Flight Options

[SheGaveMeClap]

Fact is, this company is failing fast. Maintenance is NOT any better than it was 4 years ago. I still have maintenance coordinators wanting me to fly broke airplanes. Unlike many captains, I refuse. If its broke, its written up and I don't fly, end of story.

I don't know about you, but our fleet is starting to stay in lower class hotels. The days of the Embassy's, Crowne's, Hilton's is slipping away. Hello Ramadas, Raddissons, Best Westerns, Holiday Inn Express, etc.

Hiring is frozen through the end of the year. You think you are working hard now, just wait until peak travel. We prepurchase charter to cover trips, which costs this company over $100k a day in some instances. Our fleet has been offered overtime to cover aircraft that are sitting uncrewed. Here's a thought, hire more people to cover the mass exodus that is occurring.

Glad to hear it. Mx is still crummy. We wrote up an airplane and had a mx coordinator ask us if we would carry the write up for another three days until it's scheduled mx time. We said no, and he asked if a day of OT would help, and they would send us home on day seven. A phone call to my PM about it, he told me to keep quiet because the mx coordinator would say he was kidding if asked about it. That's real nice, bribe the pilots into flying a broken airplane. That being said, this happened about six months ago, and hasn't happened since. But mx still sucks.

Ha, ha. That's funny you mention the hotel thing. I was in SDL and one of the Netjets guys said the Embassy Suites van was on the way, and and asked if that's where we were staying. I told him we weren't, hoping he wouldn't ask where we were actually staying. He did, and I told him we stay at that dumpy Best Western behind Corporate Jets. I thought he was going to pi$$ himself he laughed so hard. I was real proud of my employer at that particular moment.

I was told by a check airman in our fleet we have between eight and ten airplanes sitting uncrewed at any time. They plan on having at least that many broke at any one time, and they staff our fleet accordingly. The fact is we are short eight to ten crews on any given day. Without accounting for vacation and sick calls, we are at least 16-20 pilots short in my fleet on any given day. It's no wonder we work our @sses off all week, every week.

 

[waveoff]

I spoke to the guy who does pilot hiring and they are in fact still interviewing but there are no new hire classes going on right now. My advice to everyone out there is to go look for a job elsewhere. This place is a sinking ship, a black hole, a roach motel...you get the picture. They told me when I was hired that I would upgrade in about one year maximum. Over 3 years later and I'm still an F/O. For those of you that are still working here, don't let your PM's, or whoever, pull the wool over your eyes and tell you that there aren't any other jobs out there. I could go on and on trash talking this place but it just falls on deaf ears. My gripes are the same as everyone else's. Put it this way. It tells you something when a company refuses to hire more people, begs people to work overtime to pick up the slack from people who are leaving in droves, uses contract pilots (paid over $800/day!!!) to pick up more slack and is selling more airplanes than they are getting new ones. Recently, a Hawker 800 crew had to declare TWO emergencies, in the SAME PLANE for the SAME PROBLEM within a 3 week period. What's that tell you about our maintenance? They evidently pencil whipped the $hit out of the status book after the first emergency.

 

[hawkercpt]

well...

first,
"To borrow a quote from a friend of mine, "Bl0w M3""...I think I know the guy who says this!

second
"uses contract pilots (paid over $800/day!!!)"... Fred, don't use quotes that are incorrect. It is $400/day and there aren't that many doing it, if any right know. You need to watch what your doing buddy. Don't dig a hole you can't get out of.

third
"You always seem to have a demeaning comment about anyone's opinion on this board. It cracks me up the Dep676 is such as strong JN advocate when he didn't work under the KR regime."

I agree. How can you make a comparison without ever seeing the other side.

That is all.

 

[Dep676]

Well so you can get your facts straight I have worked under both regimes. All I said is that I came after the merger. I never said that I did not work there when KR was at the helm. I did work there when that slimball was at the helm. He's a crook and always will be.

 

[hawkercpt]

Pre merger...

was a different realm.

