Pilot Jobs

Carol said:
I found out last night from a friend of mine who just passed his 135 ride that these folks have ordered 30 Cirruses (Cirri?) and plan to start an air taxi service with them and some other airplanes.

http://jobs.findapilot.com/index.php?a=2&b=366

Here's where they are located:

http://www.greenvilledowntownairport.com/page2.php
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Hard to believe this air taxi venture will ever be successful, given the public's resistance to flying in little planes due to the perceived dangers and inability of small planes to fly as planned due to frequent weather problems, not to mention the incredible costs for insurance, maintenance, crew, etc. If they ever get going, it will be shortlived, unfortunately.
 
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Gary Sortor said:
Hard to believe this air taxi venture will ever be successful, given the public's resistance to flying in little planes due to the perceived dangers and inability of small planes to fly as planned due to frequent weather problems. If they ever get going, it will be shortlived, unfortunately.
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Yes, however...I'm sure the taxi service will advertise the fact that their planes have parachutes. which will make them uncrashable..to the uninformed public that would sound like a no risk situation. Very smart for the taxi company to choose the cirrus, if only for that reason.

Michael
 
Gary Sortor said:
Hard to believe this air taxi venture will ever be successful, given the public's resistance to flying in little planes due to the perceived dangers and inability of small planes to fly as planned due to frequent weather problems. If they ever get going, it will be shortlived, unfortunately.
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Maybe, maybe not. While there are some serious hurdles to clear, I think there will be adequate demand for such a service to make it profitable if managed properly. I think you'll find the dispatchability of the microjets to be fairly competitive with other charters and to a great extent the airlines. These planes are as capable of overflying the enroute weather and may (yet to be proven) be capable of dealing with as much terminal wx as any regional (commuter) airline.

As to the public perception, I suspect that while many of the non-aviation savvy public will be shocked at the small size, they will no doubt take great comfort in the fact that it's a twin engine Jet. The big question is whether or not this organization and others like it can get through the teething pains of a startup without any serious accidents. Chances are that it won't take more than a couple fatal crashes to reduce the potential customer base by a large fraction, at least for a while.

When you consider that these planes can radically beat the airline's hub and spoke system timetables, both in trip times and flexibility coupled with many passenger's aversion to all the hassles of airline travel, I see a significant demand if the price is competitive with short term booked airline travel.

Edit: Apparently I didn't read the original post very carefully and somehow thought this was about a plan to use Eclipse jets for air taxi.

Sooo... Never mind.
 
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sshekels said:
Sounds like they are doing the same thing the folks here in MN are doing. I posted a thread about it a while ago. Here's the link:

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/showthread.php?t=1092
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Yep. Sounds pretty similar. They are figuring that a company will be happy to pay $395/hour to get 1-3 of its people to a meeting that would require hours of driving and/or a lot of time flying commercial. I haven't read the business plan. Somebody must think they have a shot at reasonable success. The *hour* starts when the renter's butt hits the seat and ends when it leaves it, or so I was told. Will be interesting to follow.
 
I wonder if the potential users insurance companies will have any misgivings about sending insureds in "small" aircraft?

I know several folks who are prohibited from flying in small planes, but I don't know if that's due to their size or the fact its not a 135 op...
 
Gary Sortor said:
Hard to believe this air taxi venture will ever be successful, given the public's resistance to flying in little planes due to the perceived dangers and inability of small planes to fly as planned due to frequent weather problems, not to mention the incredible costs for insurance, maintenance, crew, etc. If they ever get going, it will be shortlived, unfortunately.
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I figure either way it's good for GA. If they succeed to any degree then great, more services may be spawned elsewhere. If they fail to some degree, then a proportional number of the essentially off the showroom floor-but use depreciated Cirri should be soon on the GA market at lower than new cost.
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
I figure either way it's good for GA. If they succeed to any degree then great, more services may be spawned elsewhere. If they fail to some degree, then a proportional number of the essentially off the showroom floor-but use depreciated Cirri should be soon on the GA market at lower than new cost.
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To make a small fortune in aviation, start off with a large fortune...
 
sshekels said:
I wonder if the potential users insurance companies will have any misgivings about sending insureds in "small" aircraft?

I know several folks who are prohibited from flying in small planes, but I don't know if that's due to their size or the fact its not a 135 op...
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Unfortunately, the single-engine piston air taxi will have this obstacle: The Risk Management folks in larger companies will be all over anyone in their company that asks to fly in small, single-engine planes on company time . . . asking to take on yet another "risk" in a litigation-prone society.
 
Gary Sortor said:
Unfortunately, the single-engine piston air taxi will have this obstacle: The Risk Management folks in larger companies will be all over anyone in their company that asks to fly in small, single-engine planes on company time . . . asking to take on yet another "risk" in a litigation-prone society.
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Funny, those very same people are climbing into PA 18s all over Alaska. And paying with the money they make advising you not to. :)
 
Gary Sortor said:
Unfortunately, the single-engine piston air taxi will have this obstacle: The Risk Management folks in larger companies will be all over anyone in their company that asks to fly in small, single-engine planes on company time . . . asking to take on yet another "risk" in a litigation-prone society.
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IIRC Piston Single 135 operations are restricted to VFR, and that just does not cut it for business aviation.
 
Yo Cap'n! Take a peek at 135.163. IFR in IMC ain't just for twins anymore. Now about that equivalent level of safety...:eek:
 
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