Multiple questions - considering applying
 

Hello.. first post, new member.

I'm interested in finally taking the plunge into the fractional world (no previous 135/121 time). I've got a bunch of questions that I didn't really want to make new topics for each. Hopefully you can entertain a few.

1) Are you typically paired with the same CA or FO for your entire 7on/7off? Same question if you're a 6/4 or some other variation.

2) Are you typically in the same aircraft your entire duty week? Do you leave all your stuff (headset, etc) in the plane or take it all with you each night?

3) What's a must-have in your flight bag besides headset, iPad, etc. Something you wouldn't think about until you actually start flying.

4) What's a typical day flying passengers? Take Pax 1 to Dest 1. Then take Pax 2 to destination 2? Or is there often an empty ferry leg to get to Pax 2?

5) What percentage of legs are empty, ferry legs?

6) I assume the company issues you a iPad and iPhone. Are those strictly how the company contacts you? Is it via a company email and phone or a personal account? Is this given to the Pax to contact you?

7) How much flight planning is done by the crew vs a company dispatcher?

8) I've read the company must "brief" you by a certain time. What exactly does that mean? So you know the next day's schedule?

9) On a longer leg, can you get up and stretch at all? Check on the passengers?

10) Would consider being a Dallas based domicile. When considering where to actually live, is DAL or DFW more common for beginning/end of rotation?

11) To ask questions about resume, logbook, qualifications, best to contact a recruiter? Through email, LinkedIn?


Thanks for taking the time.

Been here a year and a half. Here’s my take:

Questions 1: The answer is yes, kind of. You’ll be paired with a crew member. You’ll stay with that person until one of you goes home. Sometimes I pair up with someone and we’re both on day 1 and we’ll be paired the entire rotation. Other times, I’ll pair with someone who is halfway through their rotation, and then they’ll go home and I’ll get someone else. But yes, you’ll be paired with the same person until one person goes home.

Question 2: Plan to keep the plane the entire trip. Sometimes you’ll swap out due to maintenance or scheduling issues, but plan to be on the same tail. I’ll leave my headset in the plane unless I’m at one of our facilities where there’s a chance they’ll have us take a different tail. Now, granted, they *could* airline you out, so you’d have to to get your stuff. But you’ll most likely only airline out if there’s extended maintenance, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise if/when they send you away. Take your stuff out if you’re in a large Flexjet location or if the plane’s broken. Otherwise, leave it in the plane.

Question 3: I carry window sunshades. I also carry an Xbox controller (you can play through your phone) and a few books for my overnights.

Q4 and Q5: TYPICALLY, it’s passenger let followed by repo leg followed by passenger leg. It does a pretty good job of alternating like that, but if you end up in a busy location such as NY or Chicago, it’s possible to get back to back passenger legs. Just anticipate doing 50% repo and 50% pax.

Q6: Yes, company iPad and iPhone. You can link company email to your personal phone, which is what I do, but schedule updates and phone calls strictly go to iPhone. (We have our own scheduling app that contains all trip information downloaded on iPad and IPhone. New trip legs and information will automatically pop up. They don’t have to call us for each leg, etc)

Q7: All flight planning is done by the company. We just have to do Weight and Balance, but we have an app to do that. Now, that being said, anything provided by the company is “help”. We’re the final authority, but they’re pretty good. Worst case scenario, they’ll do a flight plan tonight for a leg tomorrow, and tomorrow comes, and I’ll need an alternate. Just call them and it’s added. The other thing, is I usually just add about 300 pounds of gas than what they call for, just for fudge factor. Otherwise, they’re good.

Q8: Basically, you get tomorrow’s flight schedule at 5pm eastern time today.

Q9: Yes, you can get up on any leg no matter the distance. Just be mindful of not being the “annoying waiter”. Pax do expect a level of privacy, but at the end of the day, you’re human. Get up, stretch the legs, get a cup of coffee, use the lav. Do whatever. Just try to be mindful of pax’s peace and quiet.

Q10: I have no idea about DAL/DFW basing, as I’m not based there

Q11: You can PM me if you’d like. I’m not a recruiter, but I’m happy to help! Otherwise, most people are pretty available on LinkedIn.

everything dive and drive said has been my experience as well. You can PM if you’d like and I can give you a detailed explanation of my experience so far.

It seems like maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of my trips will either begin or end with a local leg in the DFW Metroplex as it's a fairly common destination for us. Half the time my rotations start and end with airlines out of DFW and for the remainder of my trips they'll start with airfare out of one airport and into the other and I'll have to Uber to get my vehicle from whichever I started from.

It's a very good company to work for, best of luck!

t
Thank for the detailed answer to the OPs questions, helpful for guys like me who are looking at Flex.

t
Thank for the detailed answer to the OPs questions, helpful for guys like me who are looking at Flex.

Thanks to all for the responses. Very handy.

Agreed
 

Been here less than a year, but positive experience so far. Agree with whats been posted here, I'll add a few of my own experiences for flavor...

Flight bag - nothing. I'm boring. Maybe charging gadgets for iPad/iPhone. That's it. I like the xbox controller idea tho - makes sense.
50/50 mix of reposition legs/live legs
Dallas - You'll more than likely be DFW based. We have an FBO and Mx at KDAL, but I have never airlined out of DAL. Only DFW. Not set in stone.
"Tomorrow schedule by 5PM prior" - quite often yes. Accurate average. Not hard/fast rule. Expect your phone app to be buzzing every so often during daylight hours as they fine-tune tomorrow's agenda in the background. Maybe even while you sleep and wake up.

Things I like: variety, captains, pax, airplanes, mx, pay at junior seniority (not comparing to legacy/major), home basing, fully paid commuting days, seniority movement/upgrade forecast, culture, etc.

Things I'd improve: Retirement package.

Hope that helps.

Assuming you pass the interview, how long do you have to decide to accept the offer and continue forward?

I'd be prepared to give an answer if they call because they are filling training slots quickly. It was the only company I had recently applied to, so it was easy for me to give them my answer. I had my training date scheduled before the call ended and an email confirmation followed about an hour behind that. Totally understand it's not that easy if you might have multiple offers you're waiting on.

Best of luck!