Great Lakes Diamond Aircraft Sales deals only in Diamond Aircraft. We are passionate about the quality and safety of Diamond’s product, and we have assembled a strong team to sell and support this fine aircraft line. Each of our affiliated dealers is an independent business, allowing each to focus on delivering the highest quality service in his or her local market. Our principals and our dealers have decades of aviation and sales experience to guide new and experienced buyers in all aspects of new aircraft purchases. We have a strong network of service and training facilities in our region to ensure a quality post-sale experience, and foundational to our success has been the returning customer.
Andy James began flying in 1968 as a student pilot in Illinois. In 1970, his work for Bell Systems took him to New Jersey where he joined a 40 member flying club and earned his CFI and CFII privileges. In 1973, Andy established his first owned flying club, and in 1976, he returned to Illinois and started X-Country flying Club at Lewis University Airport, growing that club to 38 aircraft and nearly 400 members by 1999. In 2000, Andy sold his FBO and Air Taxi businesses, A&M Aviation, to devote all of his efforts to the sales of new Diamond Aircraft through A&M Aircraft Sales.
Andy began selling the two-place Diamond Katana (now named the DA20 Eclipse), and added new models as Diamond introduced them. His management and sales expertise draw from 28 years of management positions in the Bell System and as a full-time Flight Instructor, FBO and air taxi business operator fro 22 years.
Dan Eldridge joined with Andy in 2008 to form Great Lakes Diamond Aircraft Sales, a company solely focused on the sales and support of new Diamond Aircraft in the upper Midwest. Dan was previously Vice President and Director of Institutional Sales at Logical Information Machines, Inc., an Austin, TX based software and data warehouse vendor. There Dan had direct responsibility for sales to large hedge fund, bank, and brokerage firms as well as for product strategy and data vendor relationships.
Born in Washington, DC, Dan learned to fly in the crowded skies over New York City, where he lived after graduation from Hamilton College in 1987 with a Bachelors Degree in Economics. Prior to Logical Information Machines, Dan has led sales and business development for an enterprise software company, taking it from venture-funded startup to successful sale, and has held senior research, trading and business development positions at two of the largest hedge funds in the industry.
Dan holds an FAA commercial pilot certificate with multi-engine airplane and instrument ratings. He has more than 3000 hours of pilot-in-command time, and for four years commuted between New York City and Boston in a light single.