Gulfstream IV SP N4DP Flies San Diego to Van Nuys in 35 Minutes on October 24, 2026

Gulfstream IV SP N4DP, an aircraft associated with TV personality Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil), flew the 110-nautical-mile (126-mile) route from San Diego International Airport to Van Nuys Airport in 35 minutes on Saturday, October 24, 2026. It departed San Diego at 22:31 UTC and landed at Van Nuys at 23:06 UTC, averaging a ground speed of 187 knots, reaching a top speed of 367 knots and a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet.

The flight burned an estimated 223 gallons of fuel and produced about 2,147 kilograms of CO2, using about 3 percent of the aircraft's total range. The Gulfstream IV SP has a range of 4,166 nautical miles, a top speed of Mach 0.88 and a ceiling of 45,000 feet. It typically seats 14 passengers and can carry up to 19, and it burns an estimated 380 gallons of fuel per hour. San Diego's longest runway is 9,401 feet at 17 feet elevation; Van Nuys' longest runway is 8,001 feet at 802 feet elevation.

This was N4DP's fifth landing at Van Nuys among its last 14 tracked flights; the previous one was on October 20, 2026. The aircraft's home base is Hollywood Burbank Airport (KBUR), 7 nautical miles from Van Nuys. Earlier on October 24 it flew a 39-minute, 211-nautical-mile leg from Huatulco, Mexico, to San Diego, where it spent about one hour on the ground before departing for Van Nuys. The aircraft remained at Van Nuys at the time of the report. A tracked Gulfstream V linked to Caesars landed at Van Nuys about 18 hours before N4DP.

In the 30 days before the flight, N4DP visited five airports in two countries and flew about 1,822 nautical miles; the source also cites three flights totaling 4.7 hours in the air and about 17,158 kilograms of CO2 for that period. The longest leg was a 1,084-nautical-mile trip from Dallas to Van Nuys on October 20, and Dallas and Van Nuys were the most common destinations, with five and four landings respectively. No public events or appearances linked to Dr. Phil were found near Van Nuys on the day of the flight.

McGraw, a former clinical psychologist, hosted a syndicated talk show that ran for 21 seasons from 2002 to 2023; his net worth is estimated at $460 million and he maintains a primary base in the Los Angeles area. Van Nuys is a general aviation airport in the San Fernando Valley, about 15 miles from downtown Los Angeles. McGraw also owns the 49-meter yacht Bad Romance, built by Trinity Yachts in 2008, which AIS tracking placed in the Balearic Sea 11 days before the report.

A 110-nautical-mile hop on an aircraft rated for 4,166 nautical miles is a reminder of how large-cabin business jets are often used in practice: positioning and short regional legs consume fuel and generate CO2 far out of proportion to the distance covered. On this flight the estimate was 223 gallons and about 2,147 kilograms of CO2 for 35 minutes in the air, against a type that burns an estimated 380 gallons per hour.

The pattern also illustrates why Van Nuys carries so much of the Los Angeles-area heavy-jet traffic. It sits about 15 miles from downtown Los Angeles and just 7 nautical miles from the Burbank home base of this aircraft, so one operator can serve several nearby fields on the same day, as N4DP did by moving from Mexico to San Diego to Van Nuys within hours.

Flight-tracking publications that pair individual tail numbers with fuel and emissions estimates keep pushing this usage into public view, and the figures they publish, such as 17,158 kilograms of CO2 over 30 days for three flights, are the kind that feed sustainability debates about business aviation. Whether any operator responds with changed routing or fleet choices is not something this flight establishes.