pixelninja 0 Posted November 20, 2012 Report Share Posted November 20, 2012 Hey guys, This looked like a pretty friendly forum (and high on the google search for airhauler forum) so I figured I'd sign up and stop in. My name is Jay and I've been flying simulators off and on for many years but always solo. Might be nice to meet some guys who actually have a passion for flying like I do. I started up my first air hauler company many months ago and have just recently returned to see how things were running. Oh... I was suppose to be running it! The bank took almost everything and my pilots had long left. Guess it's time to get outta town and try my luck someplace else. I hopped on a plane down to St Maarten for a chance at a new start and rented a small parking spot at Princess Juliana (TNCM). What a beautiful area! This left near nothing in my pocket though and I was just able to get myself a rusty old 172. Oh man how far I've fallen since the days of a fleet of 757's but i'm staying optimistic and working hard to build my one man show into an international freight company. Good news is there are plenty of small jobs in and out of TNCM. So much so that I've on a few occasions been able to fly 2 or 3 contracts on a single 100nm puddle jump. It's not much money to start but it's a great way to build the reputation. With any luck I'll be able to start expanding in some way soon. I've been eyeing up a nice King Air C90B in my catalog and hope I might soon find myself with enough capital to lease one. Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,487 Posted November 20, 2012 Report Share Posted November 20, 2012 Hi Jay and welcome to Mutley's Hangar. You are very perceptive about the friendliness here, we all love to see a fellow hauler make a success of their business. One thing that is really great with AH is that you can always start afresh with a new business plan of how you want to expand your empire. We have a lot of very knowledgeable haulers here including Alpha and Beta testers of the original product and on occasion Slopey will make an appearance as and when his busy schedule allows. Please keep us up to date with how Genair is doing, if you need help please ask, sometimes we can help when others can't. Regards, Joe Link to post Share on other sites
Kasper 14 Posted November 20, 2012 Report Share Posted November 20, 2012 Welcome Jay. You are right, the guys are a nice bunch . They even let me join! My company International Air Transport is located up north with hubs at Fairbanks and Darrington. Reading sories about flying in the sunny south is a favourite passtime up north. Especially in the winter months! Best of luck with the new company and keep us updated! Cheers Kasper Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,284 Posted November 21, 2012 Report Share Posted November 21, 2012 Hi Jay. Welcome and hope you enjoy your stay here. Good luck in your new venture. Take care, Brett Sohigh Owner/Operator SoHigh AirServices Link to post Share on other sites
Steve KOCF 0 Posted November 21, 2012 Report Share Posted November 21, 2012 Jay, welcome back to this wonderful world of air freighters! It's all about the journey so whether you're on top of the world or starting over again with a new company, enjoy the ride! My company is Great Northern Air Express based in Florida at KOCF and started December 2009. Rep's gone up and down but been fun. Hope you enjoy getting going again. Lots of good people to help along the way. Link to post Share on other sites
pixelninja 0 Posted November 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2012 Thanks for the welcome guys. Look forward to participating in this forum and chatting with everyone. Looks like the northwest is a pretty popular area with much of you. ORBX scenery I assume? My last company was based at CYYJ Victoria, BC and CYBW in Springbank, AB. Eventually if I get longer range aircraft I may have to expand back in that direction but for now the island hopping is plenty fun albeit risky! Last night I loaded up 2 contracts in my 172 leaving barely enough fuel to get over to the British Virgin Is. and you don't want to run out of fuel when there is only ocean around you. @Steve: December 2009 is a long time playing. How do you manage to keep the company going and do you take extended breaks? Also you running the Quest Kodiak? Have you tried the Carenado C208B Super Cargomaster, I'm wondering how they compare and if it is worth getting the Kodiak. Link to post Share on other sites
