Life has a way of showing you what others have, making you wish you too could share the fruits of these few ultra rich characters.
When I was around 20 I needed a job, my DJ and video production career was not bringing in a good enough salary. My step dad (who is a pilot) knew how much I loved aviation and suggested I try to get a job at the airport. He had a friend flying for a corporate airline at Phoenix Sky Harbor . He got me the contact info and I was off to interview for a spot in "Line Service." In corporate aviation that means just about everything. We took care of the aircraft,flight crews, and passengers. Fueling, catering, baggage handling, even driving hungry passengers to get food if needed. When it came to these high profile VIP's no task was too much. Some of times you would be rewarded with large tips of $100 or more, other times you would get a thank you.
For me the celebrities weren't the best part of the job, it was the planes. Being at a decent size airport like Phoenix we would see a wide range of planes from small props to private jumbo jets. It was amazing seeing what they would do to the insides of them. Most flight crews wouldn't let you take pictures inside of the big private airlines.
Many of the crews would give you the extra catering off the flights, but you really needed to look at the flight route to see how far the plane had come from. I made the mistake of eating Vince Mcmahon's (Owner of the WWE) extra lobster tail not realizing they just came from North Carolina to Phoenix. I got pretty sick from that!
ME trying to look tough in front of the WWE jet.
We would see the amazing costs these people would spend. $60,000 catering bills, $30,000 fuel bills, and that would be just for one flight. We were taking care of the Royal 747SP from Qatar for a couple months, word was one of the royals was undergoing treatment at the Mayo clinic. It was staying longer than expected along with the flight crew. This crew would come out and work at the plane almost every day. Then a few days before Christmas they requested a huge amount of fuel. I fueled them and asked if they were leaving. They told me they were being allowed to fly back to the U.K. from Xmas and would do some other needed maintenance at their facility there. I thought that was nice since the crew was all from the U.K. they were allowed to fly that big beast all the way there so they could be with there families for the holidays.
Royal Qatar 747sp on ramp at Phoenix Sky Harbor
The cost of these birds was huge. A Gulfstream V would cost around $50 million. We had a Saudi royal family that had two of them. One blue for the prince and one pink for the princess. Also the son who was around 8 I think had his own plane too although it was a cheaper G200 (still a very nice plane). I once asked the pilot where do you go, just to Disney Land and back? He at least had a sense of humor and laughed at my stupid joke.
I have a million stories from my time working in corporate aviation and will share some more as time goes on, but to put everything here would make this as long as the bible. Stay tuned for some more posts!
Me fueling a medical helicopter. Since these guys always need to be ready, I always tried to fuel them as quick as I could.
US AIRWAYS ARIZONA CARDINALS A319 in front of the tower
