Hangar Lease: Fill & Download for Free

Sort of.The main Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, is located near the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field. Moffett Field is the home of the iconic Mountain View blimp hangars:The hangars had fallen into disrepair (the outer shell was constructed from toxic materials) and the government did not have the funds to restore them. Larry and Sergey offered to pay to restore the hangars, in return for being able to keep some of their company jets there.The relationship between NASA Ames and Google continued to grow. At this point, Google now has a 60 year lease with Ames to use the airfield and the space around it.

Here are the pros I see:1. Less than 30 minutes from your car to being airborne2. No invasive TSA searches3. Ability to carry what ever you want. Flying to Alaska for a hunting trip? Sure, you can throw your R700 into the right seat without issue4. Friendly service from airport staff. Most GA (general aviation) airports (which significantly out number major airports used by major airlines) are small. This means the staff gets to know you and you get to know the staff.5. Fly where you want, when you want, how you want (with in reason.) Want to fly to Florida, but the only airline flight there is leaving at 4:00 AM? Hop in your plane when you want (let's say around noon) and fly there yourself.6. You get better views of the scenery. You can see a lot more detail at 2000ft than you can at 40000ft.7. You can have the flight be as exciting or relaxed as you want (with in reason.). If you are flying through the middle of nowhere in class G airspace, you can skim the ground doing 200KIAS if you want (although safety can not be ensured at that altitude.)8. You can land at smaller airports closer to your destination. Let's say you were flying from Tampa with your destination as Ocean City, MD. If you flew commercial, you would first land at BWI, then catch a flight to Salisbury, MD, then drive 30 minutes to Ocean City. If you flew yourself, you could fly direct to OXB (Ocean City Municipal) and drive 5-10 minutes into Ocean City (and avoid layovers.)9. Why do you even need a destination? If you want to take a scenic flight, go right on ahead.10. You can actually fly the airplane (provided you have your PPL.) This is the biggest pro for me. I love flying and most aircraft owners I know have the same love of aviation.Cons:1. Costs. Most GA aircraft burn 5.5-8.5 gallons of Avgas an hour (at the airport I work at, Tipton Airport, we charge $4.93 a gallon. I've seen other airports charge $8+ on top of a handling fee.) Then there is oil. Due to the design of aircraft engines, you WILL burn some oil. Aviation oil at Tipton is currently $8.25 a quart. Then there is maintenance, which, by the way, is mandatory. You can expect to drop $30k on an engine overhaul every 2500 hours. You can also expect to drop at least $1000 on an annual inspection (more for more complex aircraft and this doesn't even get into repairs if an issue is found.) In addition to an engine overhaul, your propeller will also need an overhaul at set intervals. Then there is parking. At Tipton, we charge $968 a year for you to tie your plane down outside on the ramp. Hangars run for, I think (I don't handle hangar leases,) $500 a month. Then you have insurance which is costly in it own right (that is for basic liability coverage, never mind repairs.) Then you have ADs (airworthiness directives.). These are MANDATORY upgrades you must make to your aircraft. These are created to increase the safety of flight (such as to fix a design flaw in an aircraft.) Next you can factor in charts which expire every 56 days (this is why most pilots are turning towards electronic flight bags, such as Foreflight.) The charts will run you, at a minimum, $60 a year (which is nothing compared to what you are already spending.)2. "The Chuck Yeager Effect." This is something every pilot needs to get out of their heads. A lot of pilots become overconfident with experience which leads to foolish decisions. Remember, you can kill a lot of people, yourself included, if you do something stupid because you though you could handle it.

