Saturday, January 14, 2012

Helicopter Charter

I'm not currently working with helicopters, either as a charter customer or with a company that operates rotary ring aircraft, but I had to love this trojan horse spam.

Your order for our air commuter services has been received and processed. The chopper will be at your disposal from 3.30 p.m. wednesday to 5.45 tuesday. Once again, the rates are as follows:

1 hour in the air: 824$
Takeoff / Landing: 229$
1 hour down time on the ground: 163$
Longest fly-time is 5 hours.
When flying for longer distances, a co-pilot is needed, and the cost accordingly grows by 133$ an hour.


Bill.doc 747kb


With Respect To You
Nellie Nickerson

The purpose of the spam is to get me to click on "Bill.doc," which in the original is a link to an executable. I have to commend these spammers for the completely awesome vehicle they have chosen for what I assume is a trojan horse of some sort. I love the imagination they bring to the rates. I have chartered a helicopter before, and like an airplane the rates applied to the flight time, regardless of the number of takeoffs and landings, and in this case there was no charge for the thirty minutes or so we spent on the ground between flights with the engine shut down. Perhaps somewhere in the world there is a charter rate schedule like this, but I find it hard to believe that in an aircraft where it can be hard to distinguish between takeoffs and landings, that someone would charge over one quarter of the hourly rate per one. I like the fee per extra crew member; in my experience crew usually get about half the amount clients are billed for their services, which implies that a co-pilot could be making $66 a flight hour.

10 comments:

Devil in the Drain said...

It's great to see you! (I figure we should positively reinforce your posts, so you keep coming back more and more.)

Anonymous said...

The last time I contracted a helicopter (Bell 206-L3) it was $1100/hr (pilot and fuel included) that started from leaving the hanger until we returned. I know we had to set down 4-5 times due to the client feeling airsick. I don't do good when it's windy.

Christopher Thompson said...

I know you have a life of your own and you creative pursuits have taken you away from your blog. I feel a little bit cheated by it--like when an old friend meets someone new and disappears. I know. Totally selfish. I hope whatever you are up to is incredibly rewarding for you.

I appreciate you checking in every once in awhile. It is always fun to see your perspective on the world.

Fly well.

CT

Helicopter Charter said...

it really is a great business! as there is a growing number of demands for a chartered helicopter flights. Good luck to your business and always have a safe flight! cheers

mattheww50 said...

I am kind of surprised that a light helicopter (and given the supposed charter rate it obviously isn't an S76) has a 5 hour range.

The only time I have seen anything approaching 'downtime' charges is with an aircraft on a relatively long term hire. The owner expects a certain average flight hours per day you have the aircraft. In effect there is a minimum average daily revenue for the Aircraft. If you don't run up enough hours on the 'hobbs', you end up paying for 'downtime'.

majroj said...

So they get you up, then announce there is a charge to land again?Okay.....Maybe they got this from Malaysia or Nigeria or something.
Welcome back again.

Helicopter to cheltenham festival said...

We get these spam emails all of the time, you need to watch out for them. If you would like a helicopter price, ask us for an honest and accuarate price. At todays rates a light single engine B206 is approx $800 per flying hour.

Helli Creg said...

This is insane! I'm glad you knew exactly what they were doing though. Real helicopter charter flights are not really laid out like that, price wise, crazy people. Nice try though, right? haha

Brett Rodgers said...

I really want to go on a helicopter charter on of these days. Its on my bucket list and I think that it will be so much fun. One of my friends goes on helicopter charter so much and he loves them. I cant wait to go one of these days. I just got to save up money.

Airplane Love said...

I received the same email a few days ago!