Day in the Life @ your Frac

[Visceral]

I've read many posts from pilots working at fractional operations on this board. Many talk about how great the catered food is or how difficult it can sometimes be to find the correct FBO. Could a few of you write about a day in your life in a little more detail. For example, was it filet mignon or smoked salmon you had catered on board? Maybe just a couple of paragraphs about some of the intricacies of your jobs on your most recent trip. I'd appreciate any and all responses! And, if you've really got time, maybe a week in the life from your last trip.

Thanks

 

[DarnNearaJet]

But at least you get to eat the leftover "catered" food without begging for scraps.

I'd rather work at a movie theater.

 

[marqmarq]

A week in my life...

Just came home from a 7 day tour.... while I'm officially NOT a fractional pilot I work for a certain Fractional company's subsidiary and get dispatched by, and fly tail #s of, that particular company. Anyway, after airlining in late on day 1, we spent the first three days at northern Ohio service facility enjoying the Marriot Courtyard's luxaries including a fairly nice hot tub.

On day 4, finally fixed, we showed fairly early 6:30 E for a non-stop flight to Ohio's capital city with 1 kindly gentleman. We then sat on hot reserve for the next couple of hours eating our breakfast carried along from our departure city before dispatch gave us an ASAP to Chicago with the passengers from a broken aircraft. Those folks weren't so happy, but we did our best. We hung out at the FBO for a couple more hours before being dispatched empty to a french speaking canadian province. It took an hour or so though to convince dispatch of the need for a outbound "dec". We arrived a couple hours later and enjoyed the hospitality of our friend from the north (they really seem to understand good service there). Nice Hilton.

Day 5 started with a 5:30 am show and an on time departure put us in the twin cities. A minor glitch with customs left us sitting for an hour while one of our passengers was removed, and probably beaten, though she denied it. We then got to hang out at another wonderful FBO; cute girls, strange accents. Later, we were sent to a very nice Holiday Inn, no seriously, it was pretty nice. Later, we were paged with our trip for day 6.
A 3:00 am Central show never starts your day off right, though we hadn't had a hard week. Our trip went back to Ohio (at our competitor's home field) and took 2 down to Florida. Inbound we had so minor mechanical difficuty and put the a/c into maintenance. The hotel, in th is spring break Mecca, was on the beach. We were there by 2:00 pm. Spent the afternoon enjoying fresh seafood and swimming in the warm ocean.

This morning, we boarded the airline and came home. My ff status put in 1st class on the 767 on a direct flight home (the benefit of living in a hub city). Twelve hours flying over 3 days. A little slower than the normal.

This wasn't an atypical week. Sometimes it will be 4 am shows 5 days in a row, with 14 hour duty days, 6 legs a day and you'll never see the sun, but you'll see TEB, PHL, BOS, etc mor than you'll ever care to. Others tours, you'll sit in PBI or LAS for 4 days with a broken a/c. The point is I guess; nothing is typical, the food and hotels ARE generally good, the destinations can be great or just a place where you buy gas and empty the trash. Don't try to hard to figure out what dispatch is thinking, it'll give you a headache.

 

[Visceral]

Good stuff. It seems tough to have to take care of all the duties AND try to smile at 0'dark thirty. Anybody else with any info?

 

[Joe Jet Pilot]

marqmarq is on the money

All of the fractionals do they same type of job in generally the same way. Where I work, the support staff is really good about taking care of things for us. For example: international stuff is taken care of, catering, aircraft cleanings, and transportation are all taken care of for us. All that we really need to do is make sure this stuff is done, if it is not we make a phone call.

In one tour, you can go from mixing it up with the airlines at JFK, to hitting the islands of the Bahamas, to taking a load of folks into a small uncontrolled airport to go hunting.

My personal record for the amount of flying in a tour consisted of 42 hours block time, and I talked to every ARTCC in the lower 48. All of this in 8 days!

 

[English]

My job as a fractional pilot is much more positive than the previous posts on the subject. But I don't work for one of the big four, I work for a small regional fractional company.

It's been a slow week, but I'll describe the two trips I've had this week.

Was called last Friday to inform me of a trip on Sunday. Showed at the airport an hour early to deadhead empty to a ski resort in the Rockies. About 40 minutes after arrival the passengers arrived (they were 20 minutes early). He called me his way to the airport to tell me he'd be early. I did a quick scramble to pay the fuel bill and get the clearance, then I smoozed with the passengers on the walk out to the airplane while the lineguy loaded the luggage. I tipped the lineguy, buttoned everything up, then more small talk about flight time, turbulence, etc.

Flew to the Socal area, deplaned the passengers, was tipped handsomely. Flew the short 10 minute flight back to base empty. Tidied up the aircraft, did about ten minutes worth of paperwork and went home (about a 15 minute drive from base).

Next trip was similar. Deadhead to a local airport in SoCal, passenger arrived on time 30 minutes later. He brought me some Starbucks coffee and a muffin. Small chitchat about our families, news, etc. Flew about an hour eastward. Lone passenger deplaned stating departure would be about six hours later. Went inside FBO and played on Flightinfo.com and did some banking online. Another pilot from my company showed up on a trip so we shot the breeze for about an hour. Met two really nice pilots from Best Buy and went to lunch with them. Returning after lunch, heard word of the first bombing in Iraq. Passenger calls to say he'll be early, be there in 15 minutes (this is two hours early). I scramble (again) to pay the fuel bill, get the ice, get the clearance. Passenger shows up as announced, everthing's ready. Fly him back home then deadhead a short 15 minutes back to base. I leave the airplane with our linestaff this time who cleans the airplane and puts it in the hangar. Run inside, finish the paperwork (which I did on the deadhead flight back), and drive home.

We have some similarities with the big fractionals, but not many. While our international stuff is taken care of for us, we generally make our own hotel reservations. This is great at times, because we can choose which points to earn or which part of town we want to stay in. However, it's bad on those last-minute trips to Las Vegas on flight weekends when we can't find hotel rooms. Also, we only occasionally go eastward past the Rockies, and that's only when we do charters. Our owners are very predictable and always go to the same places, usually just for the day.

 

[DarnNearaJet]

"Our owners" [/B]

Pretty much sums it up.

 

[Frac Daddy]

DarnNearaJet,

What is up with your attitude? Do you even know anything about fractional, corporate or charter flying?

 

[English]

Please excuse me for my grammatical error. I assumed everyone on this board would know what I meant. I used the term "our owners" to mean the owners of the aircraft our pilots fly. We have a tight-knit group of aircraft-owners and pilots. Everyone knows everyone else on a first-name basis, we know each other's family members' names, and all get along well. Using the term "our owners" is a term used with affection, just as they would say "our pilots". It is an inclusionary term, not exclusionary, and it is just an example of the good terms we are on.

Lighten up. I feel much less like I'm owned in this job than I ever did in the airlines. Can you say, junior-manned?

 

[Visceral]

Thank you gentlemen for your inputs. Good or bad, I really am amazed by the varied flying you guys seem to have compared to the hub and spoke airlines.