How many exec pilots have the facility of an 'ops' backup

[scrivenger]

Just been reading through some of the other threads and I started to wonder how many of you guys have to do it all yourselves and how many of you have the 'relative' luxury of having it all done for you, operationally of course. Seems to me some exec guys are doing everything from obtaining clearances to hanging around for the fuel. I appreciate that you use agents down route but how many of you are making your own arrangements because thats the way of your particular operation. Just curious thats all. And I'm aware that 'it depends where you are....' is going to be the pretty obvious answer.

[His dudeness]

Having had an ops department harrassing me for years and years, I´m now "freefloatin", doing it all myself. I can´t stand the incompetence, lying, jealousy any more - there are a lot of good ops departments out there I hear, but the few I was in contact with where just awful. Most often a problem of company culture, i.e. the unwillingness of building a good ops, most of the time viewed as a cost factor instead of a necessary tool to save.... :ugh:

Downside: IF something is amiss - now one to blame. My fault then. Naturally that NEVER EVER HAPPENS :)

The only thing I don´t do myself is getting permissions for Russia etc.

[Miles Magister]

I agree with His Dudeness.

Just me and a laptop with PPS on it and a broadband dongle thingy.

MM

[Steak&Kidney_Pie]

Some Ops guys are great, others require shooting at birth. I've got one of both. I'm learning unless my main man (TOS) is on, it's better to just get on with it yourself. There isn't much we can't do!! (He says in his little CJ!)

[G-DAVE]

Steak and Kidney Pie. I thought I knew who you were!

I thought you were the person that can't even decide which toilet to use down-route without phoning the Ops office! :}

Only kidding! :E

[Doodlebug]

We have a 24-hour dispatch. Good bunch.

[Flintstone]

Ops department available 24 hours a day. Can't fault 'em, wonderful people.

[lemay]

Had it all: doing flight plans for the next day myself, including ordering the catering, fuel, towing-truck, arranging airport slots, hotels and so on... If you're senior enough: let the other guy do it for practise.:ok:

Today, we have a full-time 24/7 Ops-Dept., but sometimes I do not feel that this is substantially better. Particularly at the current growth-rate of our company. It happens that I call the company, say my name and nobody has a clue who I am, what airplane I'm on or why I'm calling. And then they forget telling you that your slot is about to expire...:{

[dc9-32]

You just need a small team of people with the right crudentials and it's sorted. No need for huge masses of ops staff.

Small numbers + slick procedures = support

[scrivenger]

Thanks for the responses, I'm intrigued as to the disparity between certain operations requiring ops assistance and others going diy. For one I would guess that the salary differential between one type rated pilot with ops assistance/backup and a similarly rated pilot on diy is not that huge. However when you factor in say an ops officer on say £15,000 - £20,000 x (depending on coverage) 4 or 5, there is a significant overhead. Are you really getting value for money? Not trying to upset the apple cart here but I think you can see where I'm coming from.

[hawker750]

The problem with a good Ops dept. (and we have a great one) is that one forgets how to do it oneself! Any competent and experienced European pilot should be able to do it himself but it is getting more and more complicated and frustrating and I wonder if it is condusive to flight safety to ask the crew to do it. (negotiating slots ATC delays, reroutes, late passengers). As I said the problem is when the ops dept are down on staff and suddenly say "could you do all that yourself today please"! Good ops staff are hard to come by and if you get some good ones treat them nicely.
We have a policy here that we recruit 200 hour frozen ATPL's and the deal is that they have to work in the ops dept for 12 months then they go on a type rating course and then work 1/2 ops 1/2 co-pilot for a further 12 months. That way we give the youngsters a kick start to their carreer and we get the "pilot input" to our ops dept. It works really well and we have 4 pilots on staff who have done this route, including the chief pilot! The other bonus is that these guys rarely slag the ops dept for the occassional mistake......they have been there themselves!

[weido_salt]

hawker750

That is an excellent policy you have there. We all remember our first job and who gave us a "leg up" the ladder and it inspires much more dedication. It is a shame more operators don't do the same as you sir.

With regards to operations, we out source for our trips as we are too small. However you only get what you pay for, to a point.

A good ops person is worth their weight in gold so are worth hanging on to.

If the pilots are screaming and yelling and generally taking it out on ops staff, you get sh*t back! Human nature.