Starting a Part 91 Flight Department?
 

Does anybody here have experience in that area?

My boss is thinking about taking his plane off the 135 cert it is on now to avoid all the headaches that has caused him.

I guess at a minimum you would need the obvious (pilots, at least one mechanic, a dispatcher/support person, and what else?

I am just trying to get an idea of what the process entails.

Thanks!

I don't think you need a dispatcher. It would help and be nice, but not required.

Yeah, I figured that, but the gal that is currently doing the same duties (scheduling hotels, cars, arranging slots) would come onboard and take on those duties.

The fewer emails and phone calls I need to make the better!

I used to fly for XJT. How are things?

Well, if you've already got someone doing those duties and the money is already spent on their salary, why change, right?

XJT's not bad. Not a whole lot going on right now. Things have stabilized for a while. The schedule reductions at CAL have transferred to us so a little less flying to be done but not too bad. But my seniority kinda sugar coats things for me and not living in-base helps to isolate myself from crew room whining.

When were you here?

nov 97 to dec 04

ah yes... crew room whining!

Taking an aircraft out of 135 will reduce it's value in the market. Unless he is fully ready to take the hit, you might consider continuing to maintain it to 135. Aside from pilots, the other stuff is really up to you. We do almost everything ourselves, unless we are going international. Unless you are crazy buzy, it's really not that big of a deal.

The money is not an object with the principal. I am just getting tired of going to Indoc for another half-ass 135 outfit.

Thanks again for the input!

The NBAA has many resouces available that could help you. They have a lot of information on starting flight departments - budget info, administration, operations manuals, etc. NBAA.org

You will also want some flight department software for scheduling trips and generating reports, etc. There are several companies that do this, such as Professional Flight Management (pfmsys.com), BART, CTA-FOS, and FlightPak (from Universal Weather). I am sure there are others, but those come to mind.

That's a start!

Tom

I am not that familiar with anything but the 121 world so please excuse this question if it is dumb, but how will taking a aircraft off a 135 and running it under 91 devalue it?

I think edznaz was encouraging you to maintain it to Part 135 standards, whether or not it is on a 135 certificate.