Lance Zane Ricotta traces his aviation career to fueling aircraft in the early 1990s and earning his pilot certificate in 1991. In the account he provided for this website, moving airplanes for dealers became his way to build flight time and learn aircraft sales.
Building hours, one delivery at a time
Ricotta says he worked with Dari Gaznavi at Aircraft Exchange, ferrying and repositioning aircraft. The work connected flying with the practical side of a transaction: an aircraft had to be moved, inspected, accepted, and delivered. For a pilot building experience, each assignment was also an introduction to a different aircraft, operator, or buyer.
He recalls being hired by Christian Esquino around 1994 to move and fly aircraft and help with sales. He later flew for other operators, including MIC Aviation, and describes VIP transport assignments for charter companies and corporate flying under Part 91.
A broad aircraft background
Ricotta lists experience with Cessna Citations, Learjet 20, 30, and 55 series aircraft, Westwinds, the Beechcraft Premier and Starship, Lockheed JetStar, Hawkers, Falcon 20 series aircraft, and several Gulfstreams. He reports type ratings including Gulfstream II, III, V, and G550 aircraft. The exact certificate designations have not been independently verified for this article.
Aircraft variety is a recurring theme in his account. Alongside business jets, he describes a multiengine seaplane rating and a type rating in the Grumman Turbine Mallard. His interests also include warbirds, including the TBM Avenger and North American P-51, and buying and selling helicopters.
Flying and aircraft sales
Ricotta estimates that his sales work has involved hundreds of aircraft: more than 100 corporate jets, more than 25 helicopters, and well over 100 piston and light turbine aircraft. These are his estimates, rather than totals independently audited for this publication. He says he currently flies a Gulfstream for a longtime friend whose identity is kept private.
The career he describes combines flying with the logistics and relationships surrounding ownership changes. That combination is also central to his account of aircraft transactions, including the inspection and escrow process described in a separate article about aircraft sales.
The public record and his response
A career account should also be read alongside the public record. A 2004 DOT OIG notice describes Ricotta’s guilty plea in an aircraft fraud case and his sentence. Ricotta gives his account of why he accepted the plea agreement on the personal account section of this site.
OCCRP later reported on aircraft sold through companies associated with him that were connected to subsequent suspected or confirmed drug cases. Ricotta disputes that article’s portrayal of his role. OCCRP itself said it found no evidence he knew customers planned to use aircraft to traffic drugs. Readers can compare the response and source links rather than treating this career profile as an independent assessment of disputed transactions.
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