Hooplehead

Got the call this morning; CJO with a March 18th Indoc start date. Perfect timing for me as I've been scheduled to do a new initial type rating at the 91 job I'm leaving.

GeeWizDriver

Welcome to the Circus. Hope you have an asbestos suit for our little dumpster fire.

Tippy

HAHA. yup, thats why I only lasted 6 months...

GeeWizDriver

Smart AND lucky. Good on ya.

STzBack

Welcome ot the best business jet/fractional operation in the world. If flying business jets all across the country/the world, if not knowing where you're going tomorrow, if changes to you day brief doesnt destabilize you mentally, if 16 years in you don't get frazzled to still go into airports you've never been, shooting visual approaches only, to runways with no published instrument approaches, if doing 3-5 legs per day doesn't get you tired to the point you need a yoga retreat in Cost Rica every year, welcome to the business jet world.

if I was a young person, coming out of flight school/college, I would definitely go live the crappy life at the Regionals. I think they are a much better school into profesisonal aviation, they are a better, slower pace, entry into the world of ATC, airways and airports operation, also bringin the reassurance of 95% of the time shooting nice 7-10 miles finals, on mostly 6,000+ runways. It's easier ot learn with routine.

If it's your first professional job outside of flight instruction, buckle up, the first year and the first jet is going to be challenging but you will do well, we have a good support system, we have good training captains and the vast majority of our captains are great mentors, despite the pre-2015 grumpy lots, some of them sketchy flyers who hardly fit in the seat of a Latitude who wouldnt make it through AQP initial at Endeavor,

If it's not your first professional pilot job, it's going to be very easy.

Here you're going to eat a lot. We complain a lot about crew food, but we eat a looooot. 95% of our pre-2015 captains are stones beyond the "overweight" description but cry more about food than you could imagine.

MinRest

It isn't how much they eat, it is what they eat lol. I remember a Phenom CA (who was very obese and couldn't even do a proper control check) told me he was on a diet to lose weight so he cut carbs. What did he do? He would find a Wendy's where ever we had time to get a crew car or a layover and he would order 4 patties with cheese and bacon but because he skipped the sugary catchup and carb filled bun, he was "dieting"....

STzBack

ha ha ha, I can picture it. Classic!!

Hooplehead

Thanks for the warm welcome, lol! From some of what I'm hearing I kinda feel like a strike-breaking scab crossing a picket line to go to work.

I've been flying corporate for the past few years, a mix of right seat jet time and left seat Citation work. Mostly flying owners on the seasonal migrations that wealthy jet owners do: ski trips, golf trips, beach trips, Vegas trips etc. I love the business jet world and couldn't bear the thought of every landing coming from a 10 mile final. I regret that I didn't apply sooner but the guy that mentored me into flying bizjets made a very successful career by flying exclusively for wealthy families so I wanted to give it a shot. I'll miss flying for an owner frequently enough that you're on a first name basis but I won't miss the sporadic nature of this type of flying. 7 on and 7 off is a big reason why I'm coming to NetJets. Plus the uncertainty of what happens when the old man who owns the plane dies. It seems like more and more rich people's children would rather sell the plane and do fractional than deal with the headaches that traditional ownership entails. I feel pretty sure that if I'm willing and able to give NetJets 20 years that they'd still be here. If I kept doing what I've been doing there's no telling how many involuntary job changes I'd see over the next 20 years. The 7 off gives me time to keep up the family farm and not let it be another rural property that turns into a subdivision.

Ive been accustomed to grabbing Jersey Mikes or whatever while working and eating good in the evenings. This piggybacking off the catering or whatever this crew meal business y'all do is foreign to me. Sometimes lunch on the road just sucks, like the little restaurant in Aspens Atlantic.

How many shirts and pants are you guys needing to bring to get through a tour? I'm thinking you're not wearing a fresh uniform daily or else it'd be tough to stuff in the overhead bin for the airlines. I'm used to bringing a garment bag on trips to hold my ironed stuff but I'm thinking backpack, garment bag and suitcase might be too much to airline with. Tips are appreciated.

Tips! That reminds me. Great landings are usually worth like a hundred bucks. Sometimes Vegas trips are worth 500. Are NetJets pilots usually ending their tours with some cash? I was thinking that could be an upside to doing multiple legs with different sets of passengers so often.

hawkerpilot05

The owners are told not to tip us. In my experience a few still do but most don't.

redbeardpilot

spent 2 years at netjets on the phenom. i probably got around 2000 in tips. about once a week id get a single $100 tip. its rare but some weeks were better than others. when you expect you might get a tip (25 bags/catering and needy pax) you wont get one.

for a 7 day trip id bring 4 pilot shirts and 2 pants. never saw a netjets pilot with a garment bag.