B727DRVR

OK Sure,

I'll bite on your question.. You asked a fair question and you deserve a fair answer... Although, when looking at your previous posts about the Company, it may not be the answer that you want to hear.

But before I answer you, let me first say "Hello", and tell you a little about my background, so that you might be able to put more, or less, weight to my answer. My aviation background is unremarkable, just the typical kid that wanted to fly. After graduating with a Bachelors degree from a 4 year aviation university, I came out with fresh Commercial-Multi and CFII into one of the worst times in history to become a pilot. After Part 141 instruction, my varied path was small corporate, Part 135 Cargo, Part 121 Cargo, Fractional, Govt. Contractor, Air Ambulance, etc., not necessarily in that order. Along the way was a couple of airline bankruptcies, 9/11, and the Great Recession. So I have seen a few crummy companies in my time, and FlyExclusive is NOT one of them.

I have also seen many Part 134 1/2 (Not quite 135) companies in action, close up in the '90's, mainly based in South Florida and YIP, and I have seen none of these shenanigans here. Today, looking at our flight log, I can see that write ups were made, and corrective action was taken, properly signed off, and everything is working just fine. Last tour, I was down for 2 days waiting for a part to arrive, with absolutely no pushback from the Company to fly until the part arrived and was installed at a Cessna Service Center. So in my humble opinion, with just under 11,000 hours under my belt, I will go so far as to say that maintenance is good here and I feel that is absolutely safe as any operator that I have flown for. I would have zero second thoughts about having my 12 year-old, my Wife, my Mom, my 5 dogs, my Macaw, and my Cockatoo on any of the aircraft here that I have flown so far and with any of the crews that I have met or trained with. From the looks of the Discrepancies, it looks like if something was broken, then it was either MEL'd or fixed immediately. So again, the maintenance is as good or better than any company that I have ever flown for (and since the planes are mainly out on the road anyway, it is really Cessna Service Center maintenance most of the time..). The Company is Argus Platinum, has nearly 30 aircraft, and flies A-list people, so they aren't going to risk everything to get one flight to work out.....

Having been out of flying for some time, I did some research on the different companies that I was considering to apply to and from whom I would accept an offer. With a Wife whose career is at the point that I would never exceed her pay trajectory in any domestic flying job, I looked for schedule flexibility first and foremost, followed by fun and varied flying, then followed by the other things that most pilots would put first on their list. After looking on these Forums, I saw that there was a lot of hatred toward this Company, but as often is the case, it was usually the same people posting about it. Then, I read some well-written posts from TiredSoul and Amphibian (See above), that were accurate, soft spoken, and to the point about their experiences at flyExclusive. Also, both TireSoul's and Amphibian's post was intelligent with proper spelling, punctuation, and proper capitalization, something rare on these Forums. Often times on these forums (and in Politics, today), the loudest, most outspoken, and most repetitive posters on a subject are often not the ones who are most accurate or ones that I give credence to.. So I PM'ed Amphibian and he related to me his experiences as a regular line pilot here. I was impressed with both his posting and his background, so I ignored all the negativity here and applied. In a nutshell, every description made to me about flyExclusive by Amphibian and every promise made to me by the Chief Pilot and D.O. during interviews and during training, has been met or exceeded thus far.

More information for anyone interested.. The Company does not skimp on hotels or pay during training. I started earning salary Day 1 during training, with hotels and per diem of course. Per diem is better that some 121 companies and the pay is commensurate with the equipment and quick upgrade probability. You are issued an nice uniform set and a Company iPad Mini 4. They have gone to a paperless cockpit, and with onboard Wifi, it works pretty well. The schedule is downright relaxing compared to some of the ones I have flown, and the FAA Part 135 regulations for rest are absolutely adhered to.

Both the INDOC training and my type training at CAE were excellent and were on par with any other training I have received (FlightSafety, FlightSafety Boeing, AA Flight Academy Contract Training, etc..). I did sign a training contract, but the Company has far exceeded that number in their investment in my travel, hotels, iPads, CAE Type training, etc. As far as the quality of my peers that you questioned earlier, everyone in my INDOC class had a 4 year degree and at least 2 type ratings. I thought that I would be the oldest, but I wasn't. Again, everyone that I have met,attended class, trained, or flew with have been great folks and, again, on par or better than other companies that I have flown for. As far as standardization goes, we all had to learn the Memory Items, the flows, and the call outs during training, and everyone that I have flown with has used them, the checklist, pretty much verbatim. After many PM's and several calls, I finally got to meet Amphibian in TEB and thanked him profusely for his accurate posts about the Company and with his help with all my work and training related questions. As far as what I have seen thus far, TiredSoul and Amphibian's descriptions about life here at flyExclusive have been spot on.

