Posted: 12/27/2007 11:58:13 AM EDT
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If so, how do you like it? Pros/cons? Thanks. vmax84 "Caravan Driver for puple tail". |
I worked for one of the competitors. The NJA/NJI guys have a very good deal. The equipment is excellent, and their contract is very good...better than the legacy majors IMHO. The flying on the frac side is awesome, if you like change and are flexible. You simply don't know to where the next leg will be. Air reroutes are common, and on a 7 day rotation, it is very possible to go from the Mexico to Canada to Alaska to New York to Aspen to Florida. You will land at large international airports like LAX or ORD, and then fly a GPS approach into some backwater in Georgia. You will work, and it will drive you to fatigue. You must be aware of your personal limits, and you will be doing stuff that your airline brothers wouldn't even think of...finding catering and rental cars on no notice in Rome Georgia on a weekend...dumping your own lav, etc. I enjoyed it, and probably will go back. |
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I really need to do something different, and just started looking at NetJets. They seem to really have a good deal for the pilots. Although, I do have a very good friend, who is a senior American Airlines Captain say "once the furloughs are behind us here, I can get you into American". Sounds too good to be true. He's definately a bigshot at American, and I know he could at least get me an interview (to sail or piss away)............but the darn economy bugs me (they lay your ass off as soon as a bomb goes off in Iraq), low seniority means crappy schedule, etc. But the pay would definately be better than Caravan driver pay. vmax84 |
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FWIW, I work with most of the fractionals, several times a month. Usually getting one of their jets back in the air after a maint problem grounded it at a podunk airport. Netjets seems to be the best organized, most professional of these groups. On the other end of the scale, F.O. is easily the worst. Incredibly disorganized. Each dept doesn't know what the others are doing. I'll tell Maint the jet is grounded for 24 hrs till I get a part, and the crew will arrive in 4 hrs expecting to depart. I believe their crews are still bucking for unionization, so are grounding their jets for every stupid reason possible, to pressure management. One pilot wrote up 40+ squawks on a jet, grabbed a rental car, and said he was taking a vacation. Typical of his squawks, was "Trash receptacle missing weight placard". I have no patience for this BS, and when I encounter it, I give the pilots a pretty hard time, including maint log entries like "pilot misread gage, no servicing required, bottle pressure is within limits". Doesn't seem to be having much effect, because I've been doing this for around 2 years. Maint Control knows all about it, and when I call and say "the aircraft fixed itself!", they are not surprised. |
There is a union fight at F.O. Do the math. Bill your hours and be happy you have the work. |
