OK,
Here we go in the latest version of the game called refused, fired, quit.
You know the drill. I don't like the circumstances and refuse the trip. Of course, I'm the only CA available so the trip doesn't go without me. You'll take the trip or your fired. I'm not fired, I quit.
So let's see how you guys would think about this.
We are a charter and a management firm. Seven airplanes from a KA-200 down to a Baron.
One aircraft is an owner only aircraft - Part 91 stuff - never goes out on Charter. This aircraft gets sick the day before a big flight and is grounded.
Our contract says that we may use one of the company aircraft (Part 135) in replacement mode.
The company owns 3 planes of their own. One is a hangar queen that has mostly donated parts to other aircraft. Before this year the last annual on the airplane was performed in 2001.
The company had enough of the hangar queen and we were having a good year, so some money was spent to put the missing parts back in, get an annual and hang a "for sale" sign on the plane. With me so far.
The company has a cabinet with all the maintenance logbooks for aircraft in neat little file cases. Six airplanes, one nowhere in sight.
The scuttlebutt around the company was that the hangar queen went off insurance the same time it went off certificate. Ergo, it's N-number is not listed in our 135 Ops and I as a lowly captain can not determine if the plane is insured or not (and especially at 9:00pm when assigned the trip for first thing in the morning).
So, here we go. The CP assigns me a Part-91 trip in the hangar queen replacing the "owner" aircraft that is sick. The "owner" of said aircraft is a businessman who gets shuttled around and pays us a management fee plus pilot wages. This trip would take the owner and two clients to visit a manufacturing plant. I ask if it's legal. "Of course it's legal!" I ask about the logbooks. The maintenance guys must have them. I ask about the insurance. It's insured I'm told. I ask about the 135 listing and I'm told that it's a part 91 trip. You should note that this would be the first revenue flight this airplane would have done in 5 years.
I got reamed for asking all the questions I did.
So, I refused the trip and am now out of work.
I just couldn't reconcile all the pieces and of course there's a history of pushing things to the limits in the past and ignoring little lights and dials that are deamed unnesessary at the time and a lot of ahems and ah-huhs.
So what do guys think? Shut up and fly the trip. Dear Lord, run away as fast I can.
I guess my biggest problem was the lack of paperwork and clarity in an operation that has fairly decent paperwork. The FSDO comes in every so often. We are fairly tight. But there was nothing on this airplane except verbal assurances. I actually saw a little daydream of my certificates flying out of my wallet and towards OK City.
Anyway, just another out of work pilot.
Here we go in the latest version of the game called refused, fired, quit.
You know the drill. I don't like the circumstances and refuse the trip. Of course, I'm the only CA available so the trip doesn't go without me. You'll take the trip or your fired. I'm not fired, I quit.
So let's see how you guys would think about this.
We are a charter and a management firm. Seven airplanes from a KA-200 down to a Baron.
One aircraft is an owner only aircraft - Part 91 stuff - never goes out on Charter. This aircraft gets sick the day before a big flight and is grounded.
Our contract says that we may use one of the company aircraft (Part 135) in replacement mode.
The company owns 3 planes of their own. One is a hangar queen that has mostly donated parts to other aircraft. Before this year the last annual on the airplane was performed in 2001.
The company had enough of the hangar queen and we were having a good year, so some money was spent to put the missing parts back in, get an annual and hang a "for sale" sign on the plane. With me so far.
The company has a cabinet with all the maintenance logbooks for aircraft in neat little file cases. Six airplanes, one nowhere in sight.
The scuttlebutt around the company was that the hangar queen went off insurance the same time it went off certificate. Ergo, it's N-number is not listed in our 135 Ops and I as a lowly captain can not determine if the plane is insured or not (and especially at 9:00pm when assigned the trip for first thing in the morning).
So, here we go. The CP assigns me a Part-91 trip in the hangar queen replacing the "owner" aircraft that is sick. The "owner" of said aircraft is a businessman who gets shuttled around and pays us a management fee plus pilot wages. This trip would take the owner and two clients to visit a manufacturing plant. I ask if it's legal. "Of course it's legal!" I ask about the logbooks. The maintenance guys must have them. I ask about the insurance. It's insured I'm told. I ask about the 135 listing and I'm told that it's a part 91 trip. You should note that this would be the first revenue flight this airplane would have done in 5 years.
I got reamed for asking all the questions I did.
So, I refused the trip and am now out of work.
I just couldn't reconcile all the pieces and of course there's a history of pushing things to the limits in the past and ignoring little lights and dials that are deamed unnesessary at the time and a lot of ahems and ah-huhs.
So what do guys think? Shut up and fly the trip. Dear Lord, run away as fast I can.
I guess my biggest problem was the lack of paperwork and clarity in an operation that has fairly decent paperwork. The FSDO comes in every so often. We are fairly tight. But there was nothing on this airplane except verbal assurances. I actually saw a little daydream of my certificates flying out of my wallet and towards OK City.
Anyway, just another out of work pilot.
