Furloughs at FLOP's????

[Voice Of Reason]

Old School Flops Too Young Hired as Challenger Capt that left for rinky dink mgt job?

Hey Publishers...what makes you the Flops expert? Mad because you couldn't go back in the position you were in because things have changed since they hired anyone with a pulse into a Challenger position day 1?

I am 6'5" and 260..... The old lears were awful whether you were in the front or back.... My head still leans over 15 degrees. You used to be able to tell the captain from the co pilot by which way his head leans. Frankly who wants to bring their own roid pillow or have detailed instructions on how to get in the seats. My couple of hours in a 747 were more to my liking. The electric seats ought to be mandatory in all aircraft.

Feb 2006

Bob Hoover was a director at Evergreen when I was there. One day during a tour of the Postal hub facility at Terra Haute, Del Smith asked him to show one of the guests what he did. He took the SabreLiner up and did his show for the 6 of us.

Feb 21 2006

Over Africa one day some of my brightest popped the oxygen masks on a 737 while I was sleeping on a row of seats (ferry flight). A flight who was with us woke me up with "I think we have a problem" The cockpit door was open with no visible crew and the other two or three we had on board were also no where to be seen.
Had my attention for a few minutes.

Feb 24 2006

Does pilot quality effect the bottom line.... the answer everyone would like to think is "of course it does". The reality is very little. Pilots often think of themselves as the revenue generators and that they make the money for the company. The reality is the guy who designs the yield revenue system is much more important to the wheel than the pilot corp.
Airlines are sophisticated systems that must have all cogs operating effectively to be profitable. In the last few years, the fuel purchasing group has been an extremely important cog. While there is a relationship between quality and safety, it should be a given at the airline level.

March 1 2006

I have an eleven year old son.

He has about 15 hours in a 150 and 172. He flies Flight Simulator every night. If you are not familiar with the level of upgrades and add on's for the program that exist today, you probalby cannot really appreciate the challenge nor interest of people doing this.

There are products that add on that give you real world weather, complete FMS and control panels, passengers, etc. that are incredible to me.

The funny thing was when we last went up in a 172 that had the Garmin complet package, he was looking around for the auto throttles to set up his airspeeds.

I personnally find it a fun deal to do with him and fly approaches in hurricanes etc.

March 14 2006

Am looking for information on corporate flight attendant rates for Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. Some 135 involved.

March 18 2006

I recently met with a customer

who was getting out of his fractional shares and wanted to buy his own aircraft.

His biggest complaint, he goes on multiple stop trips. He cannot leave his stuff in the aircraft, does not know what will be there when he comes back, does not know who the pilots are but knows they will not be the same that brought him, flight crews that run out of time and keep him standing there, the no personal attention and identification he seeks. and high fees for all the above.
Basically he wants his own aircraft and dedicated crew.

May 10 2006

This depends on how you do things and what kind of company. Our flight coordinators basically do everything from quote to putting the trip packages together but one of the most important jobs is if the customer is leaving from our base, they meet and take the passengers to the aircraft.
It is also part of the deal to find out what the passegers liked or did not like and see to it next time that what they wanted is taken care of and that the crew knows what they did not like.

April 25 2006

While no time is worthless, I tend to look more at PIC single pilot experience which comes from the Airnet's type flying as a solid background. Many on these boards promote the working your way up as a CFI etc as the way to go but I tend to look at what type flying you did early on.
If you have a type but little PIC it is not very impressive compared with a non typed but more PIC in something smaller.
SIC where you sort of leaped there is not anything I look at. I like people with banner towing, check hauling, cargo parts haulers, who then got a shot at maybe a turboprop job which became PIC.
We are not looking for "Radio-men".

April 21 2006

It is always nice to see peoples perception of the business they are in and how different it might be from the perception of people who look at it as a business from afar.
The Netjets business model depends on a number of things coming together in a way that produces a profit. First, they must order aircraft in significant numbers to drive the price down. They then package that aircraft and sell the individual pieces that sometimes make more than the whole.
They must arrange maitenance and various supplier contracts to drive down the cost which make up for the inefficiencies of their flight profile. In order for this to work, they make guarantees to the owners for service. All of this comes at a pretty penny. Lastly they have to hope that the market for used aircraft remains stable enough for the gurantees that they were talking about at the beginning hold true 5 years or so downstream. Obviously a maturing labor force is also part of the cost equation.
While the general concept of fractional ownership will continue to be a major element of the business, Netjets would well become the United Airlines of the fractional world, eaten up in the end by competition with significant cost advantages.

April 4 2006

Miami

is like wherever you are now....In short, a good deal depends on where you are coming from. All the things said above are or can be true. The thing is that it depends on you and what you like or are used to.
First, Miami is but one element of South Florida. Life in Ft. Lauderdale is different than life in Miami, and different than say Lake Worth. If you like a wealth of activity at your door, find people and cultures interesting, like warm more than cold, drove yourself in Hong Kong, like professional sports, Miami can be a great area....
If you are like the guys above, wrong place to be.

