Out-of-the way places you have flown to

[Lumber Yak]

Time for a new thread. That Flexjet IAD thread was getting ridiculous - just yelling back and forth...

Fractional pilots get to fly to many out-of-the way places - some in the middle of nowhere to satisfy their customers. That is one of the interesting aspects of the job - get to fly to places you would not otherwise visit - better than mundane LAX-ORD and back flying in the airlines...

Where are some of the more interesting places you have flown recently as a frax pilot? What aircraft were you flying? Did you encounter any problems or aircraft limitations (e.g., high-altitude airport or very short runway for a jet)? Would you ever want to return to those places and why?

Example: I have a Flexjet Lear 60 friend who flew a customer into Heber, Utah a few months back and had a pair of gliders on his "six" - he had no idea they were there until he turned.. Freaked him out...


Thanks

 

[CCDiscoB]

Unruly Owners

Along the same lines....

I was wondering the other day, how do you guys handle unruly/drunk owners? Or the guy who insists he needs to get to his destination no matter what, and the destination is zero/zero.

 

[FL450]

I've never had an unruly passenger, drunk or otherwise. Nor have I ever been forced to go someplace when safety was an issue. The customers respect our ability to make a safety call, even when important business awaits at their intended destination. In fact, most customers involved in questionable weather situations have actually thanked us for the "heads up," allowing them to secure alternate ground transportation.

 

[Diesel]

Murpha Texas. An interesting place to say the least. Just about every tour I go some place and say jeeze I'll never go here again in my life, glad i've seen it.

A crew was in a hold situation due to saturation over the NE. The pax came up and said I'm a pilot decalre a fuel emergency I need to get there. The pilot replied we don't do that at this company. period.

The owner was asked to leave the program and was bought out shortly after the crew landed.

They do back us up. Especially if it deals with a safety issue.

 

[1900cpt]

That was a pretty rude and ballsy thing to do. Surprised that they would try and pull that crap. Glad to hear that the crew was backed up by the company, and didnt give in to the pax.


1900cpt

 

[LR25]

Glasgow MT.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

The guys at the FBO are pretty nice. I was there for a few days, they let us use the airport car the whole time.

 

[bartpearl]

Harrisburg, IL in the Ultra. The BETTER of the two motels in town was $33.00 a night. Needless to say we wouldn't have overnighted if we hadn't have been out of duty time.

Meeker, CO (population 200 people and 4000 Elk) in the Excel. The FBO is the airport manager's living room. Made coffee for the aircraft in his kitchen while his wife was making his breakfast. Overnighted in the Meeker Hotel...built in 1885, and the furniture was last updated about the time I was born (DON'T ASK). But VERY friendly people. Actually enjoyed it.

And many, many more.

I've had some pax who were tipsy, but never unruly drunk. The very few times we've had a crew faced with that situation, they called their PM and the flight never took place.

We are never, EVER pressured to fly when we don't think it's safe.

 

[FlyaLear35]

Park Rapids, MN

It's an easy place to find on a map - look for a town that's near NOTHING! My co-pilot and I had the pleasure of staying here for 4 days, luckily in the middle of June.

The only hotel in town that was worth anything was called the "Cumm'On Inn" (sp). After one night there we decided to rent a lakeside "house" (I think we were already bored) which actually worked out cheaper than our two rooms. We went fishing, and grilled steaks on barbie.

Only problem? - NO heat! In the mornings it was cold and damp, it was like camping .... inside.

Funnily enough I have fond memories of the place, it was quiet, tranquil, and my cell phone rarely worked.

At the end of the week in Seattle we were in the Hilton. It just wasn't quite the same.

 

[152SIC]

unruly (drunken) pax

A flight took us from cody WY to lafayette LA. Had 7 miners aboard (company paid for their trip, must have been very important miners!) Anyhow, they loaded up the ac as me and the other pilot loaded the bags. After 10 minutes of cursing and loading bags we got onboard, began the briefing and realized that each miner had already killed 2+ drinks and each had lit up cigarettes. Anyways, turned out to be a long flight to lafayette, about half way through the pax began to get drunk and unruly, and began to curse each other out in cajun accents (it was actually fun to listen to them up front.) The haze from the smoke however was almost unbearable, but we pushed on. Upon reaching our destination we offloaded the pax, noticed that not a single drop of booze was left on board (to incluse the lav spare supplies,) and one of the drunker pax refused to deplane for fear of being pushed out at altitude!?! It took us about 5 minutes to convince him that we wern't trying to kill him and he finally deplaned. The plane was trashed, we stank of smoke and the pax were completely trashed. But we made it safe so all in all it was a cool flight.

 

[banned username 2]

Iqaluit, Northwest Terrirories, Canada

Iqaluit, Baffin Region, Northwest Territories, Canada, (CYFB) at the NE head of Frobisher Bay on S Baffin Island. About 1,000 NM north of Gander...

Made a tech stop there one VERY cold night...

Oooppsss... just reread the thread and noticed it says "Where are some of the more interesting places you have flown recently as a frax pilot?"...

Sorry, I am not a fractional pilot, I am a whole pilot, I still have all my parts (last time I checked!)