UKJim 502 Posted November 23, 2012 Report Share Posted November 23, 2012 I used the Cargomaster when I started out - really enjoyed it and was great to fly too. Have not used the Kodiak so cannot say much on comparison. I started off in Darrington Muni Orbx scenery with PNW too - was great until I wanted a bigger plane - then I moved over to Arlington Muni which was good too. The only advice I would give about this - watch out for water runways and double check before flying. I had many flights where I got to the destination and could not find the runway (as it was water lol) I then bought some photo scenery for the UK in my area - so I sold up and moved to England. This was costly but in my opinion flying from my home town airport was worth every penny. So its a personal preference thing really - I would suggest choosing a base where you have lots of paid scenery so you get your moneys worth Happy flying - and grab them greasers!!! Prepare for lots of sleepless nights and a possible divorce (if your married) hehe Link to post Share on other sites
Seasmoke 1 Posted November 24, 2012 Report Share Posted November 24, 2012 Hi Jay, I'm fairly new to Sim Flying but enjoying the break from Warcraft!! (Did that come out aloud?) I am based in NZ because of the wonderful scenery and my empire has expanded to Hong Kong and China with a 747 nearly on the books! See you at an airport someplace. Richard Link to post Share on other sites
UKJim 502 Posted November 24, 2012 Report Share Posted November 24, 2012 Hi Jay, I'm fairly new to Sim Flying but enjoying the break from Warcraft!! (Did that come out aloud?) I am based in NZ because of the wonderful scenery and my empire has expanded to Hong Kong and China with a 747 nearly on the books! See you at an airport someplace. Richard 747 OMG ARE YOU MADE OF MONEY Hehe happy days Link to post Share on other sites
pixelninja 0 Posted November 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 My last company had a 747! Just one and it was leased so the bank stole it when I forgot to pay hehe. Eventually I may work up to one but I'm just getting geared up to lease my first new King Air C90B! I should have an update soon with it and it's fresh paint job. Link to post Share on other sites
Seasmoke 1 Posted November 27, 2012 Report Share Posted November 27, 2012 G'day UKJim, With some good fortune and a tail wind we have 41mill in the shoe cupboard as we speak. Hoping that after paying my excruciating overheads on the 1st, that I might get the heavy ship. Some things I have found in my travels...........> If you put your Main Base and Office in Beijing, the PRC will give you a healthy subsidy on your fleet. (It's a shame about the big red flag painted on the tail, but what the heck, it's business, right? ) If you send all your fuel invoices to Air New Zealand in Auckland there is a chap there who takes care of them. You send a modest remuneration to an account in the Caymen Islands. If carrying domestically in Australia; always put the freight in a bigger aircraft than required. Bill always for the bigger plane and carry some 'items' on the side. Aussie clients are as thick as a barrel of pigshit and never notice. Put any cash into something nice like a rebuilt Spitfire (Just Flight), and have some fun buzzing old coots on The Isle of Wight. They get amazingly excited by this and wave frantically. Always employ lesbo aussie pilots whenever possible. They bend ships a lot but will carry anything. Legal, or otherwise. They often accept cash, thus cutting down on your bookwork etc.. Get wealthy soon, yer ol' cobber, Jock Go GENAIR Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,284 Posted November 28, 2012 Report Share Posted November 28, 2012 Sounds like you have been taking MrB's overpriced AH's correspondence course. Link to post Share on other sites
UKJim 502 Posted November 28, 2012 Report Share Posted November 28, 2012 LOL - I think Im sticking with my RJ100 and the east midlands base - good luck though Link to post Share on other sites
pixelninja 0 Posted November 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2012 Jim, what are the air hauler specs on your RJ100? I usually fly ERJ-145XR's as my regional cargo conversions but that plane of yours looks slick. Link to post Share on other sites
pixelninja 0 Posted November 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2012 [update time] Look what I found parked in my spot at TNCM this morning! After I sold off the C172 I was able to pay the lease deposit on a brand spanking new C90B King Air and it just ferried in. Even took some time to give it a paint job. To help build the reputation I hired a young pilot fresh out of flight school by the name of Adam Day. Adam has little experience and barely a CPL but showed a good aptitude in flight school. And as his first job he jumped on the opportunity for a really modest salary and some moving expenses to the island. With the reputation growing and some steady income, i'll soon be visiting the bank I think to see about a loan. There is a used DHC-6 Twin Otter sitting at TNCM for sale by WinAir. They are upgrading their fleet to the new DHC-6-400's from Viking Air and I may just have to snatch one of their older 300's up if I can. Link to post Share on other sites
