Just wondering how they actually get you guys to the hotels from the fbo. I live in Sugar Land, TX and recently spoke to a netjets guy who I saw smoking outside of the Sugar Land airport. The closest hotel from that spot is the new fancy Marriot that is probably 15min away. I’m guessing that’s where they put you guys/gals in, right?

 

It all depends. In SGR it is usually by cab. Normally it is a hotel shuttle. Then some places the FBO courtesy van takes you. Some places like APA Jet Center will give you a crew car overnight and then in real remote places the company will rent you a car like in HDN when we stay 40 minutes away in Steamboat Springs. It is not just the variety of flying but the various modes of transportation that keep your head spinning too.

 

took a boat to an overnight once in belize

 

Oh yeah I did that once in the Bahamas too. We told the company we would have to be on duty because the travel was not local in nature.......

 

QOL varies. As already noted, the hotels are nice. Layovers range from ten hours (minimum) to about five days. Typical is probably around 12 -14 hours. The downside to the longer min rest is that you can be assigned min rest repeatedly without compensatory rest.

I'll second the notion of having no desire to return to 121 life.

 

How much pressure is put on you to fly? Do owners and management push you to go at all costs, or do they respect your judgement and experience in regards to weather and maintanence? I know the fractional world is built on customer service, but does management back you up on decisions to delay or cancel when the weather or other factors look bad? I'm guessing the word cancel doesn't really exist in the fractionals, delay, reshedule, or bring another plane are more likely.

 

At NJA we are above all else SAFETY FIRST. ACPs will sometimes try to push on a ferry leg, but if there is any real issue the pilots win every time. The people we fly are mostly pretty smart to have gotten to the position they are in to spend a crazy amount to fly and once we explain why something isn't safe, I've never been questioned or pushed. Safety is stressed in the promotional materials also and honestly, business would go way down if we pushed safety and ended up killing someone famous. Also if you are tired you just call in fatigued whenever you don't feel safe to continue. They have to give you at least 14 hours off and the most they can do is ask for a report as to why you were fatigued. They are contractually obligated to not punish pilots for fatigue calls, but I'm sure the crummy show times for standby duty that sometimes follow are not all for operational necessity.

 

Five days? You must be living right (or wrong, depending on your perspective :-) The longest I have seen was 2.5 days - and that was with a broken plane, on the weekend, in the Bahamas.

 

I have seen ZERO pressure to fly when it is not appropriate. And we do cancel (and frequently divert) for weather.

 

I've sat at least three full tours on broken airplanes before. 8 straight days in a hotel three times! (flops). Once in the winter time in RFD, then HOU, then MCC.