Corporate to 135
 

Corporate company I fly for has one aircraft (CJ). The owner is interested in doing some 135 flying with it. The FSDO is saying to piggy back with an existing 135 operator because of their manpower. They would not assign us a person for 6 months. Anybody been done this road before? What is the time line? Pros/Cons to piggy backing? Costs? If we piggy backed, who runs the show as far as DO, Chief Pilot, Dir of MX, etc? What's the benefit of the company letting us piggy back? Do they take a pecent? What's average?

"Piggy back"?

I think the FSDO meant to fly your airplane under an established 135 operator's certificate. This saves the FSDO hassle as well as saving you hassle of going through getting an air carrier certificate. I do think your crews will still have to go through the certificate holder's training program, including another trip to the simulator and/or airplane checkrides with their POI.

I'd say the most well-known forms of this are Sentient and Executive Jet Management. They might even guarantee you X number of revenue hours per month or year, I dunno.

Don't know much about the financial arrangement (sorry) but I would guess the 135 certificate holder will take a majority of profits, while you take some percentage above your hourly DOCs. Perhaps somebody else here will have more info???

If you don't mind springing for the $10, the folks at ************* will be able to give you all the first-hand info and personal experiences you could ever possibly want on this issue...heck you could even expense it!

There are a lot of aircraft management companies out there. Where are you located? I might be able to give you a vector.

C9

The answer is yes, if he is going to be crewing that aircraft for the 135 operations. Now if he only does the "owner" flights, then he's fine as-is. I imagine the owner will probably want his crew flying his airplane at all times, so you'll probably have to do all the check-rides etc..

The only time the 135 ticket is over-ruling as with DO/Cheif/DOM is concerned is when that aircraft is on 135 flights. Also you will have to keep the maintenance within the confines of the 135 regs at all times. There will be additional expenses as part of this whole deal. The owner flights will remain the same as you are operating them today.

Honestly doing this is two-fold. Given the right 135 to hook up with, it could be profitable for both sides, but just as with lease-backs with flight school airplanes, the owner is the one that usually is getting taken advantage of. How many hours do you fly currently? If it's less than 200/yr on the airframe, it might work out, but now the owner is going to be in competition with other paying customers for the aircraft, possible dead-head legs to get the plane in position because of multiple trips scheduled, there's a lot to consider.

The aircraft is based in Pensacola, FL. All things subject to change witout notice, however the vision is to use our crews for all flights. Owner flights will stay part 91. The owner interest is primarily to supplement the down time. Consistently put about 200-250 hours/year on the aircraft.

Seems like the key is hooking up with a good management company. What I am reading is, we use the mgmt co's op specs/GOM so somebody there is DO/CP for 135 flights. From what I gather, 135 requires a DM. So, does the DM from the mgmt co start taking care of the mx?