FlyExclusive March 2021

This month credited 51 hours. A bit of a slower month hours wise due to a home standby stint and some planes down in MX. Luckily I get paid by the day, not the hour. Home standby was a welcomed change of pace. Pretty cool to get paid for a full days work sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. The travel days were travel to or from a plane so no flying those days but still full paid days as well.

Hannah,

I see a LNS in your schedule, that’s right down the road from my hometown. Crazy to think we were flying the same day in the same area, just never knew it!

Brady

Small world! Listen up on the radio, you never know who you’ll hear!

-Hannah

I heard my father on Shanwick Radio once. Pretty cool.

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I was on the opposite side of HAR that day which would’ve been the west side frequency. Really nice individuals out of that controlling agency. One night they had a pilot going to Philadelphia and told them to grab them a cheesesteak, I asked the controller if they would get me an omelet at the one diner right up the street from the tower.

Chris that had to be a really cool feeling! Going to guess that Shanwick is an oceanic frequency?

Brady

Yes, Shanwick Radio is the interface with Shanwick Oceanic Control. They control the area from 30 West, to the area approaching the Irish coastline.

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Hannah,

Now that you have had a few months flying this schedule, how do you like it? Did you have an option for a 7/7 schedule? Have you already done a write up of what your typical flying day is like?

I have been looking at option and talked to corporate pilots that have switched from the airlines. Several have said they enjoy it much better than the airlines. I am torn between wanting to fly the big Airbus and Boeings or work my way into a Mid or Large Cabin corporate jet.

Joshua,
I really do love it. The quality of life is great. Great pay for first job out of 1500 hours. The CJ3 is a really fun jet to fly. It’s a little rocket ship. As for schedule, I have an 8/6 option and 15/13. I chose 8/6 because 8 days away is plenty to be tired and ready to be home but still nearly a week off after every trip. Most days we fly 2-3 legs. The first of the day, “repo” (repositioning) flight getting the airplane where we will meet our passengers, then the live leg, then done for the night. If it’s still early in the day, we’ll repo to be in place the night before for the next mornings live leg with passengers. The repo times depend on hotel prices and departure times for the live legs. Most trips are up and down the east coast, the NY to FL runs. We do lots of the keys, Bahamas and costal Florida. In the winter, we did a lot of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. Our flying tends to be a bit seasonal, just where the passengers want to go for the season.

-Hannah

@Hannah - I know this is going back awhile and I know you worked the 8/6 but I’m looking at FlyExclusive’s info and it looks like the other schedule is a 15/13 - do you have any information on how that schedule works? I feel like you wouldn’t/couldn’t be flying every day of that 15 days but would love to get any explanation you could provide.
Thanks!

@Steve86 When I was there, crew support highly favored the 15/13 format. When I left, new hires were put into the 15/13 format with hopes of one day converting all crews to it. Not sure if that’s the case now or not.

It’s as it sounds, 15 days on and 13 days off. Traditionally the charter world is slower than say a regional daily schedule. I rarely flew three legs a day. A typical day was a repo leg to get in position and a live leg with pax. Or a live leg then repo. In the rare occasional it was repo, live, repo it was a relatively short repo flight and saved us some rest in the morning.

Hannah

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