 

[Live4flyng]

Well, sorry guys, if there is a buy out it will not be NJA. The POS TA and rejection there of keep anything like that from happening.

You are right, it will be Berkshire Hathaway. I talked about this a year ago on this board and many called me crazy.

It is very important for the pilots at NJA to get this contract right this time. It will have an effect on at least (1000?) pilots. If the scope section of the TA isn't fixed, they may try to run Options as a non-union paralel operation similar to NJI. Our crack MEC defined the parent company of NJA as NJ Inc in the TA, instead of BH. Claiming BH refused to be bound by the agreement. The current contract binds the "company's parent".

 

[JetCapt69]

Well so you can get your facts straight I have worked under both regimes. All I said is that I came after the merger. I never said that I did not work there when KR was at the helm. I did work there when that slimball was at the helm. He's a crook and always will be.

He may have been a crook, but he was a "pilots crook". JN was instrumental in coordinating the merger and for sake of argument, he was the ACTING CEO at the time of the merger and for the year up to the merger.

So you didn't get to experience the better days of Flight Options. Since the merger, it has been a slow slide to 6 feet under. No one can argue this fact.

"Anyone have the number to that truck driving school, truck masters I think it is?"

 

[kingtut]

Sadly For You, the way the TA is written, and if it is accepted, it take almost forever if ever before the NEW NJA contract will do anyone bought by BH as a completely separate investment any favors.

BH owns NJA. Nothing says, in my mind anyway, that BH could not own a SEPARATE fractional with a completely separate work force. We could go on and on and discuss scope ya,da ya,da ya,da. Let's not. The Business of Business is Business.

Later

 

[TONKER]

Is your job really that hard???

I am tired of hearing all of your guys whine about problems. Why can't you just fly the airplane without b*tching? Quit looking at your watches and worrying about "duty time". Half of you out there have no clue how to compute your duty time. It seems as if your math skills are lacking. I also believe that most of you look for problems with your aircraft. Mx is not going to ask you to fly anything that may be unsafe. If they do, lets see some names on here regarding who it was and maybe those people need to leave. Just think of this scenario (which is pretty common)...everytime one of the Hawker 800xp guys decides to brake their airplane for some lame reason or claim that their fatigued after sitting in Mx for the past 2 days it costs the company money that could be given back in our paychecks. Look at the cost of a charter for a trip length of 2.3 hrs would be around 25k. Just that one charter would be an extra 26 dollars in every pilots paycheck if we only had to charter 1 flight every 2 weeks. If some people spend half of the effort that they spend in thinking on what to write up next, they may not be so tired and could take the load of the rest of us that actually do our job. By the way, they are hiring new pilots. They took the posting off because they have 14,000 already on file. And to what hotel you people stay in, does it really matter??? Who do you think you are??? I am sure you can handle the Holiday Inn every once in a while. Maybe they are just picking on you...I have not seen but one hotel that I could say would be sub par...They are more than likely putting you in the lower class hotel to help off-set the charter costs that you have caused the company??? Ever think of that???

 

[hawkercpt]

easy now boy...

settle down. Put the mouse down, and step away from the keyboard slowly and nobody is going to get hurt.

nice and easy...


here, I have a beer for you.

 

[Dep676]

I am tired of hearing all of your guys whine about problems. Why can't you just fly the airplane without b*tching? Quit looking at your watches and worrying about "duty time". Half of you out there have no clue how to compute your duty time. It seems as if your math skills are lacking. I also believe that most of you look for problems with your aircraft. Mx is not going to ask you to fly anything that may be unsafe. If they do, lets see some names on here regarding who it was and maybe those people need to leave. Just think of this scenario (which is pretty common)...everytime one of the Hawker 800xp guys decides to brake their airplane for some lame reason or claim that their fatigued after sitting in Mx for the past 2 days it costs the company money that could be given back in our paychecks. Look at the cost of a charter for a trip length of 2.3 hrs would be around 25k. Just that one charter would be an extra 26 dollars in every pilots paycheck if we only had to charter 1 flight every 2 weeks. If some people spend half of the effort that they spend in thinking on what to write up next, they may not be so tired and could take the load of the rest of us that actually do our job. By the way, they are hiring new pilots. They took the posting off because they have 14,000 already on file. And to what hotel you people stay in, does it really matter??? Who do you think you are??? I am sure you can handle the Holiday Inn every once in a while. Maybe they are just picking on you...I have not seen but one hotel that I could say would be sub par...They are more than likely putting you in the lower class hotel to help off-set the charter costs that you have caused the company??? Ever think of that???

