Happy birthday to Blink
 

Highflight,

I share your sentiments 100%...it is good to see a start up do so well. From what I hear Blink are acting as a driver of change in the industry, risky but also possibly needed and therefore justified. The long terms rewards will be indicative of their early success.

So I'm going to wish them congratulations on their first birthday and wishing them all the best for years to come... :D

Highflight. Accepted. Group hu..............well let's not go that far ;)

The point of responding to CV's is valid. I know they're busy and probably swamped but there are a number of valid reasons for at least sending a holding reply and it would be nice to see Blink doing so. I think they'll be a success but an appreciative audience always helps.

As a matter of interest, just how many A/C do Blink own/fly?

This is not a dig, but looks like a great smoke and mirrors PR job with few assets in the air.

Anyway, good luck to them!

Bizjet forum rule number 6969, para 2, sub-section B. "Anyone posting without reading a thread will be hung by the ankles and ridiculed"'


Duck :rolleyes:

OOPS!...painfull ankles and a feeling of ridicule!:uhoh:

Replying to applications
 

I am another who applied for CP without the benefit of a reply. It was a serious application from someone with great and varied experience and it is a pure insult not to hear back. In my experience firms who treat applicants correctly are usually better run than average.

Chomeur

I sympathize with you.

NJE used to play that game. Their attitude was the result of a big dose of "hard ball" and an over dose of testosterone. "We can kick big arse" type of guys.

Now the NJE cheerleaders will argue "well we are a big company and you get this sort of thing". Not so. BA don't attract anywhere near the venomous posts that NJE have written up on this site. VS is slightly different for obvious reasons......

Chomeur
 

The present situation is that the company has an enourmous amount of applications( over 300) to sift through and not only for pilots, and only one part time HR lady to cope.

I believe that some applications that have been submitted through agencies have had a reply to the agency.

The company has recently installed an automated reply system, which should help.

Please accept our apologies if we havent got back to you, we are working hard to resolve the situation ...even if it doesnt seem so.

I applied for a ground position last week through a well known 'aviation job search' website, and received a response almost immediately from Blink. The auto response seems to be working fine through them.

Now whether I here any further is a different matter:(

I have been proven wrong so far with my "gone in a Blink' statement in the past but still feels the company defies the laws of economy so far... Interesting to watch :8

Ironic really. There is a certain element of Netjets crew who swan around the fbo's like they own the place and are quick to put down start-ups and smaller operations yet Blink and others like them who have been on the receiving end of this elitism aren't the ones laying off 25% of their pilots.

Looks like there is something to be said for keeping your head down instead of telling the world how good you (think you) are.

Beer Hunter, Well said!!!

I dont know the specific details about the Blink operation but from what I hear and see from the industry they are becoming a very well respected company indeed.

A strong product offer in a new aircraft, a very experienced and renowned training team, a mean lean operational overhead and a bunch of enthusiastic individuals who are working well together to make clients feel wanted and loved. Whats not to like?

Beer Hunter perhaps the NetJets crew bemoaning Blink's success are just seething?!

I'm sold thats for sure.

Having been invited to a Captain assessment day next week at Blink.
Does anybody know what they are paying for captains
Thanks

it is based on experience levels, above 50k definately

Thanks Dingbat
Anybody know what the roster/lifestyle is like ?
DD

RE Blink
 

Hiya next aircraft GFBKA was delivered to Bournemouth last friday night,
hopefully in service soon.

cheers.

I know they need to learn how to answer their phones! Spent 45 minutes yesterday trying to get through - booked somewhere else in the end! :ugh:

I hear that they are also going to start charging low-timers for their type ratings. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't new aircraft normally come with free TR's?

Shoddy practice and the behaviour of shysters if true.

they have been looking for Pilots, Marketing staff, sales staff, ops staff. for the last 8 months. everyone who sends them there CV are not in there eyes up to it. they have 5/6 recruitment agancys loooking for staff for them and they are all getting the hump because they always say no. I know at least 10 people that have gone for a sales job there who have 5-10 years as Manager/Coms Dir in private jet companys but still not good enough.

And I'd thought they were just being polite when, only a few days ago, they emailed me straight back after I sent them a speculative cv! Mind you, I'm clearly not 'up to it' at the moment as they said their pilot recruitment was complete for 2009: maybe a few months without flying will do the trick as they also stated they would be recruiting again in 2010!

It is true, they are asking new guys to part sponsor their type rating on a 50/50 shared cost. Aircraft take up has been a lot slower than they were predicting so instead of having a massive recruitment drive as we were led to believe they are only taking on 2 F/Os until 2010 when i assume they might take on a few more.

Hope this helps

I am a bit surprised that the cracks are appearing so early in their flawed business plan

Look outside the window:
the world has changed; yesterday's best laid plans...don't look so clever today

If that is true, then I'm stuffed then. I come with over 15 years working on the ground in aviation mainly in ops, which I would have thought would have been highly useful skills to have as a pilot for a new startup biz jet operator.

Would have really enjoyed working for them too me thinks - Mustang would have been the ideal first flying job !!. Maybe I'm too old !!! :{

How much is a Mustang t/r anyway ?.

