I tentatively have a class date at a new company February 3rd. Those with cars at my shop...well the pause button gets pressed for 2 months while I endure some very rigorous training. Just had my 10 year anniversary at the current company and as much as I'll miss the hundreds of co workers I've formed a relationship with, I am very much looking forward to bigger and better things. The new job will be flying a 777 for an international charter company. They mainly have military contracts but also cruise ships and other vacations type companies that feed passengers through them. Apparently some other carriers lease out the operation depending on the season to fly their passengers around when they can't staff or have the planes available. Anyways some benefits will be home more, and longer stretches at a time, instead of my 2-3 days off I get now. I may be gone a few weeks at a time but then have a month off kind of schedule. Other notable intriguing factor is the headquarters is here in Tulsa and they want a new chief pilot on the 777. That person being me once I get some operational experience. How that offer was tossed on the table could be posted in the drunk thread. Ended up going out for drinks with the management (CEO, VP, Chief) a couple weeks ago somewhat accidentally and it also served as my interview apparently. I had recently applied and was hopeful to just hear anything back. In the airline world getting an interview is a hard task, usually involves work shops, paying a 3rd party consulting company to do interview prep, and a shit ton of stress and other BS hoops to jump through. I feel like my experience was nothing short of a miracle. I was also offered a chief pilot job at my current company which I turned down for this new opportunity. Things are going good!
Wow. that's great to hear.
Congrats! Movin on up! 77.gif
Glad to hear the "interview" went well.
Quote from: gr8kornholio on December 16, 2019, 05:13:56 PM
Glad to hear the "interview" went well.
Everyone was out of commission the whole next day. I was just glad they remembered the part where they hired me.
That's true. Especially if you didn't get the terms in writing, I mean scribbles, on like a napkin or something.
Quote from: 94touring on December 16, 2019, 07:00:05 PM
Quote from: gr8kornholio on December 16, 2019, 05:13:56 PM
Glad to hear the "interview" went well.
Everyone was out of commission the whole next day. I was just glad they remembered the part where they hired me.
Thank god for alcohol!! Lubricating the wheels when you need it too.
Congrats!!
Congratulations!!!
Super news! I'm very happy for you.
Good news congratulations.
Feb 3rd was confirmed today. Got a stack of material to learn by then. The job notice goes in the 1st of January.
Excellent news, I guess we won't be hearing much from you after mid January as you study!
Won't be much from me till April
When in April? Thinking ahead to how the change will affect your possibly making the tentative South Texas Hill Country run.
Honestly no clue. I'll get done with ground school and sim, then be doing initial operating experience somwhere on the other side of the planet for a month probably with a stretch of days off somewhere in there.
The tentative dates for the drive event are April 19 - 26.
Hopefully I'm free then. Time will tell.
Congratulations Dan!
Congratulations!! Wishing you the best of luck!!
Finished up 9 fixed based sims and then tonight got a proficiency check on the full motion sim. Now off to Dallas to complete the rest of the full motion sims and get this done after a systems exam tomorrow. I got swapped from my initial sim partner cause I was leaving him in my dust, and they gave me the guy with 747 time which is nearly identical to the 777. With us together we're plowing through this stuff like it's nothing. First attempt landing this thing was a breeze as well. Definitely the gentleman's airplane.
Nice...flying the sim. Did they let you go to any cool airports, or just the usual places....LAX, Ohare, Atlanta, JFK....like that?
No more flying into podunk airports for you, right? Time for the big leagues?
Super! Sounds like a lot of hard work, but fun too.
Pretty cool stuff. Hopefully you'll be extra busy with training cause the are slowly closing Dallas down.
Quote from: MiniDave on March 17, 2020, 07:31:06 AM
Nice...flying the sim. Did they let you go to any cool airports, or just the usual places....LAX, Ohare, Atlanta, JFK....like that?
No more flying into podunk airports for you, right? Time for the big leagues?
SFO to LAX, takeoff have some emergencies, return to SFO, go around, pop an engine, fly a single engine procedure missing terrain, come back around land type of thing.
Real world flying will all over the globe to some popular and not so popular destinations. Realize we do department of defense stuff. Not your ordinary airline.
Quote from: gr8kornholio on March 17, 2020, 09:23:18 AM
Pretty cool stuff. Hopefully you'll be extra busy with training cause the are slowly closing Dallas down.
I've basically been in self quarantine this whole month lol
Congratulations - if you fly into Copenhagen, give me a call!
Quote from: John Gervais on March 17, 2020, 05:07:48 PM
Congratulations - if you fly into Copenhagen, give me a call!
Will do!
Congrats again! I think it's cool as hell you're going to be flying the Freedom Bird. I imagine that Ramstein Air Base, Germany and Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, will be a regular stop for you. Do you think you'll be doing any runs to Japan and Korea?
Those military charter flights are a crazy thing. Sometimes they feel like riding a cattle car in the sky, and then other times it's the best feeling in the world (when you're coming home after a long time away).
Can't wait to hear the stories and see the pictures of your new adventures.
Yes to Japan and Korea and all the others listed. A cattle car with 382 seats!
