James Keyes

The first airplane that Keyes owned was a Bonanza

James Keyes knew from a young age that he wanted to be involved in aviation in some fashion. His initial goal was to be an astronaut and has set his sights towards the stars ever since. As a boy he sought to learn as much as he could about space missions. While he had no lack of tenacity or ingenuity, money was a challenge growing up – so he built his own rocket out of a flashlight tube and a bag of gasoline.

These same skills have served Keyes well in business and have enabled him to purchase a cadre of aircraft over the years. While he hasn’t yet been to outer space, he has landed his own jet at the Kennedy Space Center and has flown in zero-gravity with an astronaut turned friend.

Keyes’ foray into general aviation first started after graduating from college, he explained.

“I was applying for ROTC just as the Vietnam War was ending, so they were furloughing all the pilots, and I abandoned my plans for military training. As soon as I graduated and had my first job, I began taking flying lessons. I went from Cessna 152s to a Beechcraft Sierra and then eventually bought my first plane in the mid 1980s, an A36 Bonanza, after tiring of rental airplanes with their varying levels of equipment.”

In business, Keyes ultimately ascended to the C-suite, where he held the chief executive officer role at both 7-Eleven, Inc. and Blockbuster, Inc. He is now the chairman of Key Development, LLC, an investment group that promotes growth and expansion in diverse business areas. A resident of Dallas, he also serves on a collection of corporate/advisory boards, as well as philanthropic boards. General aviation makes getting to various commitments across the country possible.

“I had a gradual evolution from the normally aspirated Bonanza to a turbo-normalized Bonanza with tip tanks that gave me a lot more range, as well as a lot more power and climb performance. I flew that for a while and then decided to upgrade to a Baron, which I flew three different ones over the years. At that point I diverged a little bit and was minus an airplane for a while and was going crazy because I wasn’t flying. My wife actually signed me up for helicopter lessons,” Keyes recalled, noting that a trip to Italy to get his seaplane rating at the Aero Club Como followed shortly thereafter.

“From there, I ended up in the turboprop world and started flying Piper Malibu Meridians. I didn’t buy one, but did do a dry lease and then started to get a little bit of King Air time logged. Around that time, I decided that I wanted to upgrade to a Citation and bought my first CJ1 around 2005.”

The light jet market was really abuzz back then, and Keyes considered several models before choosing this Cessna airframe. He really liked the Eclipse but chose the CJ1 because of its range, reliability, Textron’s parts support, as well as the ability to move up the lineup with a common type rating.

“I flew the CJ1 for a couple of years and had a very good experience with it,” he said. “I then upgraded to a CJ3 and right about that time I took on the role of CEO of Blockbuster, so I was travelling all over the country. The CJ3 ended up being a great platform for business travel because I could virtually cover almost every market in the country from Dallas without stopping for fuel.”

The FJ44-3A powered Citation was paired with another Cessna, a TTx that had a similar paint job and tail number. Keyes really felt that he had the best of both worlds with these aircraft, as the single-engine piston was a great choice when flying in Texas, often to Austin or Houston.

“The TTx was very comfortable and I enjoyed flying it. What happened is that it got me hooked on the Garmin G2000, whereas I had the Collins Pro Line 21 in the CJ3. Single-pilot operations with the Garmin avionics systems are so comfortable, and you have so much information at your fingertips,” he said.

“I ended up selling the CJ3, but my timing was terrible. I bought it new from the factory in 2008 and sold it in 2016. I ended up keeping the TTx for a while and then bought a CitationJet before getting another CJ1.”

Sticking true to form, Keyes kept his mind within the Citation family when considering his next move, settling on a 2015 Citation M2 that he got in September of 2020. He no longer needed the legs of the larger Citation that he once had, and this 525 is a great fit for the trips that he often makes alone. If weather is particularly adverse, or his schedule is packed or has him coming home late after a speech – Keyes will often elect to fly with a safety pilot.

“The M2 is a semi cross country airplane but it’s perfect for me because I very seldom take passengers,” he said. “A frequent mission of mine is Los Angeles. I fly into Hawthorne (KHHR) and can usually make that trip out there with 700 pounds of reserve. The only times I sometimes can’t make it is in the middle of the winter, when there are strong headwinds.”

Keyes lives only five minutes from Addison Airport (KADS) and has an office above the hangar, providing him additional convenience and flexibility. On longer flights, he gets the plane up to FL400/410 as quickly as he can. Speeds are usually around 385 to 395 KTAS, and fuel burn is close to 1,000 pounds in the first hour – including the climb. Consumption falls to about 390 pounds per side once at FL410. In ISA conditions and with a light load, it only takes him 20 minutes to get up to that altitude.

Overall, Keyes doesn’t have much to say when asked how the M2 could be improved. An extra 300 pounds of fuel space in the tank would be appreciated by all operators, he stated – noting that he would be in favor personally of giving up two seats for the extra fuel capacity.

Keyes estimates that he flies the M2 about 150 hours per year and enjoys the cerebral challenge of annual recurrent training. He has tried several different recurrent training options over the years, but has decided that FlightSafety works best for him.

“FlightSafety upgraded their use of technology after buying TRU [Simulation] and what I like best is the ability with the 525 rating to do all your ground school work online. There is the interactive capability where you can turn systems on and off – watch the flow of hydraulics and electricity. This is incredibly valuable and I learned so much more through this, than in the classroom with PowerPoint presentations.”

As Keyes has progressed in his career, and in the cockpit, he has become more intentional about applying the science of learning.

“One of the things that I’m doing now, is that about a year and a half ago I released a book called Education is Freedom. I talk a lot about aviation lessons, because they provide so much that can be carried over into regular life. For example, when you get your pilot’s license it’s a license to learn – right? The goal with aviation is to keep learning. The more you learn, the better you will be as a pilot and the longer you will get to fly,” he explained.

“The same principles apply in the boardroom. I’ve had the privilege of leading two Fortune 500 companies and characterize the role of CEO as ‘Change Equals Opportunity.’ The biggest killer of careers often is fear; people are afraid. It took me so many years to realize that when I’m training in a simulator, what the instructor is doing is trying to reprogram my brain. So instead of relying on my pre-programmed human patterns that keep us from being eaten by a lion, you learn to react properly in an emergency and there is no room for fear because your brain has been reprogrammed using a concept called neuroplasticity. Now, instead of being afraid, I know where my emergency checklist is, and how to methodically find a solution.”

When not in the simulator or in the flight levels, he can be found flying around Texas in an Aviat Husky – and recently sold his T-6 Texan. Taildragger and aerobatic flying are both ways to keep your skills sharp.

And with thousands of hours flying jets and other aircraft over more than four decades, Keyes has never turned his eyes away from the stratosphere. The back-of-the-mind thought of wanting to be an astronaut never went away.

“I had the privilege of getting to know a number of astronauts over the years. Buzz Aldrin and I were both inducted into an organization called Horatio Alger [Association of Distinguished Americans] and have become good friends. We have flown together on several occasions, and he introduced me to his peers, Charlie Duke, Walt Cunningham, and Al Worden, among others. So, I’ve had four or five different Apollo astronauts and several shuttle pilots in my cockpit, which has been such a privilege,” Keyes said.

“One day Charlie Duke, from Apollo 16, called me up and said ‘Hey, Jim. Nicole Stott (another astronaut) and are going to do an Omega Watch commercial in zero gravity. Do you want to come?’ It took me a nanosecond to accept that invitation. But the best part was that I flew to Greenville, South Carolina to pick General Duke up and since he was with me, we got permission from NASA to land on the Kennedy Space Center shuttle strip. That was such a blast; it was an amazing experience!”