We try to keep empty legs to a minimum, but as anyone that has flown the 10 knows, those airplanes require lots of TLC from our mechanics. If the plane is in SFO and is running good, they'll leave it there. If it has some mx issues, they'll bring it home to MCC. But if that leg back to MCC will put the crew over 14 hours, then they'll leave the plane in SFO and figure something else out. Either mx will drive to SFO, or the crew will fly to MCC the next day. If mx really needs the plane back in MCC ASAP, we'll send a check airman down with someone who needs a 299 and they'll fly the plane home, killing 2 birds with one stone. Same goes for planes in TEB and our ILG base. Quite often our ILG based mechanics will drive up to TEB and work on the planes at night while the crew is in rest if the crew was unable to repo to ILG without going over 14 hours of duty.
On a side note, our mechanics have 14-hour duty limits too.
As for transitions, it really all depends on where the airplanes are. Several crews start or stop their transition in one of our bases, but not necessarily the base where they live. If the transition takes place away from a base, Crew Resources does their best to predict where the plane will sit long enough to swap crews, but even the best laid plans don't always work out when the pax change their itinerary last minute. Then we just respond and recover as best as possible. We do airline a lot, no getting around that. But we've got 2 managed king airs that the company uses to shuttle crews to/from our VNY base from MCC. Fill that king air 350 with 8 pilots down and 8 coming back, saving the need to buy 16 airline tickets, and the cost difference is negligible. That also helps to preserve some of our duty day, not spending it standing in line at the security check points!
