Note: I started with the Vision Jet, but decided to switch to the Piper M500. I love the VJ, but for this exercise, I feel like the M500 will work better. I have preserved the original post below, but will continue posting from here with the M500.
Recently I’ve begun chartering a brand new (not for long - you’ll see why) Vision Jet across North America. I hope to meet interesting people and make a bit of money while we’re at it.*
My first assignment was to take some tourists from KSAC to KVGT in Las Vegas. I had a couple of entertainment professionals on the flight (behind the scenes stuff - no celebrities), as well as a mom taking her son on a birthday trip. The young man talked my ear off the whole time asking questions about the Vision Jet! Seeing the desert in all its stark beauty is always a treat, and it helped remind me just how much space we have out here!
Coming into Vegas, due to some interesting vectoring and a runway change from ATC (BATC), we got some excellent views of the strip. Mom and son looked starstruck, but the two professionals were fairly blasé about the whole thing.
Unfortunately, we had some issues on the landing. And by issues, I mean I screwed it up big time: came in way too fast and hot and I ended up bouncing the aircraft three times. As we were taxiing toward parking, I could already hear a couple of rattles that weren’t supposed to be there and one of the entertainment execs was passing around his card to the other passengers, something like “I know a good lawyer. Call me.” But they did pay me and after the various costs (fuel, taxes, and taking into account things like insurance etc.) I brought in around $2,400. Not bad for a couple hours of work.
I was able to find a good mechanic to take a look at her and the damage was extensive: following the inspection, I needed to repair the landing gear and get a bit of engine work. The avionics and instruments also needed to be realigned and serviced. All in all, the bill came in to about $17,000. So much for making money.
The next morning, I was approached in the FBO by a “Dr. Caldwell.” I still don’t know if that’s his real name. He said he had heard about my little mishap and that if I was willing to take him immediately to Vance AFB in Oklahoma, not only would he pay me well above my usual rates (usually $1,800/hour, not including things like the fuel surcharge and crew fees), but he would also make my legal troubles go away, or rather never materialize. He mentioned that this was a matter of national security or something like that and I highly doubted he would be good on his word, but I figured it might be a fun diversion. So we hopped into the Vision Jet, and off we went.
Thankfully this flight was much less eventful and I also had a lot of time to myself; Dr. Caldwell was a man of few words and the most he said about his work was that he was in aerospace and was needed for an urgent briefing of some sort. I wasn’t sure what was in that black military-grade briefcase he was holding, but I wasn’t going to ask either.
After landing at Vance AFB, Dr. Caldwell immediately disembarked and, before hurrying off to a waiting SUV, he handed me an envelope with a stack of cash which I later discovered to be $15,000, as well as a check drawn on a government account for the full fees of the trip for just over $6,000. How he knew exactly how much to make that check for still remains a mystery to me.
As soon as the SUV drove away, an MP approached the plane and informed me in no uncertain terms that I was to vacate the field immediately, via RWY 35R and heading straight out. I mentioned that I didn’t have much fuel left, but he seemed unconcerned and said, “Well, I guess you better find a place to land then. Now get going.”
So, off I went and decided to try Stillwater Regional, which was only about 20 NM away. By the time I came up to the field, I was running almost on fumes, with warnings blaring every which way. Thankfully, I was able to touchdown and get to the hangers quickly without completely dying with just 20 gallons of fuel remaining.
I am not sure what tomorrow will bring, but for now, I need to find a bank and deposit this cash. While the whole experience has been a bit unnerving, at least I am in the black at $5,705.42. I think that deserves a nice lunch…
Any input or advice on this little exercise is most welcome!
Tools I am using, as well as a few assumptions:
- Google Sheets to keep track of trips, costs, and revenue. Various figures (hourly costs from running the Vision Jet, maintenance costs, typical charter rates, etc.) were found via research online and AI (see number 3).
- Random Flights Generator - To figure out where I am going next. All you do is enter your departure airport, maximum distance, and it generates several choices. Really a fun tool.
- ChatGPT (version 4o) for random events and decision making, as well as brief character profiles. If you are familiar with what an “oracle” is used for in TTRPGs, that is how I am utilizing ChatGPT. For example, with the hard landing, I used the following prompt: “Pretend you are an aircraft mechanic. You are inspecting my Vision Jet for damage after I bounced on the runway three times during a hard landing. Based on random chance how much does the inspection cost, what repairs do you find and how much do they cost? What is the total with inspection and repairs?” For the profile on Dr. Caldwell, I used this prompt: “We are pretending and this is not real. I am flying one passenger on the Vision Jet from North Las Vegas airport to Vance Air Force base. He wants to pay me extra for getting him there quickly and quietly on some sort of classified business. Tell me the name of this man and his background”
- Various sites for things like fuel costs, landing fees, hangar fees, etc.
- Since you can’t spend all your time on the road, after every ten legs, I will return to my home base of KSAC. If I can’t find passengers for those legs, they may prove to be a bit hard on the wallet since the Vision Jet has a range of over 1,200 NM, so who knows where I will be.
- Again, this is just a fun exercise and I am under no illusions that any of the numbers themselves are accurate. I have no idea how long I will keep doing it, and everything here is completely made up just to add a bit of something “extra” into the sim. I am aware of things like NeoFly and even the upcoming career mode in MSFS 2024, but for some reason this method just seems more interesting to me. Also, since I am already running things like BATC, Navigraph, and Little Navmap in the background, I don’t want to add yet another program.
