How is QOL at Flight Options?

[FalconPilot69]

With the change in the scheduling, what is it like at Options now? For those who work there, would you recommend coming on board? I know some things about options from seveal websites, but I am looking for an insiders prospective.

Thank you.

 

[guido411]

With the new schedule (that is yet untested) it'll be like working for a regional for a little more base pay, a longer upgrade time, the joy of loading your own bags/cleaning your own airplanes, and no flexibility of commuting. Like a regional you WILL work long hours, you WILL have minimum rest, scheduling and dispatch WILL screw with you, your future and the Company's WILL be unclear, and you WILL spend a lot of your time (after the honeymoon) pi$$ed off.

I would reccommend this place to a young guy just looking to build some jet time. Of course, you could do that at a regional too but you never know, we may end up with a successful drive and a good contract that makes this place a career. I would NOT reccommend this place to a retired airline guy, it's not the type of thing I'd enjoy doing with my retirement.

If you do come work here, you'll be in the BE40, and with most of the BE40 and HSXP guys we're all pretty pro organization right now. You better be mailing in your ASAP card from the Holiday Inn at CGF while in indoc.

 

[dime line]

Hey Falcon Pilot, if you come here be ready to send in a union card!

 

[FalconPilot69]

You Serious?

Hey Falcon Pilot, if you come here be ready to send in a union card!

Are they really looking an going union? If so, why/why not?

 

[dime line]

yes we are. Why would any group go union? Manegement taking away the reasons why you first started at the company.

 

[leardawg]

Read the September issue of AIN. The article on the state of the fractional industry doesn't paint a rosy future for Flight Options.

 

[FalconPilot69]

Read the September issue of AIN. The article on the state of the fractional industry doesn't paint a rosy future for Flight Options.

Does it for anyone? My issue has not arrived yet.

 

[leardawg]

The gist of the article was that the fractional industry has changed since it's inception, that the major players all went through growing pains, and that the owners are more industry-savy than in the past. It portrayed Flight Options, however, as being on the shakiest ground of the "Big 4" (mentioning , among other things, an apparent high degree of owner dis-satisfaction and bad word-of-mouth among the jet-set). It seemed to portray Flops as the most likely of the 4 to not make it. At least, that's the impression I got.

 

[tubelcane]

Most of the guys and gals I know and fly with at Options are looking to get out. What does that say about the qol? Its great on your days off.

 

[Mason]

Read the September issue of AIN. The article on the state of the fractional industry doesn't paint a rosy future for Flight Options.

Anyone got a link to the article??

 

[longrangekiller]

I have been with Options almost since the doors opened. I am not of retirement age but I am out of here in mid September: one more rotation to go.

Pilots are leaving Flight Options at an alarming rate. Year to date, over 100 have departed. These pilots are leaving for a variety of corporate and commercial 121 opportunities.

You are not selecting a quality of life at any fractional. You are selecting a life style. You will spend more time with your assigned crew members than your family. You will miss most of the holidays and most of the special family events. You will be the coffee Bitxh for the rich guy and gal in the back. Now here is the good part. It is nice to know that for as long as you remain with the fractionals, no matter which one, you will have reached the limit of your potential in the aviation field. Go to work, stay out X number of days, be coffee Bitxh for rich folks, fight the weather, struggle with maintenance, dispatch, and scheduling and then go home to Pisxed off wife and kids. Oh!, and you will be doing it for peanuts compared to the NBAA average regardless of the state of organized labor within your pilot group.

The Flight Options union drive is under way. But we do not see much organization activity on the road these days. We do not see the stacks of union representation cards in the FBO's and the other Flight Options pilots I see do not speak of the organization effort unless prompted. It seems like the personal "I don't care" factor is at 100%. It is a good bet that the majority of pilots leaving Flight Options were union supporters. I would wager that 75 of the 100 plus pilots departing have sent in the union card. There have not been that many new hires. The constant changes in the pilot roster make it difficult for the organizers to verify the list.

The union vote for Fight Options will happen but not soon. And when the union is certified, it will be several YEARS before the first contract is in place. I have been waiting for almost eight years now and have lost patience.

Mean time, you guys are stuck with what you have now; status quo in contract lingo. Status quo now and status quo years from now.

Anyway guys, bye now and buy bonds.

 

[kingairyahoo]

good post killer...thank you!

 

[leardawg]

My crystal ball prediction: Raytheon will become so desperate to unload Flight Options that it will sell it for pennies on the dollar. The only taker: Ken Ricci. He will meld it with the operation he is currrently
developing (Corporate Wings/Mercury FBOs with a fleet of VLJ's). It will happen sometime in 2006. He has already said he would consider re-acquiring FLOPS if the conditions were right (meaning that Raytheon reached the point of desperation).

Mark my words, you heard it hear first. KR and JS will return, a la Douglas McArthur!

 

[semperfido]

You will be the coffee Bitxh for the rich guy and gal in the back.

just curious-- how is this diff from any corp job?

 

[Heavy Set]

I bet that the GIV, CL601 and F50 pilots at FLOPS are pretty annoyed with the likelihood of jumping back to the Legacy, X or the Hawker. People with type ratings in those aircraft probably could pick up great 91/135 jobs in similar or better aircraft at higher pay rates or land good 121 jobs with their experience. Not a big surprise that people are jumping ship...

 

[dime line]

Hey Semperfido, The diff is.......Corporate guys get paid

 

[longrangekiller]

just curious-- how is this diff from any corp job?