rosariomanzo 545 Posted November 29, 2012 Report Share Posted November 29, 2012 Wow, you got a great workhorse. Keep up the great work! Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,284 Posted November 29, 2012 Report Share Posted November 29, 2012 I wouldn't mind finding that in my parking spot...Happy Hauling. Link to post Share on other sites
UKJim 502 Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Avro 100 Buy Price: £22,239,850.00 Lease Deposit: £2,779,981.00 Lease Monthly: £1,235,547.13 MTOW: 101500 Empty Weight: 56438 Cargo Capacity: 22272.62 Max Fuel: 3401.4 Hope this was helpful to you - I changed the fuel consumption to fit my flight type because I only do short trips at low altitudes - I also changed the range to fit my needs too so have not included these in my stats King air looks nice - I have 46.5 million in the bank at the moment but not going to expand just yet. If I do it will back to my trusty 737-900 again Link to post Share on other sites
pixelninja 0 Posted November 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Thanks for the info UKJim. Must have taken you a long time and a lot of hauling to get so much cash! Link to post Share on other sites
UKJim 502 Posted November 30, 2012 Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Yeah I have had my company running for a long time - once upon a time I leased a big C17 Globemaster it eraned me quite a bit. But these days I do not have much time to fly and the AI hired help always crashed it and caused more problems than good so I sold it. Now I make do with 3 RJ100's and we get along You can check out my company in the link in my signature btw in case you are interested Link to post Share on other sites
pixelninja 0 Posted December 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 I've been playing lots and not updating so this will be a bigger one. After lots of flying the bank loaned me $10,000,000. I purchased 3 used DHC-6-300 Twin Otters and repaired them to good condition and hired a collection of young fresh pilots. With that success I decided to open up some new bases as well. Stewart (CZST) in Northern BC will be a sharp contrast to my Caribbean operations but offer access into northern Canada and Alaska. Some space in High River (CEN4) Alberta was also purchased. It's close to Calgary and offers more parking than Stewart. To get to Stewart I had to fly 3 legs from TNCM in my King Air C90B including an overnight stop at Denver Intl. Operating with so many heavies around me was a little nerve racking, and I even had to go around after being cut off by a DC-10 but I managed to get through it without breaking anything. After getting to my Canadian bases and running some cargo, I quickly got myself into some bad situations. Distractions took me away from work and Adam (who travelled north with me) missed a few deliveries causing the reputation to plummet. To ensure I didn't miss another delivery we had to make a quick decision to buy a new King Air B200 with the remaining funds from the bank and hire another pilot who was way overqualified but had the experience to get the job done. Since then things have been running great with money coming in and reputation going up. Many of my pilots (including myself) are getting the hours in to increase our licenses and fly larger planes. I started a lease of an ERJ-145XR as my first jet aircraft and opened up my latest base at Vancouver Intl. (CYVR) to accomodate this growth. I have started to use it for base to base operations between Canada and St Maarten which can bring in some significant cash. Now it's time to start paying off some debt and look to future goals for the company. Link to post Share on other sites
Kasper 14 Posted December 8, 2012 Report Share Posted December 8, 2012 Nicely done Jay, you are working fast! Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,284 Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 Wow, GenAir International, way to go. You will be able to retire at an early age with that work ethic. Link to post Share on other sites
rosariomanzo 545 Posted December 11, 2012 Report Share Posted December 11, 2012 Nice work! Link to post Share on other sites
pixelninja 0 Posted December 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2012 I think I'm working so fast cause I'm easily swayed to borrow money from the bank. It almost cost me last night but I'm saving that story after some other news. For now a preview of what is coming... @Rosario Like the new avatar. I dabble in some photography myself. Do you have a flickr account or anywhere to view your work? Link to post Share on other sites
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