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.

 

[LXJ31]

Inquiring minds want to know...

I'd like to hear what DarnNearaJet has to say on the subject. Seriously, step up and speak your mind. Whats the worst thing that could happen?


Respectfully.

 

[Semore Butts]

Pretty well covered it, except for?

All great posts! Just grazing the surface of the fractional life.
I know to the unknowing what I'm gonna say may be un- informative, I'm sorry. For those of us who are in the fractional business, it will make complete sense. If you young ones don't understand the antecdotes I'm using, go ask your mom and dad.

Describing the life of a Fractional Pilot is like listening to Abbot and Costello doing the "Who's on first base" gig.
It's like Forest Gump and his "Box of Chocolates" (You just never know what your gonna get).
It's like General Custers scout saying "there are 10,000 indians up there!" (Well lets just go and see)
It's like wearing "Basketball Cleats".
It's like trying to eat a "Soup Sandwich".
It's like trying to fly "The perfect flight".


Everything situation in life is a choice, you hold the key, freak out! Pitch a bitch, raise hell and complain about it.

Or, Grab the checklist and yell YYYYEEEEEEAAAAAHHHHH BBBBAAAAABBBBBYYYYY!!!!!!, Should we shag now, or shag later?????? (Austin Powers)

"I like it here I love it here I've finally found a home!" (Army Basic)

OK enough. I was talking to a friend last night that has a friend that is in a position to give me a job at one of the up and coming airlines. (I know, I know, I hate jerks that make statements like that, but this is legit). I told him thanks alot, but I think I'll stay in the Fractional Business.

The flying is great, always plenty of new, and plenty of "here we go again".

The pilots are great, their ability to "corrolate" the various daily situations is incredible! I have learned an immense amount about the "other world" of flying since leaving the military.

Yes there is room for improvement in the "Fractional Environment" (Elements of the 3rd Armor, 101st Airborne, 8th Air Force, and many others are working on this as we speak).

It's a tough career to cultivate a romance in, but your "on the clock" on the way to work.

You don't have someone "serving you your lunch" in the cockpit, but if you are in the cockpit, the company is buying you lunch.

I hope this helps in some little way, I just can't type that fast.

May God Bless our troops, and help us overcome those "heathens" (Not quite a quote, "We were Soldiers")

May God bless the "Bus Drivers", the "Freight Dogs", and the "Frac Dogs", and may those pricks at yellow cab, have a flat!

Semore Butts

 

[Archer]

So what's the main differences between Fractional and Corporate?

If I may ask...which is better?

 

[marqmarq]

Better? It's all about security, lifestyle, aircraft quality, trips and $ for me. I have no direct experience with corporate, but rather fractional/charter. So here's my 2cents.

Security is always a big issue with corporate jobs, the old adage is "the flight department is the first to go". True? I don't know. But is there security in the majors? Fractionals? People are sweating it out across the board. Who knows anymore?

Lilfestyle with the Fracs is great when you are home. Lots of uninterupted days. Living out of a suitcase every other week can take its toll, but for many it works great. Corporate flight departments are kinda like Part 61 flight schools, they can be first rate and treat their folks great or they can be miserable. Schedules are usually more amorphous (sp) with the good and bad qualities of that.

Aircraft quality/Mx in the fracs, from my observation is great. We don't fly broken airplanes. Trips are not urgent enough to risk safety. I imagine that corporate pilots in some cases face more pressure to return to home base, but that's an opinion.

Trips in fracs are great. There are places I have gone that I didn't know existed. The corporate guys I know tend to fly to the same places more often. But we all probably see TEB too much!

$. For now, better corporations win this hands down. Hopefully, the gap between frac pilots and corporate will be bridged soon.

So, I'll play Switerland and be neutral. Pick your poison and good luck and enjoy life.

 

[BigFlyr]

So what's the main differences between Fractional and Corporate?

EDITED...

As a Frac Pilot you don't spend as much time hanging around FBO's since typically once your passengers have reached their destination, you're off to another place for a different trip flying an empty airplane or you're done and going to a hotel. Also, you may or may not start and finish your trip at your base so you spend a lot of days (work days) traveling on airlines.

Then again, you have a schedule at a fractional... No calls on days off!

 

[niteflyr]

Corp vs Frac

Just a note about the days of FBO sitting, I was under the impression corporate pilots sit around FBO's more than frac pilots. Fly in for a meeting, sit all day and then fly back home.

I know this varies by airplane in the frac company I am in. Luckily I am on one of the busiest planes so it is usually drop off and take off for the next pick up. Owners are always suprised when you tell them it will be another airplane taking them home in 3 hours because you are leaving within the hour. Some pilots prefer the FBO time some fleets get. They don't like the busy schedule some of the other planes fly. I prefer to keep moving, makes a 14 hour day and 7 day tour go much quicker.

 

[NJA Capt]

You don't spend as much time hanging around FBO's as a Frac pilot since typically once your passengers have reached their destination, you're off to another place for a different trip flying an empty airplane or you're done and going to a hotel. Also, you may or may not start and finish your trip at your base so you spend a lot of days (work days) traveling on airlines.

Then again, you have a schedule at a fractional... No calls on days off!

BigFlyr,
Your post was a little ambiguous. Were you saying frac guys sit in FBOs more than corp guys? Or did I just read it wrong?

Most corporate pilots fly 1-2 legs per day compared to frac pilots' 4-6 legs per day. Frac pilots spend much less time in FBOs as a whole, than do corp pilots. The average frac pilot is only on the ground for :45 to 1:00 hr, vs corp pilots 2 to 9 hours.

Frac pilots cover a larger portion of the country than do most corporate ops and have more varied destinations. Corporations only travel to cities they have plants or associates, or to the family's vacation home(s). Most of corporate ops are confined to a geographic location (ie...SE/NE U.S., or a 2-3 state area.), though many corporations do fly domestic and intn'l.

Fractional companies (generally) offer more types of aircraft to advance to and usually offer faster upgrades.

These points are generalizations at best. There are frac pilots that sit in FBOs for 8 hours, and there are corp pilots that fly 6 legs per day (Though probably not consistently). There are fracs with 2 aircraft types and corporations with 5+. Corp pilots on long layovers usually get a day room at a hotel for a few hours instead of waiting at the FBO. At NetJets, that is almost unheard of. If we are sent to a hotel, the company has to give us 10 hours of "uninterrupted" rest. We are also limited to 14 hours of duty, whereas, at most corporations, you are on duty until you finished.

 

[BigFlyr]

BigFlyr,
Your post was a little ambiguous. Were you saying frac guys sit in FBOs more than corp guys? Or did I just read it wrong?

I could have chosen my words more carefully... I meant that as Frac Pilots, we don't spend as much time hanging around FBOs as a Corporate Pilot would... While Corp. guys are usually waiting on their passengers, we're flying to another destination to pick up passengers. That being said... See Ya' at an FBO's coffee machine!