA

CARIBBEAN SEA

HONDURAS

EL SALVADOR

SUCRE SANTANDER

MKJP BELIZE

NORTE DE

GolfoUK de los Mosquitos

Bahía de Coronado

BOYACA

SAINT LUCIA

TNCA

NICARAGUA

CAPE

CASANARE

DOMINICA

CHOCO BARBADOS

RISARALDA

CALDAS AND ST VINCENT THE GRENADINES

VICHADA

SANTA FE DE BOGOTÁ

GRENADA

PACIFIC TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO OCEAN

CUNDINAMARCA

QUINDIO

COSTA RICA

TOLIMA M

PANAMA

E

T

GUAINÍA

A

VALLE DEL CAUCA

VENEZUELA

GUYAN

HUILA

CAUCA

A

C O LO M B I A

GUAVIARE

SURINAM

NARIÑO

SKGY SKBO

GUYANE FRANÇAISE C A Q U E T A

VAUPES

BRAZIL

PUTUMAYO

ECUADOR

BRAZIL ECUADOR

PERU

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M

A

Z

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N

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S

PERU

Sarmiento Jr. flying his 2010 King Air C90GTx on a route he calls the “Lake Tour” because he flies over several lakes located in the middle of the Andean mountain range near Bogota, Colombia.

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SOUT ATLAN OCEA

Luis Carlos Sarmiento Jr. was part owner of the 2009 C90GTi, on the left, before purchasing the 2010 C90GTx on his own. Here they are shown parked at a Colombian farm that belongs to one of the owners of the GTi.

Grupo Aval is a public company trading in the Colombian Stock Exchange with approximately 100,000 shareholders. The company is also registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; the firm is Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, but has not yet issued shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

At 80, the elder Sarmiento is still the majority shareholder and continues to work daily as the company’s chairman. Sarmiento, Jr. said he was fortunate to have a number of great mentors early in his career. It wasn’t until he was 35 years old and had been living in the United States for 19 years that he realized he was missing out on learning side-by-side with one of the world’s best businessmen.

While in high school, Sarmiento, Jr. moved to Miami, Fla., for safety after one of his four sisters and a cousin were kidnapped by Colombian guerrillas. He earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Miami and a master’s of business administration in finance from Cornell University, including a semester studying in Paris at Sorbonne University.

He started his career at Procter & Gamble with jobs in finance and marketing at the company’s headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1990, he moved to New York City to work for First Bank of the Americas, a bank owned by Grupo Aval. It was in 1996 that Sarmiento, Jr. returned to live and work in Colombia. He became CEO in 2000, by which time Grupo Aval held an estimated 22 percent of the local banking assets.

“My father had put together such an interesting business. He could teach me a lot of things. So I decided to grab the opportunity,” Sarmiento, Jr. told Latin Trade magazine when The Latin Trade Group named him Dynamic CEO of the Year in 2011.

In the 13 years Sarmiento, Jr. has been CEO, Grupo Aval reports it has grown at a compounded growth rate of approximately 20 percent and has focused expansion internationally, with the acquisition of nine banks in Central America. The father-son team orchestrated the 4 • ­KING AIR MAGAZINE

$1.9 billion purchase from GE Capital of the Central American financial group BAC-Credomatic in 2010, the largest-ever foreign acquisition by a Colombian company and a defining moment for Grupo Aval.

While Sarmiento, Jr. is the only pilot in the family, some of the lessons his father has taught him in the boardroom translate to the cockpit. “My father likes to say, ‘aim for the sky, but always prepare for what the worst outcome might be.’ That is the secret of his Midas touch,” Sarmiento, Jr. said. “You know how people say that flying is a few seconds of excitement followed by a whole lot of boring? I make sure to fill up the ‘boring’ part with constant questions of ‘what would I do if…?’ ” He fills in the blank with situations such as engine outs, propeller overspeed, runaway trim, double flame out, irregular flaps, stuck landing gear, loss of avionics or primary display blackout.

Fascinated with Flight Although no other family members fly, Sarmiento, Jr. was fascinated with airplanes from a young age. “I had always wanted to fly. Planes just attracted me like magnets. They still do. I can’t help but look up every time a plane flies by,” he said.

His first experience at the controls of an airplane came in 1986, when his boss’ boss at Procter & Gamble mentioned he was going to fly his Beechcraft Bonanza at the nearby Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport (KLUK). “I was fortunate enough to have great bosses at P&G who really took good care of me,” he said. “One of them turned out to be a pilot. He drove me to Lunken Airport and all but registered me in the local flight school, the ‘A frame’ we called it.”

