solairus aviation blog

Private jet services provider, Solairus Aviation was recently ranked 58th in the NorthBay Biz Top 500 Companies.

Solairus Aviation is raising the bar in the private jet charter and private jet management industries. Founded by an accomplished executive leadership team, Solairus is focused on delivering exceptional charter flight services and outstanding asset optimization solutions that truly go above and beyond standard offerings. Our team comprises a passionate group of flight and aircraft specialists who are focused on exceeding the expectations of our clients and redefining integrated private jet services.

Solairus Aviation is a US-based aviation services company whose core business is safe, reliable, and economical aircraft operation.  We accomplish this by using systems, processes, and procedures developed and honed throughout thirty plus years in the industry. Our flights are customized to meet your individual travel and financial requirements with the highest standards of safety and personalized service.  

Solairus Aviation is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.  We have over twenty-five base locations across the United States and Europe, and employ more than two hundred flight crew and support personnel for the operation of more than forty-five client-owned, private jet aircraft.  Solairus offers a full range of services in addition to aircraft charter sales, which include aircraft management, aviation support services, and consulting.

Brian Moss, a Solairus Aviation Private Charter Jet Flight Coordinator,was recently selected as Air BP’s Aviation Professional of the month. Brian was featured in a full page print ad, along with nearly the entire Solairus Burlingame office staff in the December 2011 issue of Professional Pilot.

Brian Moss grew up in an aviation environment. His dad, Don, was a dispatcher for Pan Am at JFK in the 1960s. While in college Brian worked for an FBO at FRG (Farmingdale NY). Computers were his college study field and following graduation the thrill of the burgeoning Internet industry attracted him to Silicon Valley. For 7 years he worked there. But the pull of aviation was too strong. His dad owned Long Island-based Sportsflight, a charter jet sales organization for sports teams. Brian went to Sportsflight's SFO office and sold charter. In 2007 he transferred to TAG at SFO and continued to sell charter jet flights. Brian joined Solairus in 2009 and became a flight coordinator. The following year he moved to Denver to open a Solairus office at APA (Centennial, Denver CO). Today Brian manages 5 aircraft from APA—a Gulfstream G550 based at SFO, a Challenger 604 headquartered at AUS (Austin TX), another 604 and 605 tied down at BFI (Boeing Field, Seattle WA) and a Hawker 800XP at MDW (Midway, Chicago IL). Brian arranges all logistics for crew and pax including ground transportation, lodging, FBOs and catering. Chris Halverson, Solairus manager of flight coordination and dispatch, says, "Brian's sunny disposition and customer focus come shining through on every charter jet flight."

Solairus Aviation Dispatcher, Darren Nolan, recalls his recent opportunity to fly with Solairus Pilot, John Kibler, in one of the company's Citation CJ3s!

The world looks pretty amazing from 45,000 feet above sea level. I had the amazing opportunity to see this wonderful view last week when John Kibler, private charter jet pilot of one of our Citation CJ3s, invited me along for a flight from Novato, CA to Sun Valley, ID and back. I had taken flight lessons about 13 years ago in a Cessna 152 out of the very same airport, which was the last time I sat in the cockpit of any airplane. Up until this point, my only experiences riding in a private charter jet have been in the cabins of commercial airliners, so this was really quite a special experience for me.

After we taxied onto the runway at Novato, John pushed the throttles to full takeoff power and I was truly awed by the acceleration that these private charter jets have. This was no slow, lumbering takeoff roll like you would expect to feel in a fully loaded 747; we accelerated fast and were airborne in what seemed like a few seconds. The climb-out was not trivial by any means either as we reached our initial assigned altitude, once again, in a matter of seconds. Having only flown a Cessna 152, I had no real appreciation for how busy the cockpit is during the takeoff and climb-out of a jet. If can't multi-task, then flying charter jets is not for you.  John flew the airplane, worked the radios, and manipulated the flight computer like the pro he is making it look easy the whole time as we leveled off at 45,000 feet. One of the major advantages to flying so high is that you get over just about all the busy airline traffic and can fly straight to your destination rather than going waypoint by waypoint, which can add extra time to your flight. The avionics on this particular airplane were impressive as well. It’s an all “glass cockpit”, meaning the instruments are displayed on computer screens rather than gauges, dials and gyros. We were able to pull up the approach plates on the center screen and plan our descent long before the air traffic controller (ATC) actually instructed us to begin descending. The weather in Sun Valley was not great and there was some question as to whether or not we could actually land there – something we would not learn until we were on final approach. Things got busy again after ATC instructed us to begin our descent. Even though the runway and airport were obscured by clouds John was able to fly the private charter aircraft in on instruments and seconds before we reached our minimum “decision height”, the runway appeared from behind the clouds and John made a perfect “10” landing.

Needless to say, it was quite an experience and I'm proud that I work for a private charter jet company that employs and trains pilots of John's caliber for the dozens of flights we make everyday.