Nai Ko, Jr. knew from a young age that he was going to fly and had drawn a self-portrait as a pilot when his elementary school art teacher asked about his career aspirations. His Taiwanese immigrant parents forbade him from pursuing flight training while in school, though. The goal of becoming a pilot was realized in his mid-twenties, after graduating from Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The pursuit of fulfilling this lifelong aspiration ultimately led to Ko owning a HondaJet Elite II and a Cirrus SR22 today, as well as two helicopters – a Bell 407GXi and a Robinson R44 Raven II. The first aircraft he owned was a Cirrus SR20 he got in 2013, which was replaced by an SR22 two years later. And when the Vision Jet debuted a few years later, he bought one of those.
“The Vision Jet is exciting, but the challenge that I had was how unreliable it was. I love Cirrus, but the plane was always breaking – fuel control units, radomes, temperature control valve motors, and pitot heat failures. And with full fuel on board, you’re limited to about 400 or 500 pounds of passenger and luggage payload, which means it’s a two-person aircraft at that point,” Ko explained, adding that he started considering other options after three months of single-engine jet ownership.
The timing of beginning to look for another option coincided with AirVenture in July of 2021, where he spent time speaking with representatives at the OEMs’ booths. One manufacturer bounced him from salesperson to salesperson, and a real discussion about their products never came to fruition.
“I then went to the HondaJet display, where I met Grant Kennedy and Mike Murphy, who immediately showed me the aircraft and answered all of my questions. It was clear to me that they could provide the ownership experience that I wanted, and that’s what sold the airplane. It was a very good first experience.”
He contended that the HondaJet also comes out on top when running a performance comparison amongst other similar-sized light jets.
“Manufacturers are always highlighting range, fuel economy, and payload. The Honda beats all of them in those categories and is exactly as advertised. I have about 700 hours on my Honda, and I have had a 100% dispatch reliability record. The thing is never broken.”
Ko works in the automotive industry, and the aircraft is used in support of professional endeavors, as well as for personal trips. He has flown the aircraft coast to coast and as far south as the Caribbean.
“The aircraft is quiet and powerful. The [pylon-mounted, GE Honda HF120] turbofan engines exhibit very little lag, so they respond quickly when you apply the throttle. It’s very stable and maneuverable, and if you fly it the way the POH tells you to, it really delivers 100%,” he said.
Honda is an innovator in all of the spaces that it competes in, and their forward-thinking, engineering-driven mindset may have actually had an unintended negative impact upon the company’s first aircraft design.
“What’s special about the HondaJet is that with its low wing design, one of the benefits is that you don’t flare the aircraft because once you enter into ground effect – the low wing in ground effect will reduce your descent rate and essentially act like a flare. So, when you come in, you just hold that positive attitude, like an airliner, and take the power out over the threshold. Then, keeping that same attitude, you’re on the ground at the 1000 ft. marker,” he explained.
“If you flare, you’ll float. I can only imagine that Honda engineers asked themselves how they could help pilots land easier and decided to take the flare out of the equation. The airplane is not a hard one to fly; you just need to land it the way it was designed to land, which is actually very easy to do.”
Landing is a primary concern of operators and those who consider purchasing the aircraft, as there have been 39 recorded HondaJet runway excursions recorded (per FAA Safety Team notice NOTC4956 published on May 1, 2026).
This notice’s recommendations are clear; fly the aircraft to the manufacturer’s recommendations without deviation.
While the HA-420 is not a difficult aircraft to land, a specific technique is required. Review the following points:
Perform landing procedure as outlined in the Performance Introduction section of the HondaJet Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM).
Fly Vref with no additives. Incorporating Vref additives can negatively affect landing performance.
Like any other aircraft, there are nuances for performing type-specific maneuvers appropriately. Ko has said that when coming in at Vref and threshold braking just before the point of activating anti-skid (which can increase ground roll), he has landed his HondaJet under all published landing distances.
There are numerous other resources providing more color surrounding landing the aircraft, including the HondaJet Owners and Pilots Association (HJOPA) type club. This organization, of which Ko is a board member, is dedicated to the safety of the pilot community. One of their hallmark efforts is the Proficient Pilot Program (P3).
“This program integrates advanced flight planning capabilities using ForeFlight Flight Data Analysis (FDA) and sophisticated flight data analysis tools. By leveraging these cutting-edge resources, P3 aims to significantly enhance flight safety, refine piloting skills, and cultivate a stronger, safer HondaJet community through shared knowledge and best practices.”
Ko explained that the HondaJet is “a beautiful flying aircraft and a joy to fly,” before noting that he has his sights set on the company’s next model – the Echelon. This 2,625 nautical mile aircraft would have the longest range of any single-pilot jet if initially suspected numbers are accurate upon certification.
“Honda is a very smart company, and they’ve recognized that many aircraft require pilots to do mental math to add half the gust factor to their approach speeds. Their intuition when they built the HondaJet was ‘let’s make it easy for pilots and design it so that our airplanes fly Vref regardless of the gust factor,’” he said.
“Pilots have this motor memory in their brain to add half the gust factor in every aircraft that they fly, and that’s what gets HondaJet pilots in trouble. I think Honda will take into account this widely adopted pilot motor memory for the Echelon design and they will work on bigger tires and brakes. It will be a phenomenal machine that’s more fuel-efficient; one that can take me cross-country non-stop and even over to Hawaii with my family on board.”
Family has always played an important role in Nai’s aviation journey, although the initial inspiration for becoming a pilot was never clear to him. It was just always something he wanted to do. But much later, after earning his wings, he learned that his grandfather flew B-24 bombers in WWII alongside the Americans.
In addition to his 2023 HondaJet Elite II, Ko is also the owner of a turbine helicopter – a 2023 Bell 407GXi that has a service ceiling of 20,000 feet. While a wholly different flying experience, the jet and helicopter having the same avionics suite helps lessen the mental workload required when switching between different systems.
“The PIC in an aircraft is often the left seat, and the PIC in a helicopter is often the right seat, so my left hand is the dominant hand for flying fixed-wing, and my right hand is my dominant hand for flying rotorcraft. This separation helps because it allows me to compartmentalize different channels in my brain. For example: in emergency flight maneuvers, my left hand pushes forward on the yoke to break a stall, and my right hand pulls aft cyclic to weight the rotor head.”
Even with their distinct differences, one similarity is evident – a jet and a helicopter both provide pilots a unique view of the world that many are not fortunate to see themselves.
“The magic of flying a jet like the HondaJet is how it saves time. The magic of flying a helicopter is how it forces us to live in the present, where nothing should happen quickly. For me, the joy of flying either an airplane or a helicopter is the intimate romance with Mother Earth and the humility that comes from the fragility of flight. It’s cool, but you better have your game on.”