Within the year, he had earned his private pilot license in a Beechcraft Skipper and moved up to a Beechcraft Sundowner. Three years later, in 1990, he moved from Cincinnati to New York City. His job there was more time-consuming and getting to a GA airport was more of a hassle; any free time was devoted to his wife and  starting a family.

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It wasn’t until the return to Colombia that Sarmiento, Jr. began to fly on a regular basis again, and it was 2004 – 17 years after learning to fly – that he purchased his first airplane, a 1985 BE58P pressurized Beechcraft Baron.

“I knew that eventually I would move up to turbines, but I wanted to get more experience in piston engines,” Sarmiento, Jr. said. “I wanted to buy a twin aircraft that was still in production. I had only two choices – the Beech Baron and Piper Seneca. The problem was that new Barons were not turbocharged and because of the altitude of my home airport, turbocharged engines were a must. Since I was so familiar with Beechcraft, the Baron was my natural choice. I bought TJ479, one of the last P Barons built. It was a great aircraft!”

He flew the Baron about 900 hours and sold it when he acquired, along with three pilot friends, a Beechcraft King Air C90GTi in 2009. He flew about 300 hours before selling his part of the C90GTi and buying his own 2010 King Air C90GTx. He had wing lockers installed at the Beechcraft facility in Tampa, Fla., after picking up the new airplane at the Beechcraft plant in Wichita, Kan., in November 2010.

“I fell in love with Beech ever since I got my private license in Cincinnati, but I fell more in love with turbines ever since I purchased my first C90,” said Sarmiento, Jr., adding that he’s flown about 400 hours in his current

Happy King Air owner, Sarmiento Jr., picks up his 2010 C90GTx at the Beechcraft factory. Photo credit T&J Studios

airplane. “The reliability is just superb. I would never fly my wife and boys on an aircraft that I wasn’t totally at ease with when it came to mechanical reliability.”

He said the C90GTx is the ideal aircraft for flying on his own or with his family: the twin-engines give him the power and safety he wants to operate in Colombia’s mountainous geography, he has confidence in the airplane’s reliability to take it over the ocean, he’s able to land on short grass airstrips and the cabin is comfortable for his wife and three sons, as well as versatile enough to hold up to seven passengers.

The two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-135A turboprop engines allow Sarmiento, Jr. to operate from his home airport Guaymaral Airport (SKGY) on the northwest side of Bogota, which is located at 8,400 feet and between mountain ranges.

Sarmiento, Jr. expects to continue flying the C90GTx between150 and 200 hours per year to diverse destinations, constantly putting to the test the King Air’s versatility, ruggedness, comfort and quality.

Flying Over the Ocean “I find that the GTx is tre­ mendously reliable and therefore I have done a fair amount of over-theocean flying on trips,” Sarmiento, Jr. said. Regular trips include visiting his two oldest sons who are in 6 • ­KING AIR MAGAZINE

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college in Florida, taking his wife and his youngest son on two-hour flights to Aruba for the weekend or taking the entire family to the Bahamas.

His route to Florida is a threehour, 10-minute flight from El Dorado International Airport in Bogota (SKBO) to Kingston, Jamaica, (MKJP) for fuel, then about two hours and 30 minutes to Ft. Lauderdale Executive (KFXE).

“I try to fly with, at most, six on board total, but a more comfortable ride is four on board,” he said.

With a 60-knot headwind, it took us over five hours. He made it right on time. “Since I had to be back home, I flew that night to Chattanooga, Tenn. The following day, I flew to Ft. Lauderdale and back to Bogota (an additional eight hours). Would I do it again? As long as I am healthy and capable, of course!”

Sarmiento, Jr. flies to the Bahamas with five on board if his oldest sons are home from college or with three when they are not. His first leg is the Sarmiento Jr. spending time doing one of the same: SKBO – MKJP for fuel. From One exception was a trip last year things he loves most – flying.

Kingston he flies about two hours to that Sarmiento, Jr. calls a monster mission – about Rock Sound on the island of Eleuthera (MYER), where he 20 hours of single-pilot IFR time in three days taking owns a home and his father owns a major piece of land. his oldest son, Luis Carlos III, from Bogota to begin a “It is the closest thing to paradise: huge beaches, pink summer job in Indiana. “I really wanted to spend time sand, clear water and lots of nothing to do,” Sarmiento, with him so I offered to fly him there. The problem Jr. said. “The only problem is that I only get to go once was that he had to be there on a Saturday at noon and or twice a year for three or four days because of my it was Thursday already. To make matters a bit more work commitments.” complicated, I had to be back in Bogota the following Monday,” Sarmiento, Jr. said.

