Johnny Palmer, the straight-talking businessman behind Brislington’s worst kept secret (clue’s in the headline), has proved that making a viable business out of a disused aircraft can be way more than just a flight of fancy. He talks to us about making a base for local creatives, disruptive activism and entrepreneurship as a way of life
It’s not every day you find yourself sitting on a kitsch 70s-era redesigned Japan Airlines Boeing 727 airliner being offered peanuts from a golden pineapple by a Tasmanian entrepreneur on one of the hottest days of the year… But rather than being a scene from the latest glitzy Netflix series, beyond the portholes was an everyday scene of an industrial estate in Brislington.
You may already be familiar with the aforementioned entrepreneur – who, by the way, taught me a thing or two about my assumptions of his trade during our chat. You might know him as the chap who bought Warleigh Weir island, but after seeing a Bristol-based plane popping up time and again in articles for national media listing the UK’s most unusual Airbnbs – I wanted to know more about the man piloting this venture.
It turns out that there’s so much more to this aircraft, and the man who bought it, than simply being a place to book to stay overnight (though I’ll definitely be doing that ASAP too, as there’s a hot tub and cockpit laden with buttons and switches to keep you entertained).
Reaching fever pytch
Johnny Palmer heads up PYTCH at Skyline Park, in an unassuming industrial estate in BS4 that’s home to this must-see craft. PYTCH is Johnny’s live event production and creative media solutions (among many other things) company, calling a couple of large warehouses and yard space home. As an aside, it was also the first commercial premises in the UK to obtain an AAA EPC rating; in 2018, his team designed and built the world’s first completely off-grid deployable energy generator for events. They technically produce more energy than they consume.
But back to that Boeing, which now sits elevated on shipping containers painted to look like cloudy skies, along with a terrace and that hot tub. Its bodywork is now adorned with colourful artwork from local creatives HazardOne, Hasan Kamil and Curtis Hylton. There’s plenty of background info to be found easily online (PYTCHAir, as it’s known, has its own handy YouTube channel, plus there’s an informative board on site for passers by).
Here’s a potted history of the Boeing 727… Originally flying in 1968 with Japan Airlines, the aircraft was converted into a VIP private jet in the 1970s with various owners and passengers, including Middle Eastern royalty. After its final flight in 2012 to Filton Airfield, it was moved to Kemble Airfield, where it remained until 2020. Johnny Palmer discovered the aircraft in 2018, envisioned its potential and after securing planning consent purchased it in 2020. In February 2021, the 727 was transported to Brislington, making headlines worldwide and changing this little pocket of our city. But why this spot?
“Generally no one cares about the aesthetics in industrial estates,” he says. “That’s not a problem for me, that’s an opportunity. If no one cares, and treats it badly, you can do anything to it. So if you want to stick street art everywhere, or put a wind turbine up, put an aircraft in, people say, ‘whatever’. You couldn’t do this in the middle of Clifon or Redland. But you can do it in a scuzzy industrial estate. Then guess what? The estate starts becoming a bit cool, it creates better jobs, better income. Some people call that gentrification… I hate that word.”
Plane and simple
The interiors are a 70s-era kitsch wonderland. The aircraft is home to a dining room, salon, accommodation suite, kitchen, toilets, shower and original cockpit. Johnny had a vision that this aircraft was the missing centrepiece for PYTCH HQ. It has since become an amazing space for creativity, inspiration, communication, fine dining and fun. It’s hosted music videos, family film sessions, professional dinners, corporate meetings, drum ‘n’ bass raves, countless Airbnb guests and more. In a world that can often feel more than a bit glum and depressing, this feels like rocket-fuelled hub of joy. What’s more – Johnny’s happy to hire the space out for local creative use for absolutely nothing.
“There are people out there like me who have a space or resource that they want to share,” he explains. “The problem is, a lot of Bristol is bought up by people who only want the money. But there are loads of little guys out there like me, who want to do cool stuff. We want and need to have a business, but we also want to create spaces and make them available like this, because it enriches our city.”
He promises that if anyone’s got a non-commercial, progressive artistic, practice they want to use PYTCHAir for, he’s always happy to help: “We love Bristol because it has that artsy vibe. Anyone who can contribute to that in some way, should.”
Even when the plane is wearing its commercial pilot’s hat – as paid-for accommodation – he offers it for a cost-price on Wednesdays, encouraging families and friends to book the plane who might not be able to otherwise afford such a unique getaway.
When asked the age-old question of: ‘why are you doing all this?’ alongside being an entrepreneur-cum-landlord, he responds simply. “The philosophy is, ‘I’ll be dead soon’… Well, hopefully in 40-50 years of course. So how do I want to live my life? I want it to be full of funny stories, spending time with people and doing some crazy stuff. I want to have some successes and have some things that don’t work. Life and business can be pretty hard, but this is the life I want to lead.”
