I have no problem wit hour CEO flying around in our Jet...but if he has nothing to hide why block the tracking on the tail number? At the end of the day the jet, the pilots, the fuel are all paid for by the railway, so if you're using it for something you don't want people to know about, maybe you should reevaluate what your priorities are. As it is we pay for him to fly back and forth from Palm Beach every week (and often a couple times a week), which was part of his contract. Last I heard the Citation was running a tab of about a million dollars a month, and now with the CEO flying back and forth from Palm Beach, and the COO flying back and forth from Westchester, and various side trips between the two jets I would say we're going to be paying double that...give or take...I can't imagine that a challenger 604 is exactly gentle on the fuel bill.

I have no pictures of my own for TOPP since I'm at work...so here's some links to our CEO's ranch in CT

http://www.equestrianquarterly.com/extras_hunter

http://issuu.com/wynnwood/docs/eq2_11_08_12/47?mode=window&backgroundColor=

clearly it's a rough life.

Go4Long wrote:
I have no problem wit hour CEO flying around in our Jet...but if he has nothing to hide why block the tracking on the tail number? At the end of the day the jet, the pilots, the fuel are all paid for by the railway, so if you're using it for something you don't want people to know about, maybe you should reevaluate what your priorities are. As it is we pay for him to fly back and forth from Palm Beach every week (and often a couple times a week), which was part of his contract. Last I heard the Citation was running a tab of about a million dollars a month, and now with the CEO flying back and forth from Palm Beach, and the COO flying back and forth from Westchester, and various side trips between the two jets I would say we're going to be paying double that...give or take...I can't imagine that a challenger 604 is exactly gentle on the fuel bill.

I have no pictures of my own for TOPP since I'm at work...so here's some links to our CEO's ranch in CT

http://www.equestrianquarterly.com/extras_hunter

http://issuu.com/wynnwood/docs/eq2_11_08_12/47?mode=window&backgroundColor=

clearly it's a rough life.

I can just see you now, sitting in that golf room with the boss, smokin' a big ole cigar talkin' about being the companies chief photog for 2013 ...... thinking the horses must be trained to .. do their business outside .. so they don't mess up the barn ..... quite a view from a horses stable ........... a life I'd never know about if it weren't for vanity photoshoots like these .......

thanks for a look inside ..

To be fair, the man was retired and was recruited to come back to a different company.

If there's an expense tied to getting back and forth from CT, maybe his current employers should have looked closer to home?

My brother gave me a copy of the current Equestrian Quarterly - I have it here in my office. He probably knows your CEO, that's the world he works in. I agree, these places are unbelievable. Stables that look like the Ritz. He has clients that will drop millions of dollars on a horse (primarily the jumpers).

My brother does equine massage for many world-class riders. He spends the winter with his clients in Wellington, Florida.
http://www.salmassage.com/

Meanwhile, his Miata is sitting in my driveway, and I'm hoping before this blizzard is over I'll be sending him a photo of the car buried at least to the roof in snow.

Mark

People constantly scrutinizng their every move and raising eyebrows at any use of the jet whatsoever as luxurious personal abuse of company money is probably the main reason why the N numbers are blocked.

I say good on him for getting in a position to live that way. Meanwhile, i'm going to block N172DL.

Glenn

JWilsonphoto wrote:
In the mean time, the FDA is burning the midnight oil drafting regulations to make grocery stores and restaurants spend billions of dollars creating documentation on every food product that they sell and what's in it. Hmmm, I wonder who will be picking up the tab on that cost of doing business? Aren't we all so happy that we have the wizards in Washington protecting/providing for us all? It just makes sense to trust them with our futures because it's so easy to see that they are much wiser and more competent than we are. Just look at how adeptly they handle the affairs of state, we should all be very grateful.

Jim,

there's a major scandal brewing in the UK & Ireland at the moment as food processing companies and major supermarkets have been selling BEEF burgers and BEEF lasagne that contain traces of up to 100% HORSE meat.
They have been buying in cheap meat from Poland that is being passed off as beef. By having proper legislation you

Mark

@go4long

Steve, if the company don't want the biz jet being abused then their only option is to get rid.

