Future plans

Recently, in class, we were asked what kind of job we would eventually hope to end up at and what kind of position. While a very valid question for any potential commercial pilot, someone like me, who eventually wants to fly corporate, would have a fairly difficult time being specific on this. I could name companies like Google, Microsoft, SAS, or any one of the massive companies that are on the Fortune 500's Top 100 companies to work for list, but for this exercise, and because I have had the opportunity to talk to many of these pilots, I would name NetJets as the company I would eventually want to work for.

Basic captains for NetJets typically start at around $87,000 a year and quickly move up. I would like to fly a Falcon 7X (if and when NetJets decides to get a fleet of them) because every pilot I have talked to who has flown any Falcon, not counting the cargo guys who fly Falcon 20s, said that it is the best aircraft that they have ever flown. NetJets pilots usually have 7 days on and 7 days off, and pilots have told me how they can rig their vacation days to have an entire 3 weeks of vacation time. Whenever they come to our FBO, they always get put up in the nicest hotel in the area, and NetJets pilots just seem to be generally happier than most Flight Options or FlexJet pilots that I usually talk to. NetJets seems to have a "Pilots First" attitude about the entire company.

More information about NetJets pay scale can be found here

From my own experiences with NetJets, they appear to be the safest fractional carrier out there. I once had a NetJets Citation Excel cancel his trip because the outer door release wasn't functioning properly. At first I thought this was overkill on safety, but the pilot explained that if something happened and everyone inside the airplane was unconscious or incapacitated, there would be no way of someone outside the plane to get inside and this made a lot of sense to me.

All of these attitudes that are circulating around NetJets can be referred to as a form of Professionalism. In my opinion Professionalism is functioning in the appropriate way that the organization, or individual is supposed to function, not for the sake of making money, or making the job easier, but because we are paid to do a job and it is our task to uphold our end of the deal.

We recently watched a Frontline documentary called Flying Cheep. This documentary exposed some of the unprofessional culture that was plaguing Colgan Air before the Dash-8 crashed in Buffalo, NY. Many examples of unprofessional behavior were outed in both the FAA and Colgan Air. The FAA refused to follow up on investigations into the safety culture of Colgan Air. Also, Colgan Air would do things like change the weight and balance data on their aircraft so that they could complete a trip.

Personally, if I were employed by NetJets or any private flight department, I would maintain my level of professionalism by ensuring the safest possible flight from point A to point B. This includes telling the passengers that a trip is unsafe and refusing to fly. From what I have heard, this gets much harder when the owner of the airplane is telling you to get in the cockpit, but I believe with the level of professionalism that NetJets provides, they will always back the pilots final decision to provide the safest possible private aircraft. Thanks for reading, and fly safe!