SWAP-OUT Day at Baker Plus Update
01-29-2026 | 07:41 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Baker Aviation Citation X
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 424
Likes: 87
From: Citation X
SWAP-OUT Day at Baker Plus Update
I get asked from military or 121 applicants who are unfamiliar with how crew swaps occur with home-based operators. This should give you a rough idea of how that works
We get notified around Tuesday at noon the location of the swap, what airline to purchase ticket on (company credit card), if a uber or rental car is better option depending on one’s home city and swapout location. I’ve Ubered to AUS from SAT several times but flying to my swapout city is more common.
We post an airline receipt on our Slack channel so ops can see we are tracking on the plan.
Baker uses Wednesdays as our swapout day.
Other companies may stretch it between a Tuesday and Wednesday. Least amount of travelers on airlines are Tuesdays and Weds is one reason.
We ask if there are volunteers to go out a day early/stay until Thursday to go home first thing for many reasons
- Crews on plane live too far away from where the plane will end up on Wed and be able to get back to their home city midnight so new crew takes over early Wed morning by coming out early
- Remote swapout locations present same problem as above based upon airline schedules
The plan every time is to not force anyone to stay late…getting to the home airport (not driveway) after 12 AM will get u another $1500 but the goal is not to have that happen.
Every 135 operator holds their breath on swapout days because we are at the mercy of the weather and airlines.
This past week as anyone who traveled knows thousands of cancellations had the makings of a disastrous swapout day.
Our CEO put out the word early on Monday asking for volunteers and explaining the upcoming challenges. Our schedulers normally put that word out…we all knew this was serious due to the weather.
Cancelling a $40k trip because a crew is not in place to fly is a big deal to all involved…an Employee Owned Company, we all feel the pain in the long run.
Baker scheduled 27 lines meaning over 100 pilots were at the mercy of airline cancellations and delays in not making their show time.
You can tell a lot about a company in how they handle stressful circumstances to their people.
Does leadership communicate the challenge ahead?
Is there a plan a, b, c to handle it?
Safety first, is that emphasized?
When the crisis is over is there a debrief?
Below is the AAR from this weeks swapout.
_____
I wanted to do a follow up from Tim’s help request on the crew swap yesterday. Check out the data below with how the commercial airlines faired. This data is for our crew swap day, 1/28/26.
Our stats? 0 Flights Canceled. 0 Flights delayed due to any crewing issues. I promise you, theres not another 135 in the country that could have pulled that off with the commercial delays as they were. American CANCELED almost half of their flights. Let that sink in. Crazy.
I know many of you were held up getting home later than scheduled. I know many had much later assigned leaving rotations than normal or earlier rises than what seemed necessary. I also know one of you was asked to stick around because we had no other options, and gladly accepted getting the job done for us. I also know everyone was all stars at communicating what was happening with delays, being adaptable to the situations and making it happen, some on crazier paths than others (Multiple carriers, international swaps, long rental drives etc).
RODEO! Like no other. Great job team
I'm still proud to be able to say that we have never cancelled a charter trip because had no crew on crew swap day.
Everyone has always stepped up to make it work, 100% of the time.
This is a big deal to everyone.
Thanks for sharing
_____
Pilots like a mission and sometimes it isn’t just flying pax from A to B
That’s satisfying on a personal level but when the company is faced with a full up challenge like this, all hands on deck stops being a catch-phrase and becomes a call to action.
Personally having lived through forecasted wx disaster with other operators it was usually reactive versus proactive.
When you are looking at companies to consider, how well a company communicates to its employees and has processes in place to deal with such times can be hard to measure but it does demonstrates true CULTURE…next time you do an interview ask the interviewer how the company has demonstrated its culture to its own employees and to its customers. Baker has many examples.
There must be a CULTURE in place to get everyone pulling in the same direction.
This is only the most recent example of what we are trying to build upon at Baker Aviation.
More mx vans purchased for more deployed mx personnel around the country, 50+ mx personnel hired to man the 7x7 schedule for Team Baker, 4 more CL30’s brought over from FJ and flying
Still hiring typed X and CL SICs and PICs for 2Q class dates.
Apply online at https://www.baker-aviation.com
Baker profile found below https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/...baker_aviation
We get notified around Tuesday at noon the location of the swap, what airline to purchase ticket on (company credit card), if a uber or rental car is better option depending on one’s home city and swapout location. I’ve Ubered to AUS from SAT several times but flying to my swapout city is more common.
We post an airline receipt on our Slack channel so ops can see we are tracking on the plan.
Baker uses Wednesdays as our swapout day.
Other companies may stretch it between a Tuesday and Wednesday. Least amount of travelers on airlines are Tuesdays and Weds is one reason.
We ask if there are volunteers to go out a day early/stay until Thursday to go home first thing for many reasons
- Crews on plane live too far away from where the plane will end up on Wed and be able to get back to their home city midnight so new crew takes over early Wed morning by coming out early
- Remote swapout locations present same problem as above based upon airline schedules
The plan every time is to not force anyone to stay late…getting to the home airport (not driveway) after 12 AM will get u another $1500 but the goal is not to have that happen.
Every 135 operator holds their breath on swapout days because we are at the mercy of the weather and airlines.
This past week as anyone who traveled knows thousands of cancellations had the makings of a disastrous swapout day.
Our CEO put out the word early on Monday asking for volunteers and explaining the upcoming challenges. Our schedulers normally put that word out…we all knew this was serious due to the weather.