RBS bank were forced to get rid of their Falcon 900 when the banking crisis hit.

JWilsonphoto wrote:
In the mean time, the FDA is burning the midnight oil drafting regulations to make grocery stores and restaurants spend billions of dollars creating documentation on every food product that they sell and what's in it. Hmmm, I wonder who will be picking up the tab on that cost of doing business? Aren't we all so happy that we have the wizards in Washington protecting/providing for us all?

I disagree with you on this one, Jim, and I'm one of the people who has pushed -- as hard as I can -- for the FDA to do more documentation and inspection. A large chunk of the national food supply is produced under processes that are appallingly unhygienic and that pose a clear and present danger to the health of your family and mine. Some things need regulation and government standards to be done right, and food safety is one of them. The FDA is neither funded nor organized sufficiently well to do its job, and it needs to be fixed. When I buy steak or peanut butter at Publix, I want to know for sure -- and not just hope -- that it won't kill us.

Overall, the USA needs a lot less government than what it currently has. But in some things, we do need to do more and do better than what we've been doing; and the FDA is one of them. They don't need to be wizards to do this job well, they just need to look out for their fellow citizens by making sure producers follow the rules.

FlyingPhotog wrote:
To be fair, the man was retired and was recruited to come back to a different company.

If there's an expense tied to getting back and forth from CT, maybe his current employers should have looked closer to home?

There's a lot more to the story. We as a company didn't so much recruit him. A hedge fund manager did after investing a couple of 10 million in our company.

Glenn Watson wrote:
People constantly scrutinizng their every move and raising eyebrows at any use of the jet whatsoever as luxurious personal abuse of company money is probably the main reason why the N numbers are blocked.

I say good on him for getting in a position to live that way. Meanwhile, i'm going to block N172DL.

Glenn

Well there goes another one of my tracks :P

Don't get me wrong, if I was in his seat I would be doing EXACTLY the same thing. I'm not upset that he's galivanting around in the jet, I'm sure it's in his contract, and he's earned it and all that. I still have a job, and for that I'm thankful, but it's hard to say that you're cutting 25% of the workforce to save on expenses, then spend a million a month on a jet. The two things don't add up, and I've got some good co-workers sitting at home laid off in the interest of cost savings.

I'm just dissapointed that I can't track the planes anymore because I used to go out to check them out.

Rodolfo, while I agree we need a safe food chain, judging from my experience with gov't inspectors, we would be better off if the gov't turned food processing validations and verifications over to a third party vs. the gov't. The 3rd party along with the industry would set the standards and regulations. The commercial 3rd party would have a "stake" in the game and be responsible for assuring the process and deliverable is of a measured, standardized quality. The gov't has no accountability. You hopefully noticed a change in quality, reliability and safety after the "big 3" automakers embraced QS-9100 on themselves, but more importantly on their suppliers. The reality is the cost would probably not go up with 3rd party commercial oversight vs. the USDA. I always cringe thinking the steak I am eating was bought off by a gov't inspector.

Hi Steve:

I didnt mean that to be directed at you really. I'm not sure exactly what line of work you're in, if its an extremely competitive market, hiding the N number may be used to help disguise making new business partners, meeting with certain clients, that may give clue to business strategy and growth. If its a sort of business that relies on face to face meetings and hand shaking, then what is your CEO's time worth? Just because people are being let go doesnt make the company unsuccessful, or mean they arent continuing to grow.

I cant find the article i wanted to link to but there was a great bit written after the auto manufacturer bailout debacle where the GM and Dodge guys flew their Gulfstreams from Detroit to Washington to beg for money. Maybe not biz-aviations finest hour- however the piece i'm referring to broke down a typical multi-segment trip by the CEO of Ford and was able to spin his hourly rate and compare that to the cluster that is the airlines and actually make the case that the bizjet is cheaper to operate, and affords more efficient conduction of business.

Glenn

FlyingPhotog wrote:
To be fair, the man was retired and was recruited to come back to a different company.

