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Week Eight - Farewell

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Desert Jet Intern - Thermal, CA Week Eight Farewell 7/30 - 8/3 Empty Leg  Flying in a private jet to San Diego...count me in please! The opportunity arose to jump on an empty leg in the Citation Excel to San Diego and hang out for the day. The crew were very accommodating with sharing the experience by putting the coms on speaker so I could hear ATC communications. This was my first time flying into San Diego and it was beautiful the whole way down. After landing I had some time to kill, so I helped the pilots prepare for the passenger leg. They allowed me to help prepare the cabin, pick up the IFR clearance, and program the FMS!  San Diego Exploration Soon the charter passengers had arrived and I headed to the commercial terminal at SAN to meet up with my friend who was flying in for the day. Our agenda included brunch and exploration around Balboa Park.  First stop was Cafe 222 , a popular brunch spot with delicious food. We then walked to the har

Desert Jet - Week Seven

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Desert Jet Intern - Thermal, CA Week Seven 7/23 - 7/27 San Jacinto State Park: Notch 3 Aerial Tram My sister visited over the weekend so we decided to take the aerial tramway up to San Jacinto and explore.  The views were incredible! We did a small hike before dinner on the mountain and took the tram back at night when the city lights were visible. Everyone was singing along to the oldies playing in the tram on the way down the mountain, it was a jovial group of people.  Slab City The next morning we drove to Salvation Mountain and saw art that took a man 30 years to complete.  It was very humbling that a man decided this to be his life goal, being in a place with no running water working day in and day out in sweltering heat to share his love. Work Week I started the week in charter, being able to do some quotes while also helping dispatch, especially with updating the written trip-board.  Halfway through the week the other interns and I star

Desert Jet - Week Six

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Desert Jet Intern - Thermal, CA Week Six 7/16 - 7/20 Weekend Fun This weekend was busy! My dad came to visit and I was able to show him around including the hangar. He enjoyed seeing where I worked and all the aircraft! Two Harbors Catalina Saturday I had to opportunity to fly to Catalina Airport(AVX) out of Long Beach Airport with the man who gave me my first flight! Christina was able to backseat and she took some fun pictures of the approach. We had lunch on the island and sadly didn't see any buffalo. We departed flying around the backside of the island, over Avalon and then direct to LGB. After the flight we drove back to the desert. On the way we stopped at the Cabazon dinosaurs. The Work Week Christina and I continued to work on our money saving endeavors. By midweek we were finished with the data analysis and were able to hand off our findings. We are now helping to implement this tool with Dispatch. A Phenom 300 stopped in and

Desert Jet - Week Five

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Desert Jet Intern - Thermal, CA Week Five  7/9 - 7/13 Adventuring On Saturday Christina and I ventured to PSP to check out the Palm Springs Air Museum. We sat in a Corsair (one of my favorite planes), viewed the three full hangars, and learned some fun facts about the aircraft. It was really cool and we had gaggle of 'tour guides' follow us around and share stories. We also flew some rubber band propeller paper planes thanks to the Academy of Model Aeronautics where I also met a Purdue Alum! Week Breakdown Monday I sat with Duane and learned about dispatching, it is a work intensive operation. He does a great job getting the information to the pilots! The next day I started off quoting trips with Stacy and I finished the day with a different project.  Throughout this week Christina and I have been working on a data analysis that will help the company save money on hotels. It's actually been fun looking into flight logs and seeing trends, though there is

Desert Jet - Week Four

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Desert Jet Intern - Thermal, CA Week Four  7/2 - 7/6 Sunrise driving to TRM I am back! If anyone missed it, I was away racing in the Women's Air Race Classic. More information about what it is and my experiences can be found on my blog for the race: https://tiffanyimhoff.blogspot.com/ Marketing I returned Monday to the desert and have been working with Chris Little this week. Marketing is a large project for one person and I'm glad I was able to help out.  My main project involved many Excel spreadsheets and brushing up on Word document abilities. I proofread documents and offered opinions on social media posts.  Wednesday was Independence Day and I returned home to celebrate with my family. I dressed up my dog with some Desert Jet apparel! Thursday involved more researching and Excel sheets. The project was getting closer to completion.  Later in the day Tyler came around asking for interns to preflight the Challenger 300. Christina and I went

Desert Jet Intern - Week Three

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Desert Jet Intern - Thermal, CA Week Three  6/4 - 6/8 VOR, Me, Ariana, Christina Training in the FBO I continued week three training with the FBO. I learned to input fuel tickets into our software and how to complete an invoice for Desert Jet records as well as customers.  I welcomed guests as they deplaned offering chilled water to help with the 104 degree weather, which everyone here says is nothing yet. We, the interns, made a trip to the TRM VOR. This involved the golf cart, a dirt road, and some dead reckoning. If you are unfamiliar, a VOR is a radio navigation device used by pilots. They are slowly getting phased out due to newer navigation systems, thus a cool thing to visit while they are still active. Line Service I had the opportunity to work with the line service technicians this week. They showed me their fueling procedures, what they are looking for when they get ready to fuel (pressure readings, prist quantities, etc), and I witnessed a fuel tr

Welcome to Desert Jet - Week One + Two

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Desert Jet Intern - Thermal, CA Week One + Two 5/21 - 6/1 Two things I love, the Desert and Airplanes.  You may ask who can supply that? Desert Jet, of course! What is Desert Jet? Desert Jet is an aircraft charter, maintenance and aircraft handling company at the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport(TRM) in Palm Springs. Services offered include FBO services, aircraft charter, management, jet maintenance, acquisitions, and sales of business jet aircraft. Desert Jet is a place where the staff will greet you with exceptional smiles and professionalism! Week One My first week was spent in each department of the overall company. Desert Jet is made up of the FBO(Fixed Base Operator), Charter and Sales, and Aircraft Maintenance. I was able to shadow each department and choose which department to start my summer.  I have started learning and training in the FBO. Thus far, I have been working the front desk, greeting guests, accepting projects, and being a part of the '