When Jesse Biter decided to buy a plane, he didn't opt for a hulking, gold-plated palace in the sky. Instead, he chose a sharp-nosed Embraer Phenom 100 that he calls his “Suburban in the sky.” And while he can easily rattle off its specs (eight seats, 41,000-foot cruising altitude, top speed of 450 miles per hour), Biter would rather talk about how flying himself to a Magic game in Orlando beats I-4 traffic, or why nothing orange is ever allowed on board. “The kids like snacks, but orange stains are a no-go,” he says.

At 49, Biter is the founder and chief executive officer of Biter Enterprises, a Sarasota company that manages everything from real estate investments to software companies. He also serves as the chair of the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority.

Born in Chicago, Biter spent his childhood in various parts of the country—Virginia, Georgia, San Francisco and Philadelphia—because his father worked for the federal government. He settled in Sarasota in 2000, and it was around that time that he began flying. "I always wanted to be a pilot, but not in the military so much,” he says. In college, he worked at RadioShack and used the money he made to take flying lessons.

"My first planes were rust buckets," Biter says. "I couldn’t afford chartering, so I just flew myself."

He bought his first Phenom in 2010. His second—the current one—is optimized for the dual priorities of efficiency and independence. The jet is small enough to be flown solo, which means he often takes off with just a co-pilot in the form of a friend or one of his children. The interior, he says, is closer to a family SUV than a tech billionaire's playpen. There are no gold accents and no marble finishes, but there is one recent upgrade Biter loves: high-speed in-flight Starlink internet. “Totally changes the game,” he says.

Biter and his family still use commercial airlines to fly internationally, but the private plane is their preferred tool for domestic spontaneity. Golf in Savannah? Family trip to Colorado? Biter says these would be day-long odysseys on commercial flights, but the Phenom gets him there fast, no TSA required.

For most people the real cost of jet ownership, he explains, isn’t just the plane—it’s the pilot. While Biter is licensed and flies himself, many jet owners pay roughly $180,000 annually for a full-time pilot, or $1,000 to $1,500 per day for a contract pilot. The Phenom itself? You can get a used one at roughly $2 million, though high-end models with all the bells and whistles can triple that figure.

Biter keeps his plane in a hangar he owns at SRQ. Maintenance crews come to him for smaller needs like tires or brakes. For mandated FAA inspections, he flies it to Naples.

For all the practicality of private jet travel, Biter says it also taps into childhood daydreams. When he was young, “everyone wanted to be a fireman or astronaut,” he says. “I wanted to fly. And now I can.”