Bill Gates's Gulfstream G650ER N887GV flies from Seattle to Mountain View

Bill Gates's Gulfstream G650ER, tail N887GV, flew from King County International Airport, also known as Boeing Field, in Seattle to Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View on Friday, October 30, 2026. The aircraft departed at 01:22 UTC and landed at 03:04 UTC, spending 1 hour and 42 minutes in the air. The great-circle distance was 608 nautical miles, or 699 miles.

The flight covered 8 percent of the aircraft's range of 7,500 nautical miles. The Gulfstream G650ER reached a top ground speed of 509 knots and a maximum altitude of 45,025 feet. Our estimate puts fuel burned at about 798 US gallons, producing about 7,667 kilograms of CO2, roughly the same as driving a car 18,977 miles. The aircraft typically seats 12 passengers and can carry up to 19.

This was the fifth landing at Mountain View in the 30-day window for all of Bill Gates's tracked aircraft, and the fifth landing at Seattle. The home base on file is Boeing Field in Seattle. Usual destinations include Palm Springs, West Palm Beach, Las Vegas, and Bozeman. In the days before this trip, N887GV flew from Mountain View to Seattle on October 25, and from Epping, Essex to San Jose on October 24.

Bill Gates is a Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist, and investor with a net worth estimated at $104 to $107 billion. He focuses on global health, development, and climate philanthropy through the Gates Foundation, Gates Ventures, and Breakthrough Energy. His home base is in Seattle, and he owns a property in Medina, Washington, near Boeing Field. A web search did not turn up a public event tied to Bill Gates or his organizations near Mountain View on this date.

This flight follows a pattern of short hops around California and the Pacific Northwest in recent weeks. The aircraft had been on the ground for about four days before this trip, after landing at Seattle on October 25. The flight to Mountain View used a small share of the aircraft's range, leaving plenty of margin for onward travel.

The aircraft's top speed is Mach 0.925, or 516 knots, and its ceiling is 51,000 feet. Estimated fuel burn is 470 US gallons per hour. The departure field at Boeing Field has a longest runway of 10,007 feet at an elevation of 21 feet. Moffett Federal Airfield's longest runway is 9,197 feet at an elevation of 32 feet. The great-circle distance from the home base to the arrival airport is 607 nautical miles.

There were four earlier landings at Mountain View in that window, the last one on October 25. The most common destinations in that window were Seattle and Mountain View, each with four landings. The longest leg in those 30 days was from Epping, Essex to San Jose on October 24, covering 4,659 nautical miles.