Flying a Rock'N'Roll Singer on his tour

[BoDEAN]

You know, I was thinking. Sammy Hagar as a lear jet, that he uses on his tours. I am just wondering, how I would even go about trying to land that job as his pilot. Wow. That would be a dream come true. So I am curious if anyone on the board has flown a singer around on tour, and if so, how was it.

I sent an email to his management, and I wonder what they will say. I know Sammy has his own lear jet, I've seen it and met him a few times around it. That would just be too cool.

 

[SpiderMan]

They will probably think you are stalking the man.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

far from cool...

sittin' around at the FBO all night as jacka$$ rock star is 5 hours late and shows up drunk and wants to jet off somewhere 6 hrs away and then changes his mind 4 times enroute...

I have done the rock star/movie star thing doing charter 135 work. Nothing worse. 90% of these people are trash.

Now, I cannot say about Sammy, never flew him....

Nobody I know was ever able to hang out with them, party, and bang hotty groupies....

and thats too bad.

 

[bobbysamd]

Sammy Haggar

Can he "fly" 55? He and his Van Halen cohorts cannot "drive" 55.

 

[flx757]

far from cool...

sittin' around at the FBO all night as jacka$$ rock star is 5 hours late and shows up drunk and wants to jet off somewhere 6 hrs away and then changes his mind 4 times enroute...

I have done the rock star/movie star thing doing charter 135 work. Nothing worse. 90% of these people are trash.

Now, I cannot say about Sammy, never flew him....

Nobody I know was ever able to hang out with them, party, and bang hotty groupies....

and thats too bad.

Not only that, but perhaps an even worse part of this type of job is that you are gone literally months on end. Typically, these tours run 90 days and longer, so expect to be gone for an extremely extended period of time. Leaving very late at night, and arriving very early in the morning, to sit around all day and try and get some rest, only to leave again very late at night. Over and over for months and months. Not much of a life, if you ask me. As Gulfstream 200 indicated, it is far from "too cool", and anything but a "dream come true". More like a nightmare. You do occasionally run across those that are very nice and polite, but it is very rare.

 

[avbug]

True story. A few celebrities I've flown have been congenial, even pleasant people. One I've flown before is Robert Redford. He is a man who greatly values his privacy, and all I can say about him as a client is that he's a very gracious person and an excellent passenger. Most celbrities aren't so pleasant to fly with however. They all may have their reasons, but once you meet them, they're only people. Any "coolness" you may have conjured up in your imagination will evaporate, leaving you with quality of life issues. Do you want to associate with those people for long extended periods? With a few exceptions, I don't.

 

[Thrust Master]

Speaking from experience,

Jimmy Buffet is an A$$hole.
Jeff Gordon is very nice and
James Brown likes his chicken(No pun intended),
he really does, and he'll usually leave with 2 or 3
white girls that never arrived with him.

But as previously posted, theres nothing great
about waiting around for hours on end and having
to change your destination several times enroute.

 

[350DRIVER]

I sent an email to his management, and I wonder what they will say. I know Sammy has his own lear jet, I've seen it and met him a few times around it. That would just be too cool.

I hate to sound negative but those kinds of flight departments are usually somewhat difficult to tap and get into not to mention the "flight time" that is probably going to be required to sit right seat in a Lear... At 400 hours I tend to think that this is going to be a major hurdle that probably won't be easily overcome even if they do show interest in you. A very good friend of mine was just hired to fly right seat (91 &135) on a Lear 60 and he had 2400TT, 200 hours of westwind jet time, turbine time, etc, etc, and it was like pulling teeth to get him "insurable" but fortunately they (insurance company) gave in.


As for "that type" of flying, most of what is said is mostly bullsh!t since from my experience they (most) are very friendly and nice.. They are no different than you are I, just have a lot more money..
It can be a very rewarding way to go if you are fortunate enough to be able to get on with them...


good luck

3 5 0

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

Speaking from experience,

Jimmy Buffet is an A$$hole.

I've heard this quite a few times and it really bums me out. I've always thought JB would be a righteous dude. Still, there's nothing quite like a good rum drink under a palm tree on the beach with a good JB album in the backround (with a little brown girl for good measure).

