NJI rats leaving the sinking ship

[Guitar rocker]

Hey, I'm not a scheduler but I work at Bridgeway. I don't like the job they do but its a logistical nightmare. You try scheduling 2500 pilots, 350 planes to 5000 airports. Then have 40% of the fleet break on a daily basis. The reason there are so many changes is because planes are a breaking and crews are DNIFing. A small % is owners changing plans. (I'm not blaming crews, planes breaking and crews being sick happen, but the owner still needs to go where he wants to go)

If you think you know what’s going on here because you visited a day then I can tell you how easy I think your job is because I flew on a ferry flight.

The people on this board are so ready to bash their coworkers. NJA pilots are probably the best compensated in the aviation industry. You have good pay and awesome benefits. Seriously why can't people get over their negativity and grudge and do the job they are paid to do. (I'm not singling you out Rocker)

I don't know what the pilots do out on the road, but I do know what we do for them. I will list them, you find me a corporate pilots who has all this done for them.

In addition to the good pay you get
To keep your FF miles
Keep your hotel points
Live anywhere in the USA (if you started before Nov)
Get per diem
Get crew food
Have all your flight plans ran and filed for you
All hotels and crew x-port is booked for you
All international planning is done for you, and jepp is now doing Canada
You get awesome health benefits
7 on 7 off with 3 weeks of vacation, that’s three 21 day breaks a year to take your family and stay/fly for free using your hotel points and FF miles.
401k with matching company contribution


So for the pilots who are complaining of their job/schedulers/pay or whatever. I have some advice, QUIT and find a better job, cause I don't want to deal with your negativity. I hate the handholding and incompetence just as much as you and we both know there is a lot on both sides of the screen. So fly the freaking airplanes and I will do my best to support you from here.

Peace out

I understand what you are saying and we do appreciate the things listed that you do. But what I am referring to is the waste.....waste waste waste. I have seen a huge catering cart in TEB (as I am sure that we all have) loaded with fresh food from Rudys....wheeled out to the trash at the end of the day, most of that was due to plans changing but most importantly, CMH forgetting to cancel the food orders when the plans did change (as per the person in charge in TEB at the time). How about staying at a 600$ a night suite in Boston, when 15 minutes up the road there were hotels......(we called and checked into it after the fact....becasue we were told that there were no rooms in Boston or the surrounding area). How about, we are in MIA with a broken plane, take a limo to PBI to baby sit another broken plane and that crew in PBI limod down to MIA to baby sit our broken plane. And the stories go on from there buddy...............theres tons of em. When we see the waste, we try to ask them, is it really worth it??? After doing that so much and always being told, you guys dont have the picture at all, it's frustrating to even suggest anything.

Again, we appreciate what it is that YOU do. I am not singling anyone out up there in CMH, but somebody had best get into gear and STOP wasting money . Perhaps you should recap the waste mgmt forms that are sent in and then you will understand the REAL issues of money being wasted. Last but not least, is anyone up there even held accountable for the waste of money that does occur time and again??? Becuause, when a pilot is involved in such a situation, we are the first to hear about it.

 

[gunfyter]

it would be better for everybody if we just let these type threads die. Yeah I know I gave it a little more life just by responding.

 

[knowone]

The Untouchable

I
anyone up there even held accountable for the waste of money that does occur time and again

Answer is no, scheduling are the untouchables up here. Their motto is "As long as it is covered"

 

[Diesel]

To keep your FF miles--Not a perk but they all do
Keep your hotel points--Yes they do
Live anywhere in the USA (if you started before Nov)-Is what is required to have as many pilots as we do. Most corp departments have 10 guys. Easy to find
Get per diem-Company all expensed credit card
Get crew food-One leg or two legs a day don't fly through a meal period. Bigger planes have FA's and damn they eat well.
Have all your flight plans ran and filed for you-One or two legs a day for corp easy to file.. We used to file all our flight plans but couldn't keep up with the changes.
All hotels and crew x-port is booked for you-Once again no changes and very few RON's unless international
All international planning is done for you, and jepp is now doing Canada-Nobody does their own international flight planning. Air Routing (my favorite), Jepp, or GDC provide soup to nuts even hotels and car transport.
You get awesome health benefits-As G200 but i'm sure he gets good ones
7 on 7 off with 3 weeks of vacation, that’s three 21 day breaks a year to take your family and stay/fly for free using your hotel points and FF miles.-We also work a heck of a lot more than a corp department. Ask g200 and those boys how much they work and they laugh at us with how much we work. Frequent flier and Hotel points are not free we stayed and sat on those airlines to earn them. But I will agree with you on the vacation that they don't get
401k with matching company contribution-Ask G200 I'm not sure what they make.