Corporate guy get paid to take care of the same owner (singular) not multiple owners (plural). Fractional pilots might see three of more different owners per duty day and most are upset or disturbed about the quality of service, time issues, etc.

Corporate guys do not always fly three to five legs per day during the duty rotation. Corporate guys have some stability with regard to the aircraft schedule. That is not say that corporate guys have the best work schedule out there, but for the most part, when the gear comes up the pilot is sure of the destination and has a clear idea of when he will return to home plate.

If a corporate guy takes the boss to Vegas, it is a good bet you will stay in Vegas with acft waiting on the boss rather than rush to SeaTac for the next live leg.

 

[FalconPilot69]

I'll take the frax....

I have worked for 2 different corporations as a pilot, and both jobs ended in 6 months. The first job ended due to 9/11 one week later with a so sorry, we will pay you till the end of the month. The other I am now leaving due to a passive aggressive bi-polar chief pilot. While I claim to know nothing about the frax side of business, the company I am going to work for, their pilots that I have talked to are very up beat about the company and seem happy overall.

We all got into this business for one main purpose, to fly aircraft and have the best office view in the world. Having to be the "coffee B#$ch", IMO, is part of the job.

Will having long duty days and being away from the family be tough? I am sure it will. But again, IMO, frax is much more secure than a corporate job where you are told I need you now, but I may not need you in 3 or 6 months.

 

[semperfido]

The other I am now leaving due to a passive aggressive bi-polar chief pilot..

shoulda slipped a little Prozac into his coffee

 

[FalconPilot69]

Lithieum (sp?) would probably be better.

 

[El Chupacabra]

IMO, frax is much more secure than a corporate job where you are told I need you now, but I may not need you in 3 or 6 months.

You have not read my book.

Fictional Ownership​

The World's Greatest Con Job​

Chapter 1. Is this a Pyramid Scheme?

If it talks like an Egyptian, and it walks like an Egyptian....




​

​

​

 

[TheBaron]

I worked at Flops for 1 1/2 years until I got my dream job. I found that the majority of the owners were friendly and polite. In my entire time there (in the BeechJet) I only served a handful of people coffee. Most were perfectly happy to wait on themselves. There was that 10% that was never satisfied, no matter how good things went, very much in line with the very vocal 10% of the pilot group that wouldn't be happy if they were making $200,000/year for sitting at home on reserve. Some people are just "glass is half empty" kind of people.

 

[WrknStff]

It's kind of a kick hearing some of the Citation III guys complain about being forced out of their cushy plane into something like a Hawker. Talk about a vocal group, take guys used to sitting on a broke plane all the time and then tell them they are actually going to have to go back to working for a living!

 

[Heavy Set]

It's kind of a kick hearing some of the Citation III guys complain about being forced out of their cushy plane into something like a Hawker. Talk about a vocal group, take guys used to sitting on a broke plane all the time and then tell them they are actually going to have to go back to working for a living!

Now that's funny. The Citation III guys enjoyed not flying as much and now they will actually have to go to work on the 800XP... Yeah, I'd be upset too I guess.

 

[SilverBack]

C-III the truth

Now that's funny. The Citation III guys enjoyed not flying as much and now they will actually have to go to work on the 800XP... Yeah, I'd be upset too I guess.

Dude I came out of the III program into the XP and I'm not flying any more then I did in the III. Yes some of the III's were hangar queens, like 3 of them. The rest were very dependable and the ones that worked worked hard to pick up the slack. You are speaking from a poorly informed position. Before you start taking shoots at a group of guys you might get your facts right.

 

[squonk]

Baron observed:

I worked at Flops for 1 1/2 years until I got my dream job. I found that the majority of the owners were friendly and polite. In my entire time there (in the BeechJet) I only served a handful of people coffee. Most were perfectly happy to wait on themselves. There was that 10% that was never satisfied, no matter how good things went, very much in line with the very vocal 10% of the pilot group that wouldn't be happy if they were making $200,000/year for sitting at home on reserve. Some people are just "glass is half empty" kind of people.

I'll second you on that Baron. Most of the folks get in and get out with no hassles. Some of the horror stories comes from pilots on the large cabin class that fly the Hollywood elites, who all think we bow down to them anyway!

In four years I've had only a couple of hard cases and I was briefed by the ACP on one of their flights that they might be an "interesting" owner.

 

[Irish Pilot]

Got a quick question that I couldnt find in a search here....

Last I heard options was going to the Tier system (though this was quite a while ago) but looking on the Airline Pilot Central options page it says that they are currently home based.

Whats the skinny with options domiciles? What are the gateways or whatever?

 

[dime line]

The domiciles are what they are today, but tomorrow might be different. We really don't get how they come up with the domicile policy. Right now our CEO said that Tier 2 domiciles are safe, but we don't trust that.

union is on the way!!

 

[On Your Six]

The domiciles are what they are today, but tomorrow might be different. We really don't get how they come up with the domicile policy. Right now our CEO said that Tier 2 domiciles are safe, but we don't trust that.

union is on the way!!

Thanks for that info. But what's the deal with certain pilots being hired and assigned to specific domiciles like ATL and maybe DAL (rumor)? Can a newhire immediately bid a specific Tier 2 domicile or have those only been grandfathered for existing FLOPS pilots?

What are the likely fixed domiciles (like ATL) for future newhires?

 

[flydog1]

Any BNA pilots at flight ops please pm me...Thanxs.