Day in the life of a corporate/charter/fractional pilot

ZapBrannigan said:
I guess I should have explained what I meant. When I am sitting in an FBO all day, or sitting in a hotel for multple days, I am useless. Useless to my family. Useless to the company. I am simply occupying space until I am called upon to do something else. That's why I think that quote, "...a profession for people who don't value their time" is appropriate. We only have so many minutes on planet earth and it bothers me that I waste a lot of them being unproductive.

In my previous life as a 121 pilot, I bid efficient schedules. If I was going to work I wanted to work, not sit around. So I'd fly my 3-5 legs a day and then go to the hotel, sleep, get up and do it again. I would maximize my time at work so that I could maximize my time at home. Very little "wasted" time if that makes any sense.
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Interesting perspective. I think of corporate flying's purpose as maximizing other people's time - that's our purpose and we do that sometimes by flying airplanes, other times by being available to fly airplanes. It's a little different perspective on being productive I guess.
 
You're just a straight shooter with upper management written all over you! ;-)

Seriously your point is well taken though.
 
I call sitting on my ass in an FBO, making the same amount of money as if I was flying, a pretty damn productive way of using my time.
 
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Queboat said:
The way I am able to work for a few different companies is by doing contract work(side work from my full time job) this is fairly common in corporate aviation. Some guys are exclusively contract pilots.
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You work for a corporate flight department and do contract work on the side? How is that possible? Do you only do contract work on your hard days off? What happens if you get stuck somewhere for maintenance and can't be back for a company trip?
 
A day in the life...get called at 1130 for a departure tomorrow morning. The boss changes his mind and says we are leaving tonight. Get another call at 1400 and email saying we are a midnight departure for an hour flight, quick turn, and head home.

Go take a nap for a couple of hours. The technician is out of the country picking up another airplane for the company, and it is up to us to get the airplane ready (yes, we are somewhat spoiled over here). So, I get picked up at 2000 for an hour drive to the airport, get everything ready, and we actually block out at midnight (not unusual to wait 3-4 hours, so it was nice to have everything on time). Fly 1 hour, taxi for 15 minutes, drop passengers off, and do the quickest turn we have in the new airplane because the home airport is closed at 0330. Land at 0310. Finally get the airplane put away at 0400, and in the apartment at 0500. Another day, another dollar.

Now, it's time for bed...
 
(Charter). Varied wildly. I'd guesstimate 25% one leg out and backs, sometimes with a sit all day waiting for the meeting to be over, sometimes with an immediate return. 75% 2-5 legs on a long charter broker trip...lots of time spent on the "Hebrew Highway" (New York to Florida), but a fair amount of Aspen/Jackson Hole/etc during ski season. Fair amount of Texas and Arizona, too (and of course the occassional Everywhere Else). I won't say I "miss" it, exactly, but the grass is always at least "greenish", and there were those occassional two or three day sits in PBI or Cabo...

PS. And as an avowed Class Warrior, I found it surprising how many of the Extremely Well To Do (Hyper-Wealthy don't fly on beatchjets) weren't jerks. 5% Insufferable Jerks at most.
 
PropDriver said:
You work for a corporate flight department and do contract work on the side? How is that possible? Do you only do contract work on your hard days off? What happens if you get stuck somewhere for maintenance and can't be back for a company trip?
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Yes on hard days off. If the airplane broke down somewhere, depending on how long it would take to fix, everyone would just airline home or where ever they needed to be or have the mx done and carry on. And to be honest Gulfstreams rarely break at all and let alone fixed quickly or MEL'd.
 
ZapBrannigan said:
I guess I should have explained what I meant. When I am sitting in an FBO all day, or sitting in a hotel for multple days, I am useless. Useless to my family. Useless to the company. I am simply occupying space until I am called upon to do something else. That's why I think that quote, "...a profession for people who don't value their time" is appropriate. We only have so many minutes on planet earth and it bothers me that I waste a lot of them being unproductive.

In my previous life as a 121 pilot, I bid efficient schedules. If I was going to work I wanted to work, not sit around. So I'd fly my 3-5 legs a day and then go to the hotel, sleep, get up and do it again. I would maximize my time at work so th
at I could maximize my time at home. Very little "wasted" time if that makes any sense.
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That makes sense. The way I've always viewed the corp world is, we get paid for our availability, not the hours flying the airplane.
 
I agree. I'm not saying I was right - just how my pea-brain interprets the situation when I'm on day 3 in a hotel. Lol
 
ZapBrannigan said:
I agree. I'm not saying I was right - just how my pea-brain interprets the situation when I'm on day 3 in a hotel. Lol
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Find something to keep you busy. Yes, yesterday sucked, but to keep it in perspective, I have been here since 21 Mar and that was my second trip. The trip prior was a 3 day trip with an hour leg each way. I have accomplished getting my taxes done, applying for my Masters program beginning in the fall, and am also signed up to take a real estate course to get my realtor's license (I take a test for it once I get home) this rotation. Our next trip is a 2 day scheduled in a few days, with 3 legs, and about 6 hours of flying. It is all how you approach it.
 
Agree with everything said above. Also, a GIV driver and no two trips are the same. This weekend I am sitting in Napa for three days with a great/fun crew. About to head out for some wine tasting. Have had trips that do London- Brazil get minimum rest and then up to the US. I have put 30 hours of flying in three days ,and then trips like the one I am on where you fly for two hours in three days. In the larger Longer legged airplane I see a lot of all night long legs where the pax can sleep in the back. I know a friend who flew a guy in a GV that the owner used the plane as a hotel. He would tuck his kids in bed around 1030 and then sleep all night to be at his morning meeting. No two jobs are the same, and the life is what you make it. For me right now though I have no desire to go to the airlines.
 
I forgot to bring up "IPO road shows." If you're in charter, you might do quite a few of these. They usually last between 10 and 14 days, and - in my experience - are mostly domestic with some exceptions (e.g., London). You take around a group of analysts and middle/senior management all across the country (usually all four corners except for the Pac NW for some reason) in an effort to cull interest in making a privately-held company go public. Busy tempo and lots of stops, which I sometimes prefer to sitting around for days (really depends on the destination).
 
When I flew charter it was alot of one leggers but also a fair amount of holds, company always found us a place to hold or we held in the customers offices/staff houses, 1.5 hours call out between 0600-2000, when I flew for a provincial police contract it was 1.5 hour call out again between 0600-1900, and those days were odd, no one that was the same, lots of holding at the police station or their staff housing, one day would be 8 legs of moving people around, where others were 3 leg days with a 7 hour wait. I enjoyed charter to the scheduled stuff i do now!
 
I work for a fractional company, I see it as the.best of both 121 and 135 worlds. I work 8 on 6 off, so I have a hard schedule that cannot be touched unless I allow it! While on the road, I dont have to sit and wait for pax like traditional 135, I just move on and repo for the next group. I get to do all my own flight planning, and am rarely in the same place more than twice in a week. Typical 8 day trip involves about 35 hrs of actual flying, and typical duty day is about 12 hrs. I come from a regional airline, the QOL in my gig is better than either 135 or 121, the pay is certainly better than any regional amd most 135 gigs, tho top end is not as high as a major would be. Get to earn and keep airline miles, and hotel points, no cass, but commuting is always PS since ticket is purchased. Travel in uniform, dealing with tsa is just as easy as with airline....all in all, not sure I would ever return to airline flying!

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