I’m curious to know what day-to-day life looks like for an entrepreneur with this approach to life. He tells me it varies. “Across my group of companies there is a lot going on – properties to maintain, a busy events schedule, regular media demands, a lot of staff, finances to manage and various fledgling opportunities that need nurturing. It might look exciting from the outside, but what people dont realise is that entrepreneurs and founders are often spending most of our time dealing with the toughest stuff. We have the responsibility to deal with the things that others cannot, or that do not have optimal outcomes. Every day there is a puzzle solve or some other form of challenge, but when things are going smoothly life gets boring.”
Staying grounded
Johnny’s extroverted lifestyle that’s seen his professional life peppered with commercial ventures and passion projects (check out his whiskey brand D.B. Cooper made with Wales’ Penderyn Distillery for starters) had humble beginnings. Though he’s spent the majority of his life here – his first Bristol business was about 22 years ago, he reckons – he was brought up “dirt poor” on a Tasmanian farm. His love of audio and soundsystems (no wonder he ended up in Bristol) saw him embark on a successful DJ career, which ended up with him investing in our city’s property. But as well as wanting to be a well-meaning, good landlord who improves buildings and their surroundings, social and environmental activism is central to his purpose.
In recent years, Johnny became something of a spokesperson on local water quality, river pollution and wild swimming. He was central to the original campaign to get people swimming in the Bristol Floating Harbour again too (“I want to live in a world where I can swim in my harbour – it’s my harbour, it’s your harbour, it’s our harbour”). His special skill is being able to draw attention to things via disruptive activism, even if he doesn’t know how to execute the minutiae of the cause. “I did some research and nicked the play book from Extinction Rebellion, who I helped out a lot in the early days. The aim is to be disruptive, be fun, be obnoxious, be divisive, deliberately try and get an antagonistic debate going on. But most important is talking about the issue.”
Take his involvement with Warleigh Weir, for example. In 2017, the beauty spot was having big problems with parking, litter, and bad behaviour. Johnny purchased the river island and surrounding land in the hope it would encourage people to use the area more responsibly. He then launched the ‘Warleigh Weir Project’ to keep the site open, fix the issues, and make sure everyone could still enjoy it – though at first, he caused a bit of a stir by threatening to close the site to the public if the litter problem wasn’t sorted out.
“Every single person is p*ssed off with the way things are in some regard, right? What you need to do to change things is literally disrupt them in some way; shake them up. Usually a bit of cage-rattling goes a long way. The issues of river quality, sewage and harbour swimming really matter to me a lot. Being disruptive and antagonistic in the case of activism really works.” Then Johnny chuckles: “It’s not so good in business when you have to work with people more. That’s a different mindset and yeah, sometimes they’re at odds with each other. Balancing those two parts is a question of integrity.”
Despite sitting surrounded with retro indulgence, all this talk of activism wasn’t exactly the course of conversation I’d expected with an entrepreneur plane-owner. Then again, I don’t spend much time with entrepreneurs and have probably been misled by Dragons’ Den-esque stereotypes. He’s keen to see local entrepreneurialism celebrated more in the city. “There are little people like me trying to change culture, but Bristol is often not pro-entrepreneurship. Young entrepreneurs are probably running off to Manchester or Dubai. I think entrepreneurs are a bit like artists, in that they just ‘do what they do’, if you’re a painter, no matter where you are, what you do, you’ll find a way of drawing and painting. They don’t think about it. They just do. I believe true entrepreneurs are like that: we just do what we do. We’re not actually trying to make money. We need to make money to do more of ‘it’, but it’s not our objective. I think it’s more about curiosity, answering questions, experimenting with something or just for fun. A lot of these things don’t make money. The process is just trying to affect change in the world.”
Breaking the ice
Johnny’s involvement in Bristol’s rivers neatly segues into the next issue he wants to address: male mental health. As well as his disruptive activism, Johnny also helps organise the Bristol branch of a men’s wild swimming and cold dipping group called Icebreakers, which sees a group of 10-15 men meeting to swim regularly and explore positive masculinity, opening up. “The thing I’m seeing as the biggest problem in the world right now is damaged men. Most of the world’s problems can be routed back to messed up blokes. And many of them lead back to a lack of positive male role models. That’s my theory, and that’s the area I want to work on now, I’m not sure how, but we definitely need more positive masculinity.”
For more information about PYTCHAir, visit pytch.co.uk/pytchair. The plane can also be found on Airbnb, and has two open days held each year – keep an eye on the main website for future dates.