As G200 and the others point out how much we work for so little money. I'm just pointing out what my buddies do.

 

[ETDTBA]

I understand what you are saying and we do appreciate the things listed that you do. But what I am referring to is the waste.....waste waste waste. I have seen a huge catering cart in TEB (as I am sure that we all have) loaded with fresh food from Rudys....wheeled out to the trash at the end of the day, most of that was due to plans changing but most importantly, CMH forgetting to cancel the food orders when the plans did change (as per the person in charge in TEB at the time). How about staying at a 600$ a night suite in Boston, when 15 minutes up the road there were hotels......(we called and checked into it after the fact....becasue we were told that there were no rooms in Boston or the surrounding area). How about, we are in MIA with a broken plane, take a limo to PBI to baby sit another broken plane and that crew in PBI limod down to MIA to baby sit our broken plane. And the stories go on from there buddy...............theres tons of em. When we see the waste, we try to ask them, is it really worth it??? After doing that so much and always being told, you guys dont have the picture at all, it's frustrating to even suggest anything.

Again, we appreciate what it is that YOU do. I am not singling anyone out up there in CMH, but somebody had best get into gear and STOP wasting money . Perhaps you should recap the waste mgmt forms that are sent in and then you will understand the REAL issues of money being wasted. Last but not least, is anyone up there even held accountable for the waste of money that does occur time and again??? Becuause, when a pilot is involved in such a situation, we are the first to hear about it.

Man do I hear you. I see it all the time. I wonder why the heck a lot of the changes occur, and I can't believe how stupid they are. I will then call a scheduler and ask why, they will give me a reason and I will usually shake my head in disbelief, and think well that's a waste of 40K.
Do you have problems when your dealing with dispatch, weather or Jepp? Those guys are all professionals. What I mean by that is most of those people have aviation backgrounds, where crew services, owner services, logistics, and travel might not have the aviation knowledge.

You also have to remember while the pilots have one aircaft to worry about a day we have all of them.

 

[Guitar rocker]

Man do I hear you. I see it all the time. I wonder why the heck a lot of the changes occur, and I can't believe how stupid they are. I will then call a scheduler and ask why, they will give me a reason and I will usually shake my head in disbelief, and think well that's a waste of 40K.
Do you have problems when your dealing with dispatch, weather or Jepp? Those guys are all professionals. What I mean by that is most of those people have aviation backgrounds, where crew services, owner services, logistics, and travel might not have the aviation knowledge.

You also have to remember while the pilots have one aircaft to worry about a day we have all of them.

I understand. The weather and jepps part seems to be OK, but where the waste of money occurs is when one person just isnt talking to the other or someone without an understanding of how weather works etc and then making a decision that doesnt benefit anyone. (Had one scheduler ask why we couldnt get into airport X even when the current/forecast wx was down). Therefore, that lack of communication can be truly costly at times, and even more so...embarrassing as the owners arent being told the truth many times or kept properly informed. And ultimately, we are the ones that get yelled at and have to do the explaining when it could have been done correctly the first time around.

Enough of that...........back to the original thread.

 

[gutshotdraw]

We also work a heck of a lot more than a corp department.

Whoa nellie. Diesel, it is obvious you have never worked traditional corporate. I have worked for a Fortune 100 flight department and a high 9 figure net worth individual. In comparison, the Netjets gig is so much easier it's scary.

My best friend drives top line equipment in a well-run flight department for the LARGEST company in the WORLD in their industry (revenue this year will exceed 10 Billion with a B) and his schedule makes me cringe. After stock and bonus he makes more than I do but my base is higher and my schedule blows his out of the water.

Another friend drives top line equipment for the SECOND largest company in the WORLD in their industry and makes two-thirds what I make (same equipment) and works a minimum of 22 days a month. He also has to do EVERYTHING every time he flies. I show up, check a couple of ID's, and push throttles.

Can this job be a pill sometimes? Absolutely. Do we work harder than most corporate flight departments? As Homey the Clown used to say: "I don't think so."

 

[cmhslave]

Why do you guys think that schedulers are untouchable?

I wish you guys could sit with us on a regular basis, and then you could see what we are dealing with.

We are all professionals, (NOT HIGH SCHOOL KIDS!) we live in a constant changing environment, weather, owner changes, planes breaking, and pilots calling in sick ETC. But yet we still keep it together.

 

[hydrarkt]

But yet we still keep it together.

If you call what I see on the road "keeping it together," I think you need to see an eye doctor.

 

[cmhslave]

If you call what I see on the road "keeping it together," I think you need to see an eye doctor.

I am not talking about day-of changes.....the majority of the schedulers work 24 hours out over at easton.