Again, I'm not sure that this is what you want to hear, but it is absolutely my experience here. And, I'm not sure where where all the hatred about this company comes from here on this Forum, but I can tell you all for a fact that it is hatred not deserved. Whatever negative descriptions from the past certainly do not apply now, much like descriptions from Netjets 2002 or Executive AirShare 2014 no longer apply. Nearly all companies have had to improve pay, QOL, schedule, etc., and we are no exception. So with nice hotels (that you pick), decent pay, great training, live where you want and start where you want (with prior approval) flexability, KCM, I am very glad that I applied here and I am really enjoying it. OK, I know that if I posted all this positivity on the Atlas, ABX, or ATI forums, I would be ripped to shreds for it and called "management troll" for it, etc., but this is honestly my experience thus far. If you have any sincere questions about flyExclusive, feel free to PM me.

Therefore, I will second Amphibian's assertion: "flyExclusive is a great company", with every promise to me met or exceeded. I wish that I could say that about all the companies that I have flown for.... I'm still looking out hard for that "iceberg tip" that a former poster spoke of, but it is no where in sight... Smooth sailing thus far.

OK, fire away............

B727DRVR

Hey all,

Here is an update of aircraft added to fleet update:

20th Excel added.
9th CJ2 added.
3rd Soverign in Pre-purchase inspection.

BoeingB17

Thank you for your detailed eval. Refreshing to see. When my 121 gig ends, will most probably apply. One question: Hire pilots over 60?

Amphibian

YES-No age-based discrimination here!

TiredSoul

.
Good post and thank you.

B727DRVR

Hey TiredSoul,

Thanks a lot for your informative posts regarding flyExclusive. Had it not been for you and Amphibian, I probably wouldn’t have thought to apply here. You guys were spot on with your descriptions, and I haven’t seen anything negative that has been mentioned on this thread. That is why I decided to post my perspective from my experience here. Again, I’m glad that I listened to you guys and I am really enjoying it.

Sounds like you headed for one of the Amazon or DHL providers.. Atlas, Southern, ATI, ABX? How do you like it?

Oksure

Are you ISBAO? And yes the other two “safety” certs are based on the amount of check a company writes

Oksure

What about your mx? I have heard about corrosion issues on aircraft and emergency issues in flight? From the sounds of it seems lack of oversight on 3rd party mx vendors?

TiredSoul

One aircraft that I know off was bought from a operator based in Scotland.
Corrosion was found during the prebuy inspection and repaired before purchase.
But that was 3 years ago.
Don’t know of anything recent as I’ve left the company 2.5 years ago.
As stated several times before almost all maintenance is done by Cessna service centers scattered across the country.
They vary in quality but I seriously do not believe any of them would rubber stamp a plane.

B727DRVR

Hello again Oksure,

I’m really not sure where you are going with this question; I thought that we all had covered pretty well that our Maintenance is good as any other place I’ve been, be it Part 135, Part 91K, or Part 121. Aircraft broken? It is written up and MEL’d or AOG waiting on a part. Every time that I know of. We are way too big to risk stupidity just to get 1 trip to work out and I haven’t seen the slightest hint of that “iceberg tip” that some have warned about on here (with no proof or details, I might add). The Part 134 1/2 answer that you seem to be looking for in all your posts is not here. Are you interested in working here, already work here, or do you have an issue with us? It seems that your entire posting history here is critical of us, so I will assume the latter.

But to answer your question, I have no idea and never heard of IS-BAO before. So I looked it up and found out that it is mainly for international charter operators. Since we do limited international to Canada, Caribbean, and sometimes Mexico, it seems tha Argus Platinum is working just fine for us.. However, here is an excerpt from Sherpa Report for you:

“However, remember that if your operator does not fly internationally, it may not make sense for them to obtain IS-BAO certification. Cost is also a factor for many smaller operators; ARGUS and IB-BAO are more expensive than Wyvern and so may not be within practical financial reach for a relatively new company.”

It also went on to say that as of 2012, only 5% of US Charter operators were certified Argus Platinum, so it would seem that we are in pretty good company. And no certification will guarantee that 2 crew members will never screw up or have an accident. that includes the Major airlines as well. You can read more here:

https://www.sherpareport.com/aircraft/is-bao.html

You seem to have a great deal of interest in the Company, since I believe all of your posts are about us. SO why don’t you PM me with any questions you may have if you are interested in coming here. If not, I will still answer your questions and PM’s but I would like to make a suggestion: If you expand your posting to more interests than just our Company, then your posts will collectively carry more weight and therefore be more credible. Otherwise, a string of nothing but negative posts about a single company make one look like a disgruntled ex.