Flying within Colombia “So Luis and I flew the GTx Friday to Ft. Lauderdale (about six hours); we got up the following morning at 4:45 a.m. and flew the 1,100 miles to Culver, Ind.

Sarmiento, Jr. considers the United States his second home and still enjoys flying within the States, but he also loves the beauty and challenges of his native country.

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Luis Carlos Sarmiento Jr. was one of four businessmen appointed by Colombia’s president to organize the Summit of the Americas held in April 2012 in Cartagena on Colombia’s northern coast. The summit was attended by 24 heads of state including President Barack Obama and more than 100 top executives of companies around the world. Sarmiento Jr.’s King Air C90GTx is shown in the foreground near Air Force One.

When he only has an hour or so to fly the C90GTx, Sarmiento, Jr. can be seen practicing single-engine procedures, stalls, slow flight and steep turns. Or he might opt for leisure flying along his favorite route that takes him over beautiful lakes located within the surrounding mountains.

Most of the airports he uses in Colombia are paved, but he does get a chance to land on grass airstrips when he travels to farmland in two eastern Colombian states: Casanare and Vichada. He owns the land with partners, who are also pilots.

“One is mostly a recreational farm and the other is a pretty extensive piece of land with fantastic fauna – tigers, wild boar, deer, alligators,” Sarmiento, Jr. said.

“A major motivation to become a partner in both farms was the possibility to fly there and to have landing strips that practically end where the houses’ living rooms begin. “I can land the GTx on a 2,000 to 3,000-foot grass airstrip with six or seven people on board and you don’t feel a thing.”

The eastern side of Colombia is less developed, with few access roads. Driving to the first farm is at least an eight-hour trip during the dry season, up to 10 hours during the rainy season. It’s a 50-minute flight in the C90GTx. Driving to the other farmland would be a 24hour adventure during the dry season and unreachable 8 • ­KING AIR MAGAZINE

during the rainy season. Sarmiento, Jr. can fly the C90GTx there in 80 minutes.

Sarmiento, Jr. also flies to remote areas of the country as part of Colombia’s Civil Air Patrol. He donates as many as 25 hours per year of his time flying surgeons and nurses who work in locations that lack primary medical facilities. His most recent mission was to a 2,400-foot gravel runway in Magdalena, a state on the north coast bordering the Caribbean Sea. “Those doctors and nurses donate their time and skills to set up operating rooms where they can perform basic surgical procedures and they also do a lot of consulting to diagnose patients who are then remitted to larger hospitals around the country,” Sarmiento, Jr. said. “I enjoy donating my time, but the real heroes are the medical professionals who stay in those places for four to five days at a time and do their job in really precarious conditions.”

More Flying on the Horizon Earlier this year, Sarmiento, Jr. added a second airplane: a 1951 Piper Super Cub PA-18 that had been imported new by the Colombian flying club to which he belongs. “It has had several owners, but I was able to track its ownership history and logbooks for the last 20 years so I have a pretty good idea of where it’s been and what it has gone through,” he said. “I’ve decided to do some major restoration, so just recently I placed a major order with Cubcrafters in the U.S. for a new engine, propeller, vortex generators, etc.”

He mostly flies the Super Cub near the airport and does touch-and-goes. “I like to use it for training because NOVEMBER 2013

it’s a back-to-basics flying experience and a great stick and rudder reminder.”

Sarmiento, Jr. said he tries to fly both the King Air and the Super Cub every weekend he is home. His parents and his four siblings – all sisters and all live abroad – use a Gulfstream 650 and a Gulfstream 550 for their personal travel. Grupo Aval operates a Hawker 900XP, a Bombardier Challenger 301 and a Learjet 60 for executive travel.

“Because of the vast geographical coverage of our business – within and between the countries we serve – it became imperative to save on travel time via general aviation,” Sarmiento, Jr. said. “Otherwise two- to three-hour trips become full-day expeditions.

I often leave in the morning and come back that night, which I could not possibly accomplish were it not for the business jets. ” For now, you’ll find Sarmiento, Jr. in the cabin of the business aircraft reading anything he can find about flying and related subjects. “I have to admit that I have stopped carrying literary novels or trade books to read on planes – I take flying magazines,” he said.

“I would like to get type-rated in the company’s Hawker 900XP; but that does not mean that I would give up the GTx!” KA

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