And everytime I've flown on them all 382 of them have been filled! 50.gif
Wednesday I head to Ireland till Friday. So that's something.
Quote from: MiniGene on March 17, 2020, 08:37:11 PM
Those military charter flights are a crazy thing. Sometimes they feel like riding a cattle car in the sky, and then other times it's the best feeling in the world (when you're coming home after a long time away).
The worst military hop I ever had was a short flight from Sendai to Narita in what looked like an antique Cessna hobby plane with seating for 6 or 8. Somehow the flight was 'overbooked' and I as the senior officer passenger got to ride on the porta-potty can. Had to get there and it was the only flight available for another 4 days.
Your passport is in order? You won't be quarantined for 14 days in Ireland?
I'm unquarantine-able given my job. Passport has been mandatory for me for a long time.
Quote from: 94touring on April 20, 2020, 02:39:38 PM
Wednesday I head to Ireland till Friday. So that's something.
Shannon? Dublin?
Shannon. I probably should look up the weather.
Quote from: 94touring on April 20, 2020, 04:40:29 PM
Shannon. I probably should look up the weather.
Cool. Have you been there before? If you get some free time you might like Limerick nearby. Or Galway which is about an hour away.
Glad you're working! It's too bad you won't be able to enjoy the country this trip due to the lockdown. I'm sure there will be many more to follow though.
Quote from: 94touring on April 20, 2020, 04:40:29 PM
Shannon. I probably should look up the weather.
Whats the schedule? Fly over wait 2 days fly back?
If possible grab a pint of Guinness, most likely to go, it is noticeably better there. Besides the huge airfield, Shannon looks like an otherwise small town so not much to see there.
Not sure how free you are going to be to move around there, during normal times I would suggest a rental car and wandering. Now? Try to make the best of wherever you happen to be holed up.
Safe travels and good luck!! IIRC this is your check out flight, yes?
I'll be there for 26 hours. Then fly to NC, then Texas and sit on call for 3 days, and home. Basically work has me tagging along this week with a crew to see how they operate.
Bonus points if you work the word "surely" into every sentence you speak.
Double bonus points if you can say meow to the crew 10X and they never question it.
I have a lot of internets points, not just plain old internets points, I am talking Al Gore internets points.
Doing the walk around on the beast.
Where to now? 4.gif 4.gif
Quote from: minifrisco on May 06, 2020, 06:23:11 PM
Where to now? 4.gif 4.gif
Headed back stateside today.
You mean a BMW
4.gif
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bmw. Rolls-Royce Holdings does aerospace.
I know! I was just playing a joke.
Is it safe to assume your new gig does not have any real flight crew beyond the pilots? Like no FA's?
Quote from: Jims5543 on June 01, 2020, 05:14:50 AM
Is it safe to assume your new gig does not have any real flight crew beyond the pilots? Like no FA's?
We have a minimum of 9 flight attendants and 2 mechanics that come with 3-4 pilots. Then there are those deadheading to work something else, so it's not uncommon to have 20 flight attendants and 8 or more pilots.
So these flights serve drinks food etc.. during the flights?
You actually have mechanics on board traveling with you, are they assigned to the plane? That is pretty cool.
I told you about a guy on the Porsche Forum who was a pilot, also kept is mechanics license current and was also current on the EMT license? He worked for someone extremely wealthy and important, he flew his private jet around the world for him and was the ultimate triple threat. He was paid very well.
Full catering business class meals. The meals from the states are hit or miss but the catering outside of the US so far has been well beyond expectations. I eat well let's put it that way. Snacks galore too. Want fresh milk from Ireland to go with your cookies? Here ya go. Meats and cheeses, so many meats and cheeses. We do have 3 kitchens on the plane.
The mechanics just about live on the plane for a trip. There are tools and parts stored ready for things to break. We carry spare tires with us. Between every flight they come up and plug into the system and look over whatever diagnostic stuff mechanics do. This morning we had a jettison pump fail which took out the scavenge pump. They fixed it right there and 30 minutes later we were taking off out of Bulgaria.
We fly in shifts as pilots on this thing. Takeoff, do some paperwork, then head to my sleeping quarters for 2-4 hours. Come back up, chill out till it's time to land. Between snacks and meals of course.
Been at the new job awhile now. It's still great. Barely work and get paid. That being said the hard part is the sleep schedule. I've been home about a week and I'm still passing out cold at 8pm and waking up at 3am. Not much to do around the house at 3am.
Quote from: 94touring on November 14, 2020, 08:42:24 AM
Been at the new job awhile now. It's still great. Barely work and get paid. That being said the hard part is the sleep schedule. I've been home about a week and I'm still passing out cold at 8pm and waking up at 3am. Not much to do around the house at 3am.
Getting paid and barely working sounds pretty appealing even with a wonky sleep schedule. Not much to do around the house perhaps, but the shop is probably sitting there nice and idle, just waiting for someone to come and show it some love. 20.gif
Don't forget, he has a wife now too! 77.gif
Yeah that can definitely toss a wrench into the works of available "shop time".
Good news is, the longer you are married to them the more they also want you to go find something else to do that keeps you out of their hair ;D