Corporate F/A Dispatch

I haven’t updated the list in a couple of months, but if you are new to this site then you will want to visit our Private Jet Charter Operators page for a directory of some of the companies providing jet charter, particularly in the US.

The list is not comprehensive and it does feature some fractional jet providers as well as aircraft brokers among the charter operators. Still, it can be a good start for the weary corporate flight attendant wannabe who is desperate to uncover hard to find information.

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Business aviation is a rather small field, despite the large number of new jets that seem to be coming on-line every year. It is still such a niche area that many people know each or can readily find out about someone through a knowledgeable third party. The NBAA has done a good job over the years in creating a certain cohesiveness among members of the business aviation community.

As in any industry, business aviation does have its share of people who tend to stretch the truth when it comes to their resume. Padding or building up the resume to give the reader the impression that a crewmember is busier than they really are does happen. Even outright false information can be included by some dishonest people who are seeking work.

Penny started a thread on our forums today — Resume (building or padding??) — that discusses this very issue. She raised some valid points and the responses to date have been very interesting indeed.

So, if you have taken some creative license with your resume, you may want to reconsider this move as it could cost you dearly.

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Corporate flight attendants are regularly tasked with stocking their aircraft with beverages including those that contain alcohol. Beer, wine, and assorted mixed drinks are regularly served with cost being an afterthought on many flights.

One area that could use some additional thought is the caloric count for the drinks served. No, as a private jet flight attendant it isn’t your duty to decide what someone should eat or drink, but I would think that if you learned that something was especially high in calories that this information would give you pause.

Doc Sullivan recently started a thread on our forums titled, “Calorie Content of Alcoholic Beverages” to help unmask this information. I have no idea what a Long Island Iced Tea is made of but a 12 oz. serving of this drink is a whopping 789 calories! Yikes!

For more information about this topic, visit Doc’s Aircrew Health News blog for the nitty gritty and for a link to the study cited.

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My travels around the internet has brought me to various sites that could be of interest to corporate flight attendants. Included in the mix are some wine sites and blogs worth bookmarking:

Grape Scott — This blog takes a look at wine from the layman’s point of view. The site’s author gets a hold of wines from around the world and posts his personal review of each wine on-line. In addition to the review, the author mentions the price he paid per bottle, where the wine is produced, what grape(s) were used, and the alcohol content.

Cal Wineries — I live in the southeast USA so the nearest I ever get to a California winery is through the internet. Of course, the recently opened Trader Joe’s in my town features

plenty of Two Buck Chuck! Cal Wineries is an informative site featuring nothing but information about the wineries of the Golden State. The site includes a handy clickable California wine map showing the various wine regions and plenty of information about the entire wine industry. Individual wines are discussed and graded; you can add your comments to the discussion as well.

Vivi’s Wine Journal — I appreciate this site because it goes beyond discussing specific wines. Vivi’s Wine Journal touches on wine related products including an infrared wine temperature gauge plus a section devoted to the top winehacker tips. You do know what to do with that leftover red wine don’t you? If not, Vivi’s site will share some tips with you.

Winehiker Witiculture — “It’s a wine blog. It’s a hiking blog. Its a winehiking blog.” So says the author of this blog who brings together two of his passions — hiking and wine — by sharing information with readers on just how to combine the two. Featuring tours of the California wine country, Winehiker Witiculture captures the beauty of visiting vineyards on foot. Planned hikes such as “Walking the Zinfandel Trail” are offered through the blogger’s main site at CaliforniaWineHikes.Com.

I’ll be mentioning some terrific foodie sites on this blog in the coming weeks too. There is a lot of good information out there for vino lovers and foodie fans everywhere.

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The Culinary Institute of America, widely recognized as one of the top names in food education, is planning on holding a three-day in-flight service program class in February. The class is scheduled for February 20-22, 2007, at the school’s Hyde Park, NY facility.

Seats are limited with no more than sixteen students in this class. The cost is $1600 for the program which will cover such topics as industry food trends, table and wine service techniques, catering best practices, and much more.

Several corporate flight attendants have made mention of the program previously via our forums. If you end up taking the program, feel free to add your comments here or on our message boards.

You can download a registration form for this class or visit their site for additional information.

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Corporate flight attendants are paid at higher rates than their airliner peers and for good reason: they are expected to invest in themselves through training and to provide a level of service well beyond what the airlines give to their passengers. Tasked with ordering catering, selecting wines, and maintaining a high end meal service, much of the work that a corporate flight attendant does goes well beyond cabin duty.

Recently, a thread on our forums was resurrected and updated to discuss current salary information. Several people have chimed in, myself included, determining that there are many unanswered questions about this topic.

Back in 2003 I wrote an article titled, What Kind of Pay Can I Expect?, to help address this issue. I made some minor updates to the article over the ensuing years, but it doesn’t address some of the core issues within the thread including regional differences.

I plan on updating the article some time over the next several months and will include my findings within a new thread on our forums. Likely, it will reflect an increase but I cannot tell you how close to the mark that it will be, but please stay tuned.

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Besides the NBAA’s annual convention — to be held in Atlanta this September — the organization also holds conferences and regional forums throughout the year. For 2007, the NBAA has expanded their number of regional forums to six, including a forum to be held in Japan this February.

The following is this year’s schedule of forums:

January 25, 2007 • Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZ
February 9, 2007 • Nagoya Airport, Nagoya, Japan
March 22, 2007 • Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE), Fort Lauderdale, FL
April 26, 2007 • Westchester County Airport (HPN), White Plains, NY
June 8, 2007 • Spirit of St. Louis Airport (SUS), St. Louis, MO
November 8, 2007 • Oakland International Airport (OAK), Oakland, CA

By the way, the Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference begins this Sunday in Phoenix.

Last week, I added Jean Dible’s Poison From The Sea article to our site and today I added two new articles related to business aviation.

What You Say Online Can Hurt You cautions business aviation careerists to take care about what they say online, especially when putting their names to their words. I wrote the article as a response to recent comments I read on our forums as well as information sent my way concerning some very public MySpace blogs.

Scholarships For Corporate Flight Attendants answers some recent questions I have received from people who have inquired about this topic. The NBAA and WAI are two organizations who offer scholarships to private jet flight attendants.

All throughout 2007 I plan on including fresh articles to supplement the existing article directory. If you have a business aviation related article that you would like to see posted on our site, give me a shout and we’ll discuss what you have in mind.