Professional Pilot, March 2018

Meeting Jerry Innella Dr Hajjar was frustrated with airline service and so became a business aviation charter customer By 2006 he was chartering fairly regularly and thats when he encountered Jerry Innella who was an aircraft captain for a charter activity Innellas 1st flight experience was actually in helicopters With no aviation background at all he joined the Army in 1965 hoping to learn to fly Before long he was a Chinook helicopter pilot in Vietnam Returning home in 1967 he was assigned to a helicopter training base in Savannah where in his spare time he earned all his civilian flight ratings In 1969 Innella separated from the Army rather than do another Vietnam tour I had a wife and son he recalls And it was getting bad over there When I first went over there were 18 from my training class and we all came home 5 went back for a 2nd tour and none of them returned home From helicopters to fixed wing At Fabergé Innella was initially hired as a helicopter pilot for their 2 Bell 205 JetRangers Fabergé also had a Saberliner and a Dassault Falcon 20 and Innellas job also included flying FO on the fixed wing aircraft In less than a year he was full time on FW and remained an FW pilot professionally ever since Innella would fly with Fabergé for the next decade but then the airline bug bit and he got hired at United in 1979 only to be furloughed in 1980 He soon landed an FW job at Seagrams based at HPN White Plains NY flying their Gulfstream IIs and IIIs 38 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2018 a Dassault Falcon 50 and a Beechcraft B200 King Air In 1984 United recalled Innella and he would fly with them as a captain and check airman on Boeing 757 767 aircraft for the next 21 years until reaching mandatory retirement age Not ready to quit flying going back to business aviation seemed a logical choice and he landed a job as a charter pilot on Bombardier Learjet 55s and Learjet 35s with LR Aviation based in at ABE Lehigh Valley Intl Allentown PA One of his regular clients was Dr Hajjar A tie between Dr Hajjar and Jerry Innella By 2006 Dr Hajjar and his wife Sharon were becoming more frequent charter customers and Innella 1 day suggested that perhaps the doctor should consider aircraft ownership After some discussion Dr Hajjar hired Innella in October 2006 with the initial goal of finding an airplane Innella considered several options but had pleasant memories of the Falcon 20 he had flown at Fabergé and concluded that was the right choice He located a suitable aircraft and after conducting an extensive pre buy inspection acquired it On February 1 2007 Innella began flying the Falcon 20 for Dr Hajjar and his family We did a lot of Atlantic crossings with that airplane Innella recalls Dr Hajjar was doing a lot of business in Europe at that time and we would do Gander nonstop to London or Paris all the time As operations with the Falcon 20 got underway Innella had a suggestion A flight attendant would provide a nice upscale touch Moreover he suggested that his wife Betty would be a good candidate Dr Hajjar liked the idea and interviewed Betty finding her to be an excellent choice And so Dr Hajjars Falcon 20 became a family operation with Jerry Innella in the captains seat and wife Betty taking care of passengers in the cabin Betty and Sharon Hajjar would soon become close friends A little more than 2 years later in 2009 Dr Hajjars flight operation became even more of a family affair Back in 1966 while Jerry was in Vietnam Betty had given birth to a son Believing her husband might not come home she named the boy Jerry Innella in honor of his dad Like his dad young Jerry grew up to be a pilot although the son went a Naval ROTC route and then flew Northrop Grumman E 2Cs from the USN aircraft carriers America CV66 and later the George Washington CVN 73 Later the younger Jerry would fly C 9s military DC 9s toward the end of a 20 year career in the Navy Also like his dad young Jerry joined United Airlines and at 1 point the 2 actually flew together with Jerry senior serving as check airman as young Jerry got qualified in 757 767s Also like his dad young Jerry got furloughed from United and was looking for a job just about the same time in 2009 that senior Jerry was looking for a new copilot Deciding that life as a corporate pilot might prove more stable than airline flying young Jerry went to FlightSafety for a Falcon 20 type rating He soon joined his dad in the cockpit making Dr Hajjars operation even more of a family endeavor From Falcon 20 to Falcon 900 Toward the end of 2012 the Falcon 20 was fully depreciated and Dr Hajjar had decided he would like to fly in a bigger airplane The 20 was soon sold off to another doctor and on February 3 2013 Jerry and Jerry Innella began flying Dr Hajjar in a newly acquired Dassault Falcon 900 The new aircraft was equipped with Honeywell avionics including FMZ 2000 FMS and a 5 tube EFIS system very similar to what was aboard Uniteds Boeing 757 767 aircraft The Innellas were immediately at home with the new system Today Dr Hajjars flight department operates under the banner of MMB Management Advisory Services a real estate company that owns surgery centers oncology centers and radiation centers as well as supporting businesses including warehousing and MMB Management Advisory Services father and son flightcrew aboard the companys Dassault Falcon 900 At left is Chief Pilot and Capt Jerry Innella and at right his son Capt Jerry Innella