BEEF SUPREME
Well-Known Member
It's all fun and games until you show up to a messy airplane, when XOJET was still regarded as a "fractional" this was a nightmare. I usually spent the first day straightening up an aircraft and I never gave the previous crew a tough time. Usually guys were scrambling to make the first flight home on their last day and this was expected in some ways. Sometimes I got a BB message from a captain apologizing for the mess, but that was as good as it ever got and it was only from one of the few good captains there.
The worst occurrence was when I returned from cleaning all the silverware, you know because it is 1 AM and one line guy is working and you have to do that stuff yourself. Anyway I returned to a dark airplane, the captain saying basically "F-it, we are good lets get some sleep." My response as always: "you're the captain.." unlock the door and put the dishes away in a dark airplane, because it is all powered off including the batteries disconnected. I can't even check to see if it is clean. And the hotel sounds like nirvana after a 14 hour day. Stuff you would never have to deal with in 121, but I digress....
The next morning I get a rather nasty email, addressed to me and the CP, ACP, HR, the evil witch who was in charge of upgrades and the troll that lived in the basement in charge of airline tickets for crew. The email was from: captain grumpypants of west bumhump texas, a member of the "cherry air hater posse" as I called them. Grumpypants proceeds for about 2 pages to describe the state of the aircraft as my captain had left it. Of course with the implication that the SIC (me) was to blame and what a perfectly wonderful time to throw the mountain biking bro from liberal land under the bus.
OF COURSE! Because the SIC is in charge of cleaning and the PIC does paperwork and flirts with the CSRs while "arranging the rental car." YES! HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO FOOLISH. All of this occurred before my morning coffee or my morning poop. Which was irritating as, so I went to go get said coffee to speed things along. At breakfast I saw the captain frog legs, who threw me under the bus. Looking downcast into his oatmeal he said he was very sorry but that he could not jeopardize his position. So yeah, thanks for not helping captain french fry. I brought the issue to the attention of a group of captains that called themselves some kind of pro standards or review board but they didn't have any influence with all the people who were CC'ed on the "cherry air torpedo" email.
That is how things worked at the "former fractional known as XOJET". You would never, ever have to deal with that at a 121, after your probation is over and my understanding or impression on how things would work is: follow the manual, don't to something really dumb you wouldn't do in an office building with desks and people on an overnight and your are good.
One would never, ever have their career massively roadblocked because someone thought that you didn't do a good job cleaning up.
