Mark Huber is an aviation industry veteran who has worked in the flight training, aircraft sales, aircraft component, and airport development businesses. He has flight time in more than 50 different and diverse aircraft, including helicopters, aerobatic aircraft, vintage warbirds, jet fighters, business jets and turboprops, and transport-category aircraft. He has jumped out of several of these—on purpose—with a parachute. His defense and aviation journalism has been published in a variety of national and international periodicals.

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Mark Huber

Day rates for contract pilots of popular business aircraft have increased dramatically over the last year, according to data from CrewBlast, a technology-driven private aviation and yacht staffing company. Data reported by CrewBlast users indicates&nbsp;the increases are across almost every category of business aircraft, but the most dramatic for some large-cabin business jets, with select domestic day rates rising 25 percent or more.
Captain rates for Bombardier Globals (excluding the Model 7500)&nbsp;are up from $1,500 last year to between $2,000 and $2,500; for Challenger 300 series from $1,300 to between $1,800 and $2,000; for Citation Sovereigns from $1,250 to between $1,500 and $1,800; and for Hawker 900s from $1,200 to between $1,500 and $1,700.&nbsp;According to CrewBlast, the top type ratings among crew users of the platform were for&nbsp;Gulfstream G550/G650;&nbsp;Bombardier Challenger 300, 604, and Global Express;&nbsp;Cessna Citation Sovereign and XLS+;&nbsp;Dassault Falcon 7X;&nbsp;Embraer Legacy 600;&nbsp;and Hawker 900XP.&nbsp;
The CrewBlast data confirms continuing trends in business jet crewing and comes at a time when Delta Air Lines has boosted top pilot pay almost 34 percent, to nearly $600,000 annually, and pilot unions across the country at almost every carrier, including fractional provider NetJets, are aggressively negotiating for higher pay.

News about simulators and training procedures, as well as workforce.

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