Max Fuller

Max Fuller works in Sales and Marketing at Wings Leasing, one of the largest aircraft leasing companies built exclusively for the flight training industry. Based on his background in aviation finance and real estate finance, Max helps flight school owners understand how leasing and sale-leaseback programs can replace capital-intensive fleet ownership with a faster, more flexible growth model. He joined Wings as an intern after cold-emailing founder Alan Goodnight from his dorm room—and received a response within 10 minutes.

Background

Max did not grow up with aviation handed to him. He grew up in Indianapolis watching FedEx freighters depart at 5 in the morning with his father. Aviation stayed just out of reach until high school, when a connection through Chad Winings at Dassault Falcon helped him land a job at a local FBO doing line service. That role turned an abstract interest into a working understanding of how flight training and aircraft operations actually function.

He went on to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, where he studied the business side of aviation—not the pilot side—and found himself in courses on aircraft financing, airline structures, and capital markets. A library textbook introduced him to the concept that roughly half of all commercial aircraft in the world are leased. That idea stayed with him.

He cold-emailed Wings Leasing founder Alan Goodnight asking for a conversation. Alan responded in under 10 minutes. Max joined Wings as an intern and moved into his current Sales and Marketing role covering lease origination, asset management, and daily operations. He is also studying real estate finance at Florida Gulf Coast University, with a clear focus on aviation finance for the long term.

Wings Leasing

Wings Leasing launched in 2023 and has rapidly built one of the largest training-focused aircraft leasing portfolios in the industry:

• 100+ Training Aircraft: Portfolio spans Cessna, Piper, Cirrus, Diamond, Tecnam, and various light sport aircraft
• Flight Training Exclusive: Wings does not touch anything outside of general aviation aircraft used for flight training—the entire model is built around flight school economics, not commercial airline structures
• Double-Digit Growth: Growing year over year since launch
• Founded by Alan Goodnight: Founder and president with deep roots in aviation finance

How Aircraft Leasing Works for Flight Schools

Max’s framework for the buy-vs-lease decision is straightforward: it is a capital allocation question, not an ideological one.

• No money down: Wings can structure leases with no upfront capital requirement
• 10-day close: Wings can close on lease terms in as little as 10 days—compared to weeks or months with traditional lenders
• School handles operations: Insurance and maintenance stay with the school; Wings handles ownership and capital structure
• No equity, full access: The tradeoff is not building equity in the aircraft—but for schools focused on student throughput, access typically beats ownership
• 50-hour threshold: Max’s rule of thumb—if a given aircraft is flying 50 hours per month or less, leasing is likely the stronger capital decision

Sale-Leaseback Programs

For schools that already own aircraft, Wings offers a sale-leaseback structure that unlocks fleet equity without disrupting a single student’s training:

• Sell to Wings: School sells existing aircraft to Wings Leasing at current market value
• Lease them back immediately: Wings leases those same aircraft back to the school on agreed terms
• Training continues uninterrupted: The flight line does not change; students and instructors see no difference
• Capital freed for growth: Proceeds from the sale can be redeployed into hiring, marketing, facility expansion, or additional aircraft
• Appreciated values: Aircraft values have risen significantly in recent years—many flight schools are sitting on equity they have not yet accessed

Areas of Expertise

• Aircraft Lease Origination: Structures lease agreements tailored to the operational and financial profile of individual flight schools
• Sale-Leaseback Transactions: Guides school owners through the mechanics and economics of converting owned fleet assets into working capital
• Flight School Capital Strategy: Helps owners evaluate when ownership makes sense versus when leasing produces better returns on capital
• Aviation Asset Management: Understands aircraft as financial assets with regulatory complexity, global transferability, and long depreciation curves
• Fleet Growth Planning: Works with schools to model fleet expansion scenarios using leasing rather than purchase financing

Perspective on Aviation Finance

Max describes aircraft as portable real estate—assets with unique regulatory complexity, genuine financial depth, and global transferability that most people outside the industry never see. His dual background in aviation and real estate finance gives him a cross-disciplinary lens on fleet decisions that most flight school advisors do not bring.

His view for flight school owners: your business is training students, not managing assets. At a certain point, owning aircraft stops being a smart capital decision and starts being a drag on growth. The largest airlines in the world lease the majority of their fleets. That is not an accident—it is a deliberate capital strategy that scales down directly to the flight training industry.