Well sir I think that your thinking is flawed. It does not matter how much the company saves they are not going to give it to the crews. Tell me why they waste money on cabs instead of rental cars. Let me give you example. One crew member goes home and the other is coming to work. They pass each other on the highway spending 50 dollars for each. When there is another crew member sits in the hotel waiting. When they could have gotten a rental car ro 20 to 40 dollars and dropped one person off and picked up the other.

As far as charter trips. Airplanes break simple as that. I do agree with you that some people are just looking for something to break or write up. I would rather stay busy for my eight days. Sitting around gets old after a day. Some of it comes from the front row.

What about JN riding back and forth to MA in the Diamond. What does that cost? I am sure it is more than a airline ticket.

So step back and put the class down and dump the kool-aid out.

 

[waveoff]

I am tired of hearing all of your guys whine about problems. Why can't you just fly the airplane without b*tching? Quit looking at your watches and worrying about "duty time". Half of you out there have no clue how to compute your duty time. It seems as if your math skills are lacking. I also believe that most of you look for problems with your aircraft. Mx is not going to ask you to fly anything that may be unsafe. If they do, lets see some names on here regarding who it was and maybe those people need to leave. Just think of this scenario (which is pretty common)...everytime one of the Hawker 800xp guys decides to brake their airplane for some lame reason or claim that their fatigued after sitting in Mx for the past 2 days it costs the company money that could be given back in our paychecks. Look at the cost of a charter for a trip length of 2.3 hrs would be around 25k. Just that one charter would be an extra 26 dollars in every pilots paycheck if we only had to charter 1 flight every 2 weeks. If some people spend half of the effort that they spend in thinking on what to write up next, they may not be so tired and could take the load of the rest of us that actually do our job. By the way, they are hiring new pilots. They took the posting off because they have 14,000 already on file. And to what hotel you people stay in, does it really matter??? Who do you think you are??? I am sure you can handle the Holiday Inn every once in a while. Maybe they are just picking on you...I have not seen but one hotel that I could say would be sub par...They are more than likely putting you in the lower class hotel to help off-set the charter costs that you have caused the company??? Ever think of that???

^^^^^^COMPANY MAN^^^^^^

If something's broke, write it up. Isn't that what they beat into our brains from the time we were aviation n00bs? If it can be MEL'd and we can continue on, great! If it can't be MEL'd and the plane is grounded, oh well! Tell management to stop stroking your winkie so you can see how it really is around here.

 

[Live4flyng]

Lame?

everytime one of the Hawker 800xp guys decides to brake their airplane for some lame reason

Would tyring to prevent going off the end of a runway be a good enough reason to brake?

 

[flyr4hire]

Just wait Tonker

till you get more than one or two tours under your belt, ... its obvious that you have no idea. Actually waveoff probably has you nailed as a "company man" ...thinking that money saved on charter would go into the pilot's pockets is probable cause for a urinalysis.

 

[TONKER]

By the way...Not a Kool-Aid drinker

Dep676 As to Nahill in the Diamond, maybe you do not understand why we have owners to begin with. Remember the phrase time is money? That is why many of our owners buy into the program that eventually trickles down to feed your face. In reference to the cab vs. rental car...bring it to their attention if you believe it is cheaper...I am sure they would like to know...they may not always have all of the information available to them...You are right though, sometimes a rental car is much cheaper...