If there's an expense tied to getting back and forth from CT, maybe his current employers should have looked closer to home?

that kind of stuff happens all the time .. we hire ** temps ** for executive positions and tell em we'll pay their flight home every other week or once a month, etc while putting them up for xx amount of days while they find a place to live ...... all perks us worker bees don't get ..

I adopted the same New Year's Resolution Mr. JWilson did this year ..... after a meeting in a week or two, I'll know if I'll stay on or retire myself .......

Wrei wrote:
Rodolfo, while I agree we need a safe food chain, judging from my experience with gov't inspectors, we would be better off if the gov't turned food processing validations and verifications over to a third party vs. the gov't. The 3rd party along with the industry would set the standards and regulations. The commercial 3rd party would have a "stake" in the game and be responsible for assuring the process and deliverable is of a measured, standardized quality. The gov't has no accountability. You hopefully noticed a change in quality, reliability and safety after the "big 3" automakers embraced QS-9100 on themselves, but more importantly on their suppliers. The reality is the cost would probably not go up with 3rd party commercial oversight vs. the USDA. I always cringe thinking the steak I am eating was bought off by a gov't inspector.

Eddie,

Have a read of this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21379587

This is why government sets standards - not industry.

Wrei wrote:
Rodolfo, while I agree we need a safe food chain, judging from my experience with gov't inspectors, we would be better off if the gov't turned food processing validations and verifications over to a third party vs. the gov't. The 3rd party along with the industry would set the standards and regulations. The commercial 3rd party would have a "stake" in the game and be responsible for assuring the process and deliverable is of a measured, standardized quality.

Ideally, yes. But in the case of the FDA, that's actually how it's been for years. Food producers must be audited once a year by a third party. But the problem is that such a system depends on someone being able to verify a statistically-significant sample of the population every year, and then verify every producer's conditions at least once every X years (say, every 10 years). The FDA is so underfunded and woefully disorganized that it is utterly and pathetically unable to do that: their internal inspection staff is some absurdly low number like 4,000 total inspectors IIRC.

And so the economic incentive is to game the system: since the FDA isn't going to show up on someone's doorstep, and since the auditors are paid by the producers, then many (most?) audits are either pencil-whipped or just fabricated out of thin air. And then people die.

The current system doesn't need to be reinvented, it's already running along the lines you suggest. But it does need much improvement, specifically IMHO: the FDA's capability to spot-check and verify needs to get a lot better; the FDA's teeth to impose fines or penalties, or even shut someone down, need to get a lot bigger and sharper; and the "paper trail" that tells us where contaminated food came from needs to get a lot more complete.

Glenn Watson wrote:

I cant find the article i wanted to link to but there was a great bit written after the auto manufacturer bailout debacle where the GM and Dodge guys flew their Gulfstreams from Detroit to Washington to beg for money. Maybe not biz-aviations finest hour- however the piece i'm referring to broke down a typical multi-segment trip by the CEO of Ford and was able to spin his hourly rate and compare that to the cluster that is the airlines and actually make the case that the bizjet is cheaper to operate, and affords more efficient conduction of business.


Our CEO definately falls into that category. No matter which of the infinite rumors about his salary you choose to believe, given the areas we generally service having him fly in and out of them commercial would be quite the feat given that he would normally be making connections somewhere, we'd lose a day in transit time...his salary, if you broke it down to 40 hours a week, is rumored to be more per hour than the jet costs...but again...there's about 100 different rumors about that.

Oh...and I work for the Railway. Given the tail numbers of the two jets it should be easy to figure out which one

Fish Out Of Water

Blame Canada...


At least someone from the GWN is proud to troop the colors!

Nice fish Jay, with a side dish of full disc too

At 500mm and 1/1600 sec I'm blaming the lack of sharpness on the atmospherics that produced the nice puffy vortex and not my panning technique

Erich

FlyingPhotog wrote:
Tremendous B&W conversion! Wall Worthy!

Thank you Jay! I appreciate the comment. Let me return it with a "Great Work!" Just simply apply it to every image you upload.

Jeremy