:)

Blink recent recruitment
 

I know that these guy's held recruitment days recently for both Captains and F/O's. Anyone out there successful? What is the roster? Have you been offered start dates and rough salaries? Does anyone know how many Captains and F/o's they took on?

well done in advance to those who managed to secure a job in these times!

Flat Spin,

Unless you have proof of what you say my advice would be to wind it in very rapidly as what you have said is complete rubbish.

Why oh why do you guys get some pleasure out of peddling such rubbish, if you haven't got anything good to say then go away, play with yourself, find a good/bad woman and GET A LIFE. In addition if your going to post on here at least learn to spell, read their for there. If you don't have a working knowledge of basic English I'm not sure you should be flying aircraft if in fact that is what you do.

There are people out there and particularly in this company attempting to grow something worthwhile and long term thus securing jobs for pilots in the future.

Rant over but don't come back until you have something based on fact.

This is a a good company staffed with nice genuine people, the First officers of which in the main have been taken straight from flight school and employed when many other employers are laying off.

Roster is six on three off with every attempt to improve on this in the future, this isn't the place to discuss salaries. This is a company that is going to try to promote the lifestyle issues, we all know you aren't going to be earning a £100,000 flying a C510, but maybe just maybe you can have a much more enjoyable lifestyle as the fleet and crew numbers build up.

Well Said
 

Highflight

Well said..

And to confirm i do not work for blink..

DJ

Highfligt, is the ecruitment drive complete for this year?
Too many people get caught up in ''politics'' which does take the fun out of flying. These are generally people with their own agendas. I knew a couple of people who went for assessment and they were unclear as to how many would be taken on. Are Blink going to operate a hold pool to pick from when orders are 'firmed up'?

They posted their accounts for 2008 at the end of May. £667,477 in the bank at the end of the year, with firm commitments for £1M in future spending (aircraft deposits probably). They don't need to disclose their P&L statements as a small company, but it's possible (with clever mathematics) to work out their profit/loss for the first year of operation.

In April 09 they received another £1.5M in equity financing from three investors. I would guess that Flat Spin may therefore have posted his/her comment having done some clever mathematics and therefore it's based on public domain fact rather than "complete rubbish" as Highflight420 suggested.

Not offering any comment on the company, which I really don't know, the people, likewise or the recruitment campaign - which I'm sure are all fine. Just on the mathematics of a VLJ start up (well, any start up really) in general and particularly so in this climate.

As far as I know recruitment is complete for the year, Only taking on 1 or 2 F/Os this year and a few captains and I believe all positions have been filled by ex LEA guys who are already rated. Any guys who had assessment with them will have to go through assessment again in the new year if they want a position and as far as I am aware they are not operating a holding pool. Frustrating for us guys with experience who cant get in even though a few months ago they were taking on newbies straight out of flight school

re BLINK
 

Afternoon all GFBKA AC number 5 outside on ramp at Blackbushe.

cheers

J.

eglk01



Is that AC new or or just re-based to blackbush? If it is new, is it also fully on their AOC? Thinking about it, has their AOC been granted yet?



PP

...hear that ramp space at EGLK is being increased (at the expense of car parking), presumably to accommodate all those Mustangs?

I know one of the senior capts there...so good luck to them,
J, hows the bushe I was there 92-94, great memories !!

EGLK for Blink
Can a Mustang use 3,650 landing distance? If so I would have thought Blackbushe ideal for their operation. The only reason other Citation operators have shied away from it was the short runway. The Mustang must be a lot better.

Hawker750 - No, the Mustang cannot land at Blackbushe on a wet runway public transport with anything more than a sniff of fuel and a couple of bums on seats. Going in there with pax in the rain is very borderline stuff - unless their TAG ops manual allows for some funny fiddle-factor that nobody else knows about.

re Blink
 

HI Bushe more busy these days with bizjets and kingairs,bit like the early 90s!!
good old days yes,2 flying schools still busy,just not as a few years ago.

Last year we have had 146/DA7X,C56X,HS125 E.T.C. all in private of course.

Yes Mustangs are ideal for us,but with factor 1:67 to consider nogo
commercial at the moment.

cheers.

WinnieBago,

There has been no fudging of the figures regarding Blackbushe Ops by either TAG or Blink, these are two professional operations and Blink wouldn't be operating under TAG's AOC if they thought otherwise.

Blink are well aware of the limitations of operating in and out of Blackbushe and operate to the book. It's a question of watch this space, the Mustang is capable of much improved performance which would remove most of the Blackbushe limitations and Cessna are cooperating in recalculating the original performance figures issued with the type certificate, it just takes time to complete the work that is necessary in order to achieve improved performance figures.

Highflight,

Are you suggesting that Cessna did not certify the aircraft with the correct figures in the first place or have TAG/Blink asked Cessna to do runway analysis especially for a surveyed EGLK.

I think it would be very unusual to revise the field performance, more than likely they would if there was any room for improvement they would increase the MTOM to make the foot fit the shoe, that would be to the benefit of all operators.

Cessna have previous in doing this with the CJ3 & the Sovereign from memory