7/25/08

Then get a freaking fraction partnership

I see posts/articals like this or this.

My response is get your own fractional. Buy your own jet. Oh wait, you complained about turboprops (puddlejumpers) and now Regional Jets (RJ's) and still fly the unfriendly airlines. You can't pony up the $50,000 it takes to hire your own airplane so STFU.

The airlines are the greyhound bus of the aviation world. The pilots don't give a shit about you anyway (let's be honest, they want to get to the fractional world so they can get treated like professionals and be paid like professionals instead of the greyhound bus driver they currently get paid and respected like). The Flight Attendants only want travel and a decent paycheck. The Maintenance guys don't care (hahaha, they START at $50k at a corporate jet job - the airlines can't compete on that score). I don't know how the customer service reps care (oh wait, they don't and especially when you treat them like shit).

As it currently stands, the night cargo guys are almost respected (and paid) more in the aviation business than the airline guys. It takes skill and balls to fly a piston twin in rough weather without radar or decent equipment. The last redeeming quality of the airlines is they fly turbine equipment, and it's valued in the aviation world.

Pony up the $50k a year and sit back and enjoy your catered meal and lack of lines or don't and enjoy the smell.

7/24/08

Sorry

Busier than all hell. Life is hitting the fan on so many fronts:

Professional - I passed 1200 hours of flight time. For those of you keeping score, that's 50 days of non-stop flight time. I can now be PIC of a charter flight :) I think I'm going to fly past 1300 hours here in a little bit and then destroy the 1000 hours of dual given mark. [Dual given is how pilots log instruction given to other people]. Now I need to have two students pass check rides and I'll get the gold seal and finish my last CFI goal (I am 6 of 8 check rides for students at the moment).

Also, I am trying to get my MEI checkride done. My schedule is so full I can't get time on it 3 weeks in the future to take the freaking checkride. Plus the airplane is broken :( Oh well, it can always be worse. I have no rush to get it done, but the price of the airplane is going up (it was $205 when I started at the employee rate, now it's $260 per hour only 7 months later. Damn fuel prices!).

Work - I have billed 30 hours of time this pay period. We started the pay period on Monday... 4 days of work and I've billed 30 hours, and flown ~20ish of them. That's 5 hours of flight time a day and ~8 hours of billing a day. CRAZY CASH $$$$ BLING BLING!!! Oh, the logbook thanks me too.

Personal - I have zero free time. EAA is coming up and I plan on laying off work a little so I don't get run over by a supercub in the practice area. Plus I've taken off a few days to relax.

I am getting back into Magic the Gathering (damn that game, it's like gamer crack) and have spent some mad cash on old school cards. I'm building a turbo sliver Elder Dragon Highlander deck with crazy ass mana acceleration, infinite loops, and old school broken cards. E-bay is my friend (and worst enemy of my bank account)!

Hopefully it'll slow down next week, and I'll get a chance to post some. Have a good one.