A day of a Private Jet Pilot I
In my last blogpost I explained what I exactly mean with the Business Aviation. Now I want to tell you how a busy day of flying in this aviation branch can look like.
Welcome on board of a day of a private jet pilot
Hilton Hotel Luton Hotel 05:00 my alarm goes off. Time to get up! I question myself why so early? I snooze and sleep for another 10 mins. First thing in the morning I check my messages, my instagram and then I refresh my flight schedule. Unfortunately the take off is still early at 08:00 to Malta. I check the weather at the destination, alternate and en route. Smooth flying conditions during cruise and we might encounter some turbulences during the descent to Malta airport.
I catch a glimpse outside the window. It is still dark and it looks cloudy. The fact that I will see the sun in a couple of hours and that I will cruise at Flight level 430 (approx. 13.100m) motivates me.
Before I do anything else I turn on music on my portable Bose speaker to wake me up. I pack my suitcase, iron my fresh pilot shirt, take a shower and I jump in my uniform.
First breaky
Fortunately this hotel starts quite early to serve breakfast. Me and my crew captain Sven (32 years old) and flight attendant Viktoria (28) meet up at 06:00 to have breakfast before our taxi picks us up at 06:30. Today we are quite young crew. Through this job I managed to be hungry no matter what time it is. On this morning I have some hash browns, eggs and cereal with fruits (I always take my own almond milk) I drink a green tea with honey.
Even that early the atmosphere is really good. We talk briefly about the upcoming day of flying. Three legs with two different clients. It will be a long day! We depart from London Luton (EGGW) to Malta (LMML). Then after a quick turnaround to Malaga (LEGM) ferry to pick up passengers to fly them to Naples (LIRN). Final landing is scheduled to be at 19:30 Local time.
Beautiful sunrise at the airportPick up
A short taxi ride takes us to the VIP Terminal of Signature Handling in EGGW. After having our passports get checked, we proceed to the crew reception and lounge without any security check!! We have an espresso, print our flight documents and do a flight briefing to get everyone in the loop.
Now it is one hour prior departure and we walk over the parking position of our Citation XLS. It is only a hundred meter walk. Those short ways are awesome in the business aviation. I open up the entry door, stow our luggage in the aft hold and remove all red covers, which protect the engines and flight sensitive areas of the aircraft. The sun slowly rises and the temperature is pleasant. Luckily no rain!
The VIP catering of Air Culinaire is being delivered together with hot water and freshly brewed coffee. Rush hour in Luton. This airport is used both by low cost airlines and high cost airlines, the Private Jets ;-) The airport situated further outside the city than Heathrow. But since the ways on the airport are really short, you safe time in the end.
Early bird - Waiting on the passengers to arriveFlight preparation
After the completion of the outside check of the airplane we start the APU (Auxiliary Power unit) which provides electricity and air conditioning without the main engines running. While I set up the flight deck and do all required cockpit checks, Victoria prepares the cabin and creates a nice boarding atmosphere for our two passengers.
The captain is inside the VIP terminal waiting for the passengers and informs me that we received a slot 30 minutes after our filed flight plan. That means we have a time window of only 15 minutes. Only within this period we are allowed to take off. A delay on the first flight of the day is not helpful. Good news the passengers arrive on time so we might manage to make the slot.
Boarding complete! While the Captain does a passenger briefing in the cabin, I request our clearance for the route and the approval to the start the engines. Start up approved. Let's go!
A lot of checklists have to be read before we are in a queue of aircrafts waiting to depart. We are currently number five to depart, which means a minimum of 10 minutes to wait. Finally reaching holding point 26 I call ready for departure. Only two minutes left until the slot expires.
Read my next blogpost "A day of a Private Jet Pilot Part 2" to find out if make the slot!
Your Pilot Patrick
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My dream to fly + why I fly
In my last blogpost "A brief vita" you already learnt a little bit about me. In this article I will tell you about my dream to fly. Exactly 22 years ago I had my first day of school. Back then I would not have thought about being a pilot of a private jet who travels the world. This was beyond my imagination.
My interests
I started early to be interested in technical stuff and I wanted to know how things work. My grandpa had garage and he used to work on cars, motorbikes and so on. I joined him many times to help him. I favored facts and figures. That may have been the reason why my grades in mathematics physics and geographic were better. But I also have a very creative side on me. I love drawing and designing new things. Back in school I used to draw cars and planes the whole time. To become a car designer was my back up in case the piloting would not have worked out.
Excurison with my mother and grandmother My first day of schoolChildhood and planes
During my childhood I remember that we did lot of excursions on the weekends. Either with my grandparents, which both still live very close, or with my parents and my younger brother. Growing up in a small town close to Frankfurt am Main in Germany there were lots of outside activities to do. They could not be thrilling enough for me. Roller coaster were not high and fast enough. We often visited small airports close by when they had a special events on their airfield. I was always super excited to go. But it was also sad on the same time, because I wanted to be up in the air and not on the ground watching the small planes fly by.
One day I was the luckiest boy ever. I won a free local flight in a small propeller plane. My fascination was now even bigger and this may eventually have triggered me to become a pilot. Too satisfy my fascination we did a lot of family trips visiting technical museums and airport to watch planes. I truly can recommend the museums in Speyer and Sinsheim. You can not only visit a Concorde from the inside but also an old B747 of Lufthansa. That was back then too cool for me. Unfortunately I can not remember my first flight because I was only two years old at that time. The whole family including my grandparents went to Palma de Mallorca for vacation. After that a lot of flights to destinations in Europe and the US followed.
First flight to Palma in 1990This all led up to the point when I decided to become a pilot during high school at the age of 18. Even tough I have never flown myself before I knew I will love it. The question "why I fly" is easy to answer it has become my passion. The flying requires good technical knowledge and constant learning since aviation is a fasted paced branch. Additionally I get to travel the world to explore and discover new places. Another reason "why I fly" is because of the support of my family. Without them I would not have this dream job today.
Stay tuned for my upcoming blog: how I became a pilot
Your Pilot Patrick
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