BELGRADE - When Gallatin Field General Manager Ted Mathis began working at the airport in 1981, there were 29 hangars for private planes.
ERIK PETERSEN/Chronicle Jets line the tarmac as Yellowstone Jet Center workers tend to them over President's Day weekend, an especially busy time for the Jet Center. Today, there are 165, including the 17 new ones built last year.
When it comes to expensive toys, private planes are right up there. A modest model costs about the same as a new diesel pickup, around $50,000, and renting one of those new hangar spaces can cost hundreds of dollars a month. And then there’s the insurance and fuel.
Clearly, a lot of people in the Gallatin Valley have a lot of disposable income.
Most of the local planes run on propellers, but 27 private jets are registered here, too, Mathis said. And they comprise only a fraction of the private jet traffic.
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I use to work on the Flying 'D"....is it still owned by Ted? or did Jane get it in the divorce? Whow owned that ranch before? Wards or Schmits?
And I use to live on Dickerson....there was no offices their befor that I new of....is the IGA still on the corner?