Professional Pilot, May 2018

Luxurious amenities on display at 2 of Robson Communities in Arizona At left is the Ranch House clubhouse at the Robson Ranch community near Casa Grande and at right the Oasis Pool Complex at the PebbleCreek community in the far west valley of Phoenix PROFESSIONAL PILOT May 2018 55 story of piloting a rented plane with a friend from Colorado Springs back to Phoenix They encountered storms along the way so Robson skirted around the front of the clouds not wanting to challenge the weather with his limited IFR experience This flightpath pushed him all the way to Tucson 100 miles southeast of his desired destination He soon realized he did not have enough fuel to make it back to Phoenix so he landed the plane in Casa Grande called the rental company and told them where their plane was then took a taxi home He chuckles when recalling the adventure I got to thinking Ive probably done enough flying Robson found work in the Valley of the Sun with real estate icon Del Webb Taking the wealth of experience he learned at his time with Webb Robson and some investors ventured out on their own After some ups and downs in 1972 he opened his first big project It was on 2560 acres of farmland on the outskirts of Phoenix that Robson broke ground on Sun Lakes Initially selling double wide mobile homes his master planned community eventually blossomed into a town in and of itself On site built homes supplanted the mobile homes and were joined by retail shops golf courses and medical offices Along the way Robson bought out his partners to become the sole proprietor This was just the beginning In the years that followed Robson Communities would open 6 more locations spread across Arizona and an additional community just outside of Dallas TX Robson buys Citations Ed Robsons success and expansion led to an even greater need for travel but the means had to be convenient and effective from a business standpoint In the late 1970s Robson purchased a Cessna Citation Bravo For many years he stuck with the Cessna brand going through a succession of Citations including a II a V one of his favorite planes and a VII In 2000 Robson seized an opportunity from his now deceased mentors company The Del Webb corporation had decided to sell their flight operations and Robson bought the whole Scottsdale based package plane hangar and pilots This time the plane was a 1 year old Hawker 800XP He enjoyed the aircraft but wanted something bigger so he moved on to a Dassault Falcon 2000 then later to a Falcon 2000EX which he purchased new in 2008 and still currently operates While the success of Ed Robson and Robson Communities is clearly the result of the business acumen of its founder he does give credit and appreciation to the value of aviation There are many areas that business aviation has benefited me Robson explains It improves the company morale it gives us flexibility and it gives us time It allows my people to do their job then go home at night no matter where they need to be during the day People are proud to work for this company and the aircraft is one thing that adds to that feeling Known for his generosity to the community in the form of his extensive philanthropy Robson also frequently takes employees and clients on team building trips Having an aircraft like this is expensive But it makes us even more productive he adds Personnel When Robson purchased the Del Webb flight program in 2000 as part of the deal he also brought in Director of Aviation and Chief Pilot Chris Wible An Ashtabula OH native Wible came to Phoenix in 1982 to work construction with his father During the 8 years he worked for his dad he also took up flying as a hobby Wible says Then I followed the CFI route to building hours I earned my ratings and did some instructing around the area to build some time and experience In 1990 he was asked to co pilot a Piper Cheyenne 400 twin turboprop from Phoenix to Tokyo for the Fukutomi corporation Upon return from this trip the chairman called and offered him the fulltime position of flying the Cheyenne Wible continued flying the 400 until the mid 90s when his first opportunity to fly jet aircraft came his way The Kencorp company hired him to fly their Learjet 24 primarily for personal flights of executives He stayed with them until 1995 when he got word of a position opening up with the Del Webb flight department I was at lunch with Giant Oil Dir of Av Chief Pilot Chris Wible has led the Robson flight dept for the past 18 years Photos courtesy Robson Communities