Monday, August 18, 2008

Fractional Dogs

I've wanted to fly for a fractional jet ownership company for a while. It's a good combination of being able to provide personal, high-end service, while still having a lot of variety, and the training resources of a big company. I was looking at NetJets website, where they lay out the duties and working conditions.

  • Cockpit/Pilot station size – Pilots must fit and be able to fully function in NetJets aircraft. Aircraft assignments or changes to assignments are not based upon pilot size.
  • Owners will bring baggage and cargo of various sizes and weights that will be loaded by crewmembers
  • Owners and passengers can and will smoke during flight
  • Animals (including, but not limited to dogs, cats and birds) can and will be carried aboard the aircraft in the main cabin. Animals are not usually in cages. This means NetJets pilots have direct contact with animal hair, feathers, etc. Human remains (container after cremation, coffin or body bag) may be carried in the cabin
  • With few exceptions, the maximum required duty day is 14 hours
  • The minimum rest period is 10 hours

I'm just trying to imagine if the actual working conditions os a northern airline were detailed that way. But it's a good list. I hadn't actually considered whether I wanted to work in an environment full of stogie-chomping customers with poorly-trained dogs. A pilot told me you can jut crank up the cockpit air and it doesn't bother you. The nicotine, that is. You'd have to have one hell of a bleed air valve to use airflow to fend off dog attacks.

6 comments:

John Schlosser said...

Seriously, a body bag? lol I have never seen that. Ive seen doctors and organs flown but not that. Netjets even has little harness for dogs so they can be 'belted in'

Oshawapilot said...

"Can and will smoke"?

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought that smoking on aircraft was all but verboten now.

Is this another situation where the wealthy need not follow the rules of the rest of society?

Aviatrix said...

As far as I know, all the rules about passenger screening, liquids, pointy objects, smoking, and dancing naked in the aisles applies to airlines, not airplanes in general. It's like the difference between smoking in your car, or in a taxi that the driver says it's okay to smoke in, versus smoking on the bus or subway.

I've never read an accident report for a private aircraft where cigarette smoking was listed as a probable cause, so I don't think it's a problem.

Anonymous said...

Smoking was banned on airline flights to protect the health of the general public, not for flight safety. Private charter flights are exempt because they are not carrying members of the general public.

The passenger security charade is also restricted to airline (CAR Subpart 5/FAR part 121) operations. The blanket exemption for GA ops allows the wealthy to avoid CATSA/TSA harassment by chartering private aircraft rather than flying with the unwashed masses.

Subject the wealthy to the liquid ban and it would be rescinded faster than you could say 'lobbyists.'

Lord Hutton said...

Sounds like my sort of aircraft

Anonymous said...

"Owners and passengers can and will smoke during flight"

Not shown: Depending on flight conditions and the relative skills of the pilot, they may smoke (or drink) constantly.

--paul