 

[great cornholio]

Back in the day when I was a lineguy for my FBO Jimmy Buffet had his albatross with us and we had to wash it real quick every day cause he was doing concerts at an outdoor place for like 5 nights and they would buzz the show with the plane every night. Anyways on like the 3rd day or so he came out and hung out around the plane. I talked to him for like 30 or 45 min while I was washing his plane he was pretty cool just like you would expect him to be. Talked about fishin, drinkin, and flyin stuff like that. Really surprised to hear that he is usually a dick.

 

[Rick1128]

Maybe I have been fortunate, but the majority of the celebs I've carried have been reasonably nice. They run the gamet from real bad to very, very nice. Jacklyn Smith is one of the very nice ones. Wish all my passengers were that nice. And I have had a couple that I wanted to feed into one the engines, but that would have been curuelty to an engine. But the ones you really have to watch out for are the hanger-ons around the celeb. They are usually total A$$HOLES!! They think because they are so and so's personal whatever, they can do anything they want. Personally after carrying those folks and transporting federal prisoners, I would much rather carry federal prisoners. They are much quieter, mind their manners, follow instructions and are a much nice group of people to deal with.

 

[captainv]

I know a guy who use to fly for Reba McIntyre, flying a Westind 1124, i believe. standard interview, mostly reviewing his background flying a westwind for a health provider.

toward the end, they asked him, "So, how long have you been a fan of Reba's?"

His reply, "Who's Reba McIntyre?"

he thought the job was for some private owner, but the friend who'd set him up for the interview assumed he knew who owned the jet.

turns out the flight department had gone through a few co-pilots who were more interested in showing off their proximity to their favorite country singer than they were in flying the airplane.

needless to say, he got the job. still can't stand her music. i would thing a flight department like this would be wary of hiring anyone who's attittude was - Sammy Hagar's co-pilot, that would just be so cool!

 

[mar]

Celebs and ConAir

I've also flown some prisoners (when I flew Metros). They are pretty well behaved. But I remember one poor demented woman who paused on her way out of the plane to thank me for the nice flight but wanted to let me know that Jesus had told her the plane would run much better if we put Vaseline in the gas tank.

I also flew Dan Rather. Nice guy.

 

[SDF2BUF2MCO]

Speaking from experience,


Jeff Gordon is very nice
But as previously posted, theres nothing great
about waiting around for hours on end and having
to change your destination several times enroute.

I've heard the exact opposite of JG. This is coming from people who work for the companies who sponser him. Heard he was a Napoleon (sp?) type. Just repeating gossip though.

If I could haul anyone around it would be a toss up between Barry Manilow or AC/DC. Definitely worth the waiting around.

 

[rumpletumbler]

Re: Celebs and ConAir

But I remember one poor demented woman who paused on her way out of the plane to thank me for the nice flight but wanted to let me know that Jesus had told her the plane would run much better if we put Vaseline in the gas tank.

Thats awesome! Jesus is yet to communicate that valuable flying tip to me. I'm not flying though.

 

[BoDEAN]

How did you all land this type of job?

 

[Catbird]

Flew for Willy Nelson for a while. Very nice fellow, as the saying goes. "When the IRS came to take Willy's assets away. They didn't get much. He had already given it away". He's been like that his whole life. Flew ZZTop for a while, learned quickly to expect the unexpected. It's another world to be able to live life as happy as can be and not have a worry about money or if a management dick is going to critique your shoe shine.If you fly musicians don't expect to pass a Tee-Tee test, the residual will show up on a gas chromatograph like a Musical Maestro such as Puff Daddy "performing" at a Crop Duster Convention.

 

[ibaflyer]

By looking at my time, you can tell that I never had the chance to fly any one of fame or influence, unless you are talking about my wife. She seem to be able to influence me to wash all of the windows in our house at least twice a year.

Anyway, I was sitting in the FBO at Sunken Lunken (Cincinatti)about 3 years ago and started chatting with two pilots who were flying a BAC111 for Pink Floyd. Seems that they were in town for a concert. Anyway being the flying geek that I am, I asked if I could look inside the plane and both pilots took me out to the aircraft, looked around asking questions and then they start telling me that flying rockers is a pain in the ass. Late nights, excessive demands, attitudes, and the "Do you realize who I am?" statements.

I guess that if I ever had the chance and knowing what I do now, I would still do it just to be able to say I did it once. But for those of you who can put up with all of the bull sh*t, my hat goes off to you.