The Start Of A Wonderful Thing

Denise Wilson, Founder & CEO of Desert Jet

Sorry for the long delay between postings, I just came back from flying in the Air Race Classic 2012. It was a great experience, but I am glad to be back to work learning all about Part 135 Charter Operations. In this blurb I'm going to talk about the history and basics of what makes this company run. The company was founded by Denise Wilson. After being furloughed by the airlines, Denise found herself flying for a private owner. In 2007, hard times were just beginning and the aircraft owner found himself struggling to keep his plane. At this point Denise knew she had to do something, otherwise she would be out of a job. In order to keep the owner and his plane afloat Denise suggested aircraft charter. She would manage his aircraft, lease it out for charter flights, and earn some extra income for the owner so he would be able to keep his aircraft. In February of 2007, Denise decided to apply for a charter certificate and submitted her Pre-Application of Intent. Her story of this account was very fascinating. She told me that the typical waiting period to obtain a charter certificate is about 2 years. It was not until Dec of 2008 before she received her first call from the FAA for her first meeting. During the waiting period, Denise drafted her General Operations Manual, her Compliance Statements, and several other key documents to proceed with the charter certificate. So when her first meeting with the FAA rolled around everyone was shocked. During the first meeting, the FAA will typically tell you what you need to do to get started, which would include creating a General Ops Manual, etc. To the FAA's surprise all the work was done and they were able to issue a certificate within as little as 3 months. That must have been record breaking for them! It goes to show the dedication Denise has to make her company work. After issuance of a charter certificate you are then required to do 40 hours of proving runs with the FAA. During the proving runs, you are "proving" that your company can and does follow all regulations and procedures as described in your General Operations Manual. After speaking with Denise, I found out that during the proving runs they were not allowed to carry passengers. I was shocked. I do not even want to throw out a number of how much of a loss the company had to take in order to complete the runs with the FAA. But as everything else goes, sometimes you have to lose money before you can gain money. Denise did manage to work out an agreement with her aircraft owner in order to help get her business started and afford the costs of the runs. Such agreements might include an aircraft owner to pay fuel costs, etc. After the proving runs are complete, the company is now considered a legal charter operator. In the case that additional planes are added to the fleet the aircraft must pass a conformity inspection, rather than a full fledged proving run. During a conformity inspection, the FAA is inspecting the airplane to ensure that everything is as it seems and that all items in the general ops manual concerning the airplane are complied with. Being new to all this I was very fascinated with the process of applying for the charter certificate. Denise gave me some great advice and said that there is guidance on the FAA's website on how to write an ops manual. She also said referring to another companies ops manual is a great guidance tool as well. However, in most cases ops manuals are private so you would only be able to obtain a copy if you were within the company. She mentioned that as a chief pilot, it was one of her tasks to revise her companies general operations manual and that was where she gained a lot of her knowledge on the subject.