David Copley Unloads His Jet on Texan Bobby Patton

700CN, the gleaming blue and white 1990 Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV executive jet that was the pride of Copley Newspapers and its owner David Copley, has finally been sold. The new owner, according to Federal Aviation Administration records, is an oddly named outfit: TCRG SN1133 LLC out of Fort Worth, which Texas corporate records show shares the same address as Texas Capitalization Resource Group, Inc., of which attorney Robert L. Patton Jr. is registered agent; based on listings in various online business directories, the firm appears to be related to some aspect of the medical business.

In his heyday, Copley, once publisher of the Union-Tribune and a small raft of other papers in Borrego and the Midwest, used the jet on a sometimes weekly basis, not for business but pleasure, traveling as close to home as Los Angeles for movie previews, to New York for opening nights at the Broadway shows he bankrolled, and even as far away as Istanbul, Turkey, where he hooked up with his 164-foot yacht for a month of partying along the Mediterranean coast and on Greek islands.

But as the economy started to crash and Copley began liquidating the ailing newspaper empire inherited from his mother Helen, the Gulfstream, too, went on the block. Back when the plane was listed for sale by a Camarillo, California–based aviation broker, Copley’s Gulfstream was said to be equipped with two microwave ovens, one forward and one aft; a 20-inch TV in front and 12-inch screen in the rear; an RCA VCR player; a DVD player equipped with an iPod jack; and a Sony ten-CD changer. Because Copley had a heart transplant, the craft also featured a Tempus Med-Alert system with portable patient monitor. Though standard versions of the plane can carry up to 20 passengers, the Copley version was configured for just 12. According to the FAA registration statement, the plane was transferred to TCRG on October 19. No price was given, but in past years, well-equipped Gulfstreams of 1990 vintage in good condition could fetch as much as $20 million.