A Week In the Life of a Charter Pilot!!

"So where have you been this week?" That question comes up so often. The truth is that I probably know the airport codes better than I know what cities I went to. Check out my week recently.

Many of you who know me know that I am on the go all the time. If you don't know me, I am a Charter Pilot and I also own our flight school in Holland. I thought it would be kind of neat to show you a week of flights and lay out what I did throughout those days.

This particular set of flights started on a Tuesday and went through Saturday.

Tuesday -

6am - left house

7:12am - arrived in Kalamazoo and got the plane ready in the terrible weather we had.

8:15am departed to pick up passengers in Detroit

8:30 am arrived in Detroit and fueled the airplane.

10:30 am departed Detroit for Fernandina Beach Florida.

1pm arrived in Florida and fueled the plane. We had a delay getting into Palm Beach International because the president was there so we grabbed lunch on the beach.

4pm- we departed for Palm Beach

5pm - we departed Palm Beach for Charlottesville Virginia with passengers.

We stayed the night in Virginia. I am a Hilton Honors member and typically stay in Hilton Hotel Properties so I earn points.

Wednesday

10:30 am we left Virginia with passengers to Naples Florida.

We arrived at 1:15 pm and spent the night in Naples Florida. This is a popular stop for us. We often visit Rico's Tacos in Naples for dinner. I was able to spend some time there n the sun on the beach.

Thursday

10:15am - we left Naples for farmingdale New York and brought passengers. We grabbed a super quick lunch at Panera Bread.

2:15pm we flew the jet to White Plains New York which was like a 5 minute flight.

5pm we brought passengers to Shreveport Louisiana. We stayed overnight here.

Friday

We flew the plane to Pensacola Florida to position for the trip on Saturday. We stayed the night in Pensacola and ate dinner on the water.

Saturday

11am - we flew passengers to Charlottesville Virginia and the flew home to Kalamazoo.

It is busy and stressful being on the move all day. I have a lot of fun meeting new people and visiting new places. I have been able to travel to 49 of the 50 states.

So how would I describe this? It is fast paced and we are always trying to keep the plane moving. We get occasions to relax in fun places. We mostly eat out at local restaurants to experience the local culture. It really is a lot of fun.

I hope that gives you a glimpse into our world as charter pilots. As always, we have a team standing by to answer questions. Don't hesitate to ask us about aviation. Hope to hear from you soon.

Rick