Lunch in New York City

[message type="custom"]I have dug up some posts from my original blog that I started almost eight years ago. Back then, I worked for Netjets - world's largest operator of business jets and as one of the benefits, we could ride on the planes during ferry flights (when there were no passengers flying). I have flown many trips like that so it is no wonder that business or even first class airline travel has never impressed me after that. This is one of my ferry tales from April 2005.[/message] This has to be the ultimate lunch trip. We flew on a private jet to New York, went to a nice Cuban restaurant in the heart of Manhattan and flew back home on another jet. All that in less than eight hours.

But first things first. I was going to jump on a training flight on one of our newest jets, a Citation Sovereign, but when we showed up in the morning, it was still in pieces and was not going anywhere until the evening at the earliest. On the way out I ran into Lay, one of the guys I work with. He was jumping on a ferry flight to White Plains (upstate New York) to meet up with another guy I work with and his girlfriend there.

It didn't take much for them to convince me to come and before too long we were on our way in a Citation Encore, one of our light aircraft.

At HPN we've met up with Jay and his girlfriend and then caught a ride to Teterboro with Rudy's delivery driver, the company that does most of catering in New York for us.

Once at Teterboro we got a tour of Rudy's impressive facilities and then Rachel took us out to lunch to Victor's Cafe, a gourmet Cuban restaurant in the heart of Manhattan.

While there, we called to check for ferry flights back to Columbus and there was one going from Teterboro to White Plains and then another one from there to Columbus. The Teterboro flight was in about fourty minutes so we jumped in the car and berely made it. On top of all the NYC traffic, Rachel's horn stopped working and she almost had a heart attack. A New Yorker without the horn... at one point we rolled down the windows and were screaming "Beeeep!" at some idiot standing still in front of us.

On a side note, there is no way I will ever drive in New York. I think I would have wrecked the car at least a thousand times that day, but kudos to Rachel for getting us to TEB just in time to catch the Hawker 1000, one of our midsize cabins.

At HPN we jumped on a Citation Ultra, our smallest jet, to fly back to Columbus. When we were climbing through 7000 ft, I took this beautiful shot of Manhattan.

What a day it was. To say that we were exhausted is an understatement, but it was well worth it!

Later that night I felt that there was something else to it. Finally, I realised that the whole deal didn't cost me a penny.

STARTSOMETHINGHERE.COM/LEARN/LS/

No packing. No waiting. No worries. No nothing. NetJets rocks!

Next Sunday... Perhaps, PBI? :-)