March 31 2006

G100--

While the objective is to always have more than 2 people to crew a 135 managed aircraft, it is not always as doable. We have been looking for a Hawker 800 pilot for sometime as well as others. By the time you go through the training-- and we do not skip through this like some- and getting them on the certificate, it seems we are moving them up or they find they do not like the QOL of 135. The owners do not want to pay for full time 2 man crews let alone 3.
I understand that these are the things that managers deal with. South Florida, however, is much more transient than other places, and people move much quicker than in other locations I have been in. There is also a slow moving to the northern counties as housing is a problem in this area no matter what you make. There are also the cyclical aspects of charter. I used to say that if you had 5 aircraft on certificate, your costs starting amortizing pretty well. With the current regulatory environment, I think you almost need 10 to amortize your non direct flying costs.

June 1 2006

I think that most smaller 135 companies struggle to find ways to schedule days off. I know we try to schedule these days as best we can to fit against scheduled maintenance days down.
Until you are at a place where you have more than one crew per aircraft, it is really tough when you are doing 135 and part 91 both and you have to get the total hours up where the two crews are utilized.[/quote] May 30 2006



http://forums.flightinfo.com/search.php?searchid=1986054&pp=25

 

[brokeflyer]

well there's 15 minutes of my life ill never get back.....thanks

 

[Voice Of Reason]

Now who would want to buy a bunch of old Beech Jets for cheap?

If only there was a company in the Cleveland area who was looking for Beech Jets to up grade with new engines and avionics then sell them when the economy picks up again.

dingdingding! winner!

 

[Publishers]

Geez it is so nice to have a fan who reads. Your right I am no aviation expert, I just appear as one on TV.

 

[gunfyter]

Why do you have so much free time for FlightInfo?

Whenever I have had office jobs, I always had meetings and projects, personnel evaluations to write ... I was always busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest.

I don't understand how you have so much time.

 

[B19 Flyer]

Why do you have so much free time for FlightInfo?

Whenever I have had office jobs, I always had meetings and projects, personnel evaluations to write ... I was always busier than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest.

I don't understand how you have so much time.

Sounds to me like you weren't managing your time properly. You're probably better off flying with somebody else doing your paperwork.

 

[Narrow Bridge]

NetJets was bleeding record Red Ink prior to settling with their Pilots back in 2005. Within a month after the ink was dry on the Contract, they were making profits in the 10's of millions.

Its absolutely amazing how much a motivated Pilot Group can contribute to the Company's bottom line. But of course, first you have to respect that Pilot Group enough to at least compensate them with Industry Standard Pay and Benefits.

If Flight Options Management won't at least agree to that, then let it burn. Profits should not be made on the backs of a Professional Pilot Group. If Flight Options Management is not wise enough to manage the business (including effectively motivating an intelligent workforce through methods of today, not strong arm methods of the 1930s), then close the doors.

Freedom is Not Free

If the business isn't there, a motivated vs non-motivated pilot group doesnt make a bit of difference. And guess what, the business isnt here.

Insisting on an industry standard contract during these times is just stupid. Industry standard right now is unemployment. I hope your not a contract negotiator. The pilots I've talked to on the road this week would be happy just to keep their jobs without concessions. Give us the money when the economy turns.

 

[dime line]

If the business isn't there, a motivated vs non-motivated pilot group doesnt make a bit of difference. And guess what, the business isnt here.

Insisting on an industry standard contract during these times is just stupid. Industry standard right now is unemployment. I hope your not a contract negotiator. The pilots I've talked to on the road this week would be happy just to keep their jobs without concessions. Give us the money when the economy turns.

When can we audit the books to validate what the company is saying? Then and only then will I believe them.

 

[993_Pilot]

When can we audit the books to validate what the company is saying? Then and only then will I believe them.

Exactly. If you want the pilots to be supportive, then open up the books to the union. In KR's book, "Management by Trust", he said that everyone's salary used to be published on the company website. I sure don't remember that, but maybe he should put the managements salary out there now, (we already know how little the pilots make) so we can see where the real fat is.

 

[EX_CV580FR8Dawg]

If the business isn't there, a motivated vs non-motivated pilot group doesnt make a bit of difference. And guess what, the business isnt here.

Insisting on an industry standard contract during these times is just stupid. Industry standard right now is unemployment. I hope your not a contract negotiator. The pilots I've talked to on the road this week would be happy just to keep their jobs without concessions. Give us the money when the economy turns.

what concessions? We don't nearly make enough to "give" back to the company a$$hole. We will continue to negotiate in good faith.... this whole mess is cyclical and it will get better. The problem is that fcksticks like you will always be around and that we have to protect ourselves against that. $hit... anymore back to the company would be like going to a feeder. So how does it feel having Thanksgiving at your house when you know 104 of us just got put out on the street right before the Christmas season? Is there an open season on corporate jagbags such as yourself?