Cancelling a $40k trip because a crew is not in place to fly is a big deal to all involved…an Employee Owned Company, we all feel the pain in the long run.
Baker scheduled 27 lines meaning over 100 pilots were at the mercy of airline cancellations and delays in not making their show time.
You can tell a lot about a company in how they handle stressful circumstances to their people.
Does leadership communicate the challenge ahead?
Is there a plan a, b, c to handle it?
Safety first, is that emphasized?
When the crisis is over is there a debrief?
Below is the AAR from this weeks swapout.
_____
I wanted to do a follow up from Tim’s help request on the crew swap yesterday. Check out the data below with how the commercial airlines faired. This data is for our crew swap day, 1/28/26.
Our stats? 0 Flights Canceled. 0 Flights delayed due to any crewing issues. I promise you, theres not another 135 in the country that could have pulled that off with the commercial delays as they were. American CANCELED almost half of their flights. Let that sink in. Crazy.
I know many of you were held up getting home later than scheduled. I know many had much later assigned leaving rotations than normal or earlier rises than what seemed necessary. I also know one of you was asked to stick around because we had no other options, and gladly accepted getting the job done for us. I also know everyone was all stars at communicating what was happening with delays, being adaptable to the situations and making it happen, some on crazier paths than others (Multiple carriers, international swaps, long rental drives etc).
RODEO! Like no other. Great job team
I'm still proud to be able to say that we have never cancelled a charter trip because had no crew on crew swap day.
Everyone has always stepped up to make it work, 100% of the time.
This is a big deal to everyone.
Thanks for sharing
_____
Pilots like a mission and sometimes it isn’t just flying pax from A to B
That’s satisfying on a personal level but when the company is faced with a full up challenge like this, all hands on deck stops being a catch-phrase and becomes a call to action.
Personally having lived through forecasted wx disaster with other operators it was usually reactive versus proactive.
When you are looking at companies to consider, how well a company communicates to its employees and has processes in place to deal with such times can be hard to measure but it does demonstrates true CULTURE…next time you do an interview ask the interviewer how the company has demonstrated its culture to its own employees and to its customers. Baker has many examples.
There must be a CULTURE in place to get everyone pulling in the same direction.
This is only the most recent example of what we are trying to build upon at Baker Aviation.
More mx vans purchased for more deployed mx personnel around the country, 50+ mx personnel hired to man the 7x7 schedule for Team Baker, 4 more CL30’s brought over from FJ and flying
Still hiring typed X and CL SICs and PICs for 2Q class dates.
Apply online at https://www.baker-aviation.com
Baker profile found below https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/...baker_aviation
01-29-2026 | 09:15 AM
#2
Thread Starter
Baker Aviation Citation X
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 424
Likes: 87
From: Citation X
Baker Force Multiplier for Sales Team
https://www.hamilton.ai/hamilton-baker
Click link above and hear Tim Livingston, CEO Baker Aviation, speak about how AI is improving Baker sales team
Tim Livingston
Ceo of Baker Aviation
•
“The industry is wild. There’s so much information, demand, and inbound leads coming from everywhere, and Hamilton really sorts it out and allows us to attack the total volume of work in a logical manner.”
Tim Livingston
Click link above and hear Tim Livingston, CEO Baker Aviation, speak about how AI is improving Baker sales team
How Baker Aviation brought clarity to wholesale charter chaos
INSIGHTS BYTim Livingston
Ceo of Baker Aviation
•
1–2 hours saved / rep /day
by eliminating manual quote building100% demand captured
with no cherry-picking or missed requests6-figure losses avoided
through directional demand visibility“The industry is wild. There’s so much information, demand, and inbound leads coming from everywhere, and Hamilton really sorts it out and allows us to attack the total volume of work in a logical manner.”
Tim Livingston
02-01-2026 | 10:00 AM
#6
Thread Starter
Baker Aviation Citation X
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 424
Likes: 87
From: Citation X
For the Lurkers
Danny188 was let go from Baker mx…the 50+mx guys we’ve hired and who have stuck it out since Danny departed, are doing well and glad to be somewhere their efforts are compensated. above industry standard…$150k plus 401k, ESOP shares
Some people can’t stand to see others succeed as it reminds them of their own failures. Hoping Danny can find a good landing spot and move on versus forum trolling…but it comes with the world we live in today.
Back to our regular news.
Danny188 was let go from Baker mx…the 50+mx guys we’ve hired and who have stuck it out since Danny departed, are doing well and glad to be somewhere their efforts are compensated. above industry standard…$150k plus 401k, ESOP shares
Some people can’t stand to see others succeed as it reminds them of their own failures. Hoping Danny can find a good landing spot and move on versus forum trolling…but it comes with the world we live in today.
Back to our regular news.
02-01-2026 | 05:49 PM
#8
On Reserve
Joined: Dec 2025
Posts: 5
Likes: 2
02-02-2026 | 04:14 AM
#9
Line Holder
Joined: Jun 2019
Posts: 565
Likes: 6
From: Poolside
Wrong again! I know Roy personally, and he doesn't do it "due to financial insecurity". He does it because he truly LOVES what he's doing, and he also LOVES a quality organization. I'm glad he's found one...
02-02-2026 | 06:46 AM
#10
Thread Starter
Baker Aviation Citation X
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 424
Likes: 87
From: Citation X
P17, hope all is well. Hope to be as good a flight lead/wingman as you bro! Fly safe
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