Passport lesson #1

TFaudree_ERAU

TFaudree_ERAU

Mashin' dem buttons
In order to avoid the most expensive U-Turn you've ever made, never trust the passengers when they say their have theirs. ALWAYS ask to actually see them in their hand.

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JEP said:
I am going to go out on a limb and say that one of the pax forgot their passport..... :eek:
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Take it a step further and say that the CEO's assistant forgot the CEO's passport and wallet.

Thank goodness for a curtain, a bathroom and a girlfriend to keep things from getting out of hand by "relieving some stress". I just wish they would have warned us before making us think the engine was surging and about about to blow up. :panic:
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
Take it a step further and say that the CEO's assistant forgot the CEO's passport and wallet.

Thank goodness for a curtain, a bathroom and a girlfriend to keep things from getting out of hand by "relieving some stress". I just wish they would have warned us before making us think the engine was surging and about about to blow up. :panic:
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:eek:
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Perhaps..... :rawk:
 
Idiots. . .

At least you weren't paying for the gas and utilization.

You did still get paid appropriately for your time?

Of course, I'm sure you missed out on seeing a pretty cool place.

I have to know, was the girlfriend hot?
 
We were on the way to Nassau. Somewhere around PANAL on AR3, the CEO's assistant sticks his head in the cockpit and says "what did you guys do with (insert name)'s bag?!!?" We both clearly remembered the captain asking if he could carry it for the assistant, and he refused the offer. That was the last we saw of it. I even asked everyone before walking out to the airplane whether or not they all had their passports. Seeing as how we have done international trips 4 times in the past couple of months, the reply was basically "of course we have them you dumb###." The correct response of "OH ####!! I left the bag by the chair in the lobby!" came about 45 minutes too late. Evidentially, while waiting on the girlfriend, the assistant sat the bag down by a chair he was sitting in. It stayed there while we went out on our hour and a half round robin flight.

We even called Bahamas customs on the flitephone to see if we could get the passenger in with just his drivers license. We were then told that all his ID was in the same bag, so that nixed that idea. Besides, they were going to do some island hopping in a "puddle jumper" and on their yacht, so they probably would have gotten busted somewhere along the way. We decided that instead of risking the chance of the captain getting fined (flight crew is responsible for the passengers having their passports), we'd cut our losses and make the u-turn. The guys in the tower at Norfolk had a good laugh when they asked why we were back and how far we had gotten. To help us out, they even pulled our strip out of the trashcan and punched our flight plan back into the system in order to save us some time on the computer. After refueling, we headed back out. Of course, that was AFTER calling customs back and begging them to stay an extra 3 hours past their 5 pm quittin' time.

Basically, the moral of this story for any of you guys that are pursuing corporate or charter aviation is to NEVER trust the passengers word when it comes to passports. You should ALWAYS demand to see them in hand before closing the cabin door. Flight crews have been fined up to $5,000 per passenger that arrives in a foreign country without a passport. Even with high pay scale of most corporate captains, it can make for a very sickening feeling knowing you just lost a month's salary because of a flub-up.

surreal1221 said:
You did still get paid appropriately for your time?
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Salary. In corporate aviation, that can be a blessing or a curse. Five hours a month or 500 hours a month, I get paid the same. For almost three months from Thanksgiving to New Years, it was a great deal...but recently, I've been feeling like a Catholic altar boy.

surreal1221 said:
Of course, I'm sure you missed out on seeing a pretty cool place.
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Nassau? Hardly something to get upset over missing. Between Freeport and Nassau, we've been down here 3 times in the past 60 days and honestly, it is getting old.

surreal1221 said:
I have to know, was the girlfriend hot?
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She looks a whole lot like Alyssa Milano.
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
Salary. In corporate aviation, that can be a blessing or a curse. Five hours a month or 500 hours a month, I get paid the same. For almost three months from Thanksgiving to New Years, it was a great deal...but recently, I've been feeling like a Catholic altar boy.
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Take the good with the bad. . .:buck:

TFaudree_ERAU said:
Nassau? Hardly something to get upset over missing. Between Freeport and Nassau, we've been down here 3 times in the past 60 days and honestly, it is getting old.
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Ah, yeah. . .nothing exotic. Bummer

TFaudree_ERAU said:
She looks a whole lot like Alyssa Milano.
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Is she half his age?

:nana2:
 
TFaudree_ERAU said:
In order to avoid the most expensive U-Turn you've ever made, never trust the passengers when they say their have theirs. ALWAYS ask to actually see them in their hand.

flight_track_map.rvt
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That stinks, if they would have had their drivers license it would have been a non issue for the bahamians. US customs is a funny bunch, you are required to have a valid passport when leaving the country although you may never see them, they make it easy to be dishonest about whether you have the proper documentation when departing the country.
 
If I wasn't paying, and I was getting paid by the hour to fly that trip, I'd be happy!

Let the dumb son of a bitch who forgot his passport pay for the flight, and pay YOU for the extra time!
 
ljg said:
What's the operating cost of this u-turn?
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According to my calculations, $5,580. To go out, make the u-turn and come back took 2 minutes LONGER than it did to get all the way to Nassau the second time. The guy that screwed up even said "that was a $5000 screw up". He was close; whats $580?

If you take the mikecweb "got laid" discount, the total comes out to $69.95
 
charlie1017 said:
Just imagine if the pro-user fees, anti-corporate flying folks get a hold of this LOL...
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And then I'd show them the pictures of the 3 ERJs sitting in the penalty box for hours on end, 5 times a week.

Everyone has questionable operating practices, but some do it more often than others...LOLzers
 
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