Andrew Freeman talks about aviation in a way that makes it obvious it has shaped his entire life. He started flying young and never really stopped. As he put it during our conversation: “I've just been flying ever since. I just eat, breathe and live it.” That early passion gradually turned into a career, then a business model, and eventually a way of life.

Today, he is one of the only aircraft dealers in the UK who actually buys and sells his own aircraft and helicopters rather than brokering on behalf of others, operating as Europlane Sales. It’s a small, unusual corner of the industry. Most people take far less risk and simply match buyer to seller. Freeman takes on the aircraft himself, carrying the cost and the responsibility. He explained why this approach matters to him:

"The secret of all these businesses is actually the buying, not the selling. Anybody can sell anything now that you put it on the Internet. You've just got to be nice to people and they'll deal with you. The key is buying.”

He described the first aircraft he ever bought—nothing extravagant, but a milestone, he paid £40,000 for it and sold it for £45,000. It taught him how much detail sits behind an aviation purchase: the paperwork, the logbooks, the engineering reality beneath the surface. It also gave him his first real taste of what it means to treat aviation as both a passion and a business. He then partnered with another business, helping them grow to selling 100 planes a year, before eventually going independent and running his own operation, Europlane Sales, for the last 12 years.

That business has taken him through a wide range of deals. Some were smooth. Some were questionable enough that he walked away. A few were unexpectedly positive, including a memorable transaction in Milan with an industrial magnate—one of those times where every step of the process ran better than expected. Throughout all these stories, he kept coming back to the idea that aviation, like most careers, is shaped by seizing or ignoring key opportunities. Freeman’s willingness to “branch off” also separates him from most of the UK market. The risk tolerance required to hold aircraft as stock is high, and few people choose that route. He noted:

“The idea of spending 2, 3, 400,000 pounds on an airplane doesn't phase me at all, which sets me apart from most other aircraft dealers… Everybody wants to broker. They don't buy and sell.”

That risk tolerance comes with consequences. Aircraft can hide problems that surface only once someone is responsible for them. Engines fail. Old logbooks contain gaps. Small errors become expensive quickly. He summed up the trade-off clearly:

“The rewards are great, but the risks are great as well… you can buy a plane, drive it down the road and the engine blows up. It's £75,000 for a new engine… You have to understand the paperwork. You get boxes of logbooks going back 40, 50 years. You've got to know what to look for, where to look.”

His experience also allows him to value aircraft quickly and accurately. Beyond guides like Blue Book or vRef, Freeman relies on instinct built from years of dealing with airframes, engines, and avionics. “My knowledge is deep… I know the value of a young engine or a good avionics fit… There are books… but they're just a guide. Actually there's unknown quantities which I tend to understand well.”

Our conversation also covered the wider outlook for general aviation in the UK, which he views with some concern. Airfields are closing or being redeveloped, and policy changes aren’t helping. His view was blunt: “The government have never been supportive of general aviation in the UK… Now all airfields are prone to redevelopment and many have been redeveloped and many are being shut down.”

Yet despite these structural challenges, he is optimistic about long-term interest in flying itself. Young people still want to learn, and the appeal of aviation isn’t fading. “There’s people who will be coming into aviation… People are 18 now who are desperate to learn to fly. It’s this sort of innate love of aeroplanes that I think will go forever.”

Part of what keeps him invested is the freedom the job offers. Because he operates online and can buy and sell from anywhere, he isn’t anchored to a fixed location. “The best thing about it is I can just drop it at any time… I’m not glued to a shop. Although I have a shop window on the Internet, I can go anywhere and operate my business from anywhere.”

That flexibility has taken him on delivery flights across different parts of the world, with Africa standing out in particular. Flying an aircraft across long distances, stopping at small airfields, and navigating terrain you’d never see from a commercial seat is, for him, one of the most rewarding parts of the job. Its aviation stripped back to its basics: pilot, machine, distance.

The conversation ended with a flight story from his own logbook—one of those episodes pilots never forget, a near-death experience taking off from an airfield in Cambridge.

Listening to Andrew Freeman speak, what comes through most clearly is consistency: a lifelong interest that became a profession and then became an identity. In our podcast episode we capture that progression—how early fascination with aircraft grows into practical knowledge, professional judgment, and a distinctive way of working in an industry that’s constantly changing. Along the way, he shares an amazing amount of detail on specific deals, lessons, and stories on what it’s really like to buy and sell aircraft for a living.

See the full interview on YouTube for the full interview. Coverage by Ned Stranger.