I feel somewhat qualified to answer this. I’ve never actually worked as a corporate pilot but I’ve been involved in the management of an FBO (Kind of a gas station for corporate jets) and I’ve been an airline pilot for a long time.I chose airline pilot.Airline Pros:Set schedule, you know a month in advance when you’ll have days off and vacation.Once you finally get to the major airline, very good pay and benefits.Lots of time off and a lot of vacation time. For me it’s about 18 days off per month and 35 days of vacation yearly.Varied flying on different fleets or bases.Free travel benefit.Usually a larger paycheck than almost all corporate pilots.Your only job is to fly airplanes. There are no other requirements.Union protection of your job which can save a pilot who is unpopular with management.Airline Cons:It takes a long time to get to the major airlines. The pay during that time is terrible and many pilots never make it and end up in low paying and hard working jobs in the regionals or charter.You may be based in a city you’d rather not be. That leads the pilots to commute from somewhere else which decreases their satisfaction with the job.In the beginning, most pilots get about 13 days off per month. It’s still a lot but those other days are spent away from home. It can be lonely.A lot of work during holidays.The career advancement is based on seniority and not merit. You will be offered a captain position once everyone who was hired before you was offered one first.There are very few career opportunities for an ambitious pilot. She can become an instructor or become a chief pilot but that’s about it.If your airline goes bankrupt, you can not move laterally to another airline, you must start over at the very bottom of a new airline and fight another seniority list.Many pilots complain bitterly about dealing with a huge corporation and being a small cog in a large machine. Most airlines treat pilots as a line item expense and not as human beings. It can be frustrating. Some pilots aren’t cut out for the frustrations of working at a large airport and dealing with TSA every day and being in hotels a lot. They can get isolated because they fly with different people each week.Corporate Pilot Pros:There is a lot of variability in the jobs. Some companies fly a lot, some fly very little. Some go on long trips and some do not. There are companies that fly small 6 seat aircraft and some that fly Boeing 737s all over the world. There is a lot of variety.Depending on the company, you could be highly compensated in the very beginning and fly as a captain much earlier than as an airline pilot.You will probably fly with the same people most of the time. You will get to know your coworkers and the executives of the company.You will almost always fly the same aircraft. You’ll get to know it’s quirks very well. Like your car.You probably won’t have to move to a new city for career reasons.There can be interesting and very good benefits.You’ll get to know the passengers who are usually senior managers and executives. Some corporate pilots get non-aviation career opportunities from these contacts.Most corporate ramps do not have security. You can drive your car right out to the airplane and never see TSA or any of the hassles associated with flying at a large airport.Most corporate pilots fly to the same cities most of the time but they often get trips that take them to very exotic places. Africa and Asia can be very interesting and challenging places to fly. I knew one pilot who had flown to Pyongyang, North Korea!Some corporate pilots always go to the super bowl or vacation destinations with their job. Aspen, Cabo, Monte Carlo, Davos, Phuket for weeks at a time. The pilots sometimes move the airplane to a less expensive place to park but sometimes they keep the airplane and pilots at the resort too.Some companies train their pilots just as well as the airlines, some do not but most pilots feel the training is adequate.Once you are trained on a certain aircraft, you can move laterally to another company that flies the same aircraft very easily. That means you can be hired as a captain at a new company and not fight a new seniority list.You will probably be treated a little better by the employer. You will be a unique member of the company unlike airlines which may employ 15,000 pilots.Cons of Corporate aviation:When a company or a rich family has financial problems, the first thing to go is the corporate jet and the pilots. Job insecurity can be a problem. Even GM had to get rid of their flight department under public pressure.You have fewer days off. One of the reasons companies own aircraft is to provide on demand transportation.You will have duties other than flying. You prepare the airplane for flight, make sure the flight plan is filed correctly, make sure it’s pulled out of the hangar on time and is fueled, inspected and catered and then you help the passengers board and load their baggage, trot up to the cockpit and fly. At the end of the trip, you do the reverse. Clean and maybe vacuum the cabin and prep the airplane for its next mission. On top of that, you may be involved in record keeping, FAA compliance, maintenance compliance, shopping for fuel, making hotel arrangements for yourself, scheduling flights, scheduling maintenance, cleaning the airplane negotiating hangar leases or fuel prices. Just about anything is fair game. Some pilots like this stuff, some hate it.Some companies have bad actors. I was working as a fueler at an FBO and I saw some Learjet pilots hanging out in the lobby. They were planning a flight back to their base in Cleveland that evening. They waited until after midnight with no word from the passengers. They finally arrived at about 1AM and demanded they be flown to Las Vegas. The pilots rolled their eyes, changed all of their plans and took these drunk idiots to Las Vegas.You will probably have a very variable schedule with unplanned days off and unplanned days on. It’s hard for corporate pilots to plan ahead. But they usually get days off on Christmas and other major holidays.Corporate pilots are treated inconsistently by various companies and pilots need to be very careful about who they choose to work for. Some companies are great and others will penny-pinch to the detriment of safety.One thing to keep in mind, if you go into the airline or corporate track, you can always change. There are a lot of corporate pilots who are refugees of the airlines and there are a lot of airline pilots that started out in corporate. There are a lot of exits and on-ramps.