ISTAT Jetrader - Spring 2021 - 23

least and go and do something within
the industry - something that's
going to reinforce your understanding
of aircraft or systems or values or
financing so you can actually become
a more competent appraiser. Because,
at the end of the day, appraising
encapsulates so many different
functions in the market; you really
have to be the top chef wearing so
many different hats. But it's extremely
difficult to do if you haven't actually
lived and breathed and gone through
one or two downturns in the industry.

Jeff Straebler
Executive Director of the ISTAT
Appraisers Program (IAP)
*Aired on 18 November 2020

On his experience on Sept. 11, 2001:
I was at [Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi]
during 9/11. Our offices were in
Midtown in the Rockefeller Center
complex. So, I was there when it
happened. We were commercial
bankers, so we didn't all have
Bloomberg terminals. There was
one Bloomberg for the floor and low
wall cubicles. One of my colleagues,
he was at the Bloomberg and said
something like, " Oh my god, a plane
crashed into one of the Twin Towers. "
And I'm thinking to myself, " Well, it's
a beautiful day. Must have been some
yahoo - a private pilot who was not
paying attention. " I didn't really give
it a second thought. I can't remember
how long it was - maybe 20 minutes,
30 minutes - he said something like,
" Another plane has crashed into the
towers. " My view was: I knew we were
under attack. I lived in New Jersey at
the time, so I knew I wasn't getting

home because I knew the first thing
they would do would be to shut down
the tunnels. My great aunt lived in
Stuyvesant Town, which is about two
miles south of Rockefeller Center - so,
toward the towers - and I was walking
down Fifth Avenue, and I could see
the smoke billowing from the towers.
They were both up at that point. I got
across the street from the Empire State
Building, and there was a McDonald's
there, and I was underneath scaffolding
and somebody shouted, " Oh my god. "
By the time I got out from under the
scaffolding, one of the towers had come
down, and so there was this mushroom
plume of smoke from the collapse. I
just kept heading south. This was the
early days of cellphones. My wife was
in Los Angeles, and I had my 30-minute
Sprint plan, so I kept trying to call her,
but that wasn't working. There were
still many payphones on the streets
at that point in time, so I stopped at
every single phone to try and call her.
Eventually I got through and was able to
say " I'm OK. " She was still in bed. Then
the phone cut off, but she knew I was
OK. I got to my great aunt's house, and
we were just watching everything on
the news, seeing where the aircraft hit
the towers.

organization, but we certainly are not
trying to grow for growth's sake. If you
are a qualified individual and jump all
the hurdles that are required, then we
will welcome you to the community. We
are not looking to lower our standards
in order to grow. The growth is being
driven mainly by appraisal firms that
are seeing increased demand for their
products, but there are the occasional
OEM member, the occasional lessor
member - we do have people that are
on the banking side that are members,
so there is some growth there, but it's
really driven by people who are looking
to be actively appraising aircraft and
providing opinions to third parties.
On the advice he'd share with
younger people:
We're in a very challenging time right
now, so I'm not going to pretend that
everyone keeping their jobs is going
to happen. But for those who do, this
may be the most exciting time of your
career. You're likely to learn things that
may have taken years to acquire in a
more normal environment, if you would
learn them at all. If you're able to stay
in the industry during these turbulent
times, just suck up as much as you
can, because you're going to learn so

The survivability of any company comes down to
the relationship it has with its financiers and how flexible
people can be in terms of out repayment of existing debt.
On how he sees the ISTAT Appraisers
Program growing:
We certainly are growing. Since I
started, the number of active certified
appraisers has increased 7% to 76.
But, more significantly, in the almost
three years since I've started, the
number of appraiser candidates has
jumped 79% to 43. We are a growing

much, and you'll be able to use that in
the future. I can't imagine a situation
that would be worse than this. I
certainly hope there is never a situation
that is as bad as this. Learn everything
you can because when times go back
to more normal times - and aviation
has always come back - the learning
opportunities are not going to be as
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ISTAT Jetrader - Spring 2021

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