The instructors from the FlightSafety International Academy at Vero Beach, Florida, obvious in their crisp epauleted uniforms, fanned out through the Orlando Convention Center exhibit hall during the National Business Aviation Association meeting. They were bright eyed and enthusiastic, particularly considering their early, pre-dawn wheels-up departure for the bus trip from their Vero Beach campus.
For many of the instructors-who were planning on professional pilot careers-the visit to the NBAA hall was their first brush with business aviation and the career advantages it offers. Although they complained they didn’t have enough time to peruse the exhibits, the instructors were obviously impressed with the alternative that a corporate aviation career offered to flying for an airline. Advantages they cited included the opportunity, in most cases, to fly brand-new airplanes with the latest in avionics, the variety of destinations, the chance to be directly and intimately involved with the country’s movers and shakers and the ability to help them to do their moving and shaking.
