Cape Air

[ScottyP]

Can anyone tell me about Cape Air? They said they are hiring now for the winter season in the Caribbean. How many bases do they have down there? Is there housing provided for any or all of the bases? Is it somewhere that you can bring your family to for 6 months? Is the Florida bases senior or junior? They have a letter of understanding for a training contract which means what? From what I can tell, it seems like a good place to work, any good or bad that anyone would like to share. Thanks in advance for your help!!!

 

[Airline Driver]

I can't help as far as the nitty gritty is concerned. I know many people who have worked there and they all say the same thing. GREAT Place to work. They treat their people VERY well and the pay is not too bad either.

 

[belchfire]

PM Way2Broke, he was there for a while.

 

[Way2Broke]

Actually I was at Nantucket Shuttle, a smaller competing "airline" :smash: at HYA. However, my fiance was there and I am sure she would be able to answer any of your questions. So PM away. What I can tell you is that the pay may seem good, but living on Cape Cod, The Virgin Islands, or even Guam is very expensive and that "good pay" quickly seems like first year regional pay. Also, their benefits package is lacking and the people that fly HYA to ACK breath different air than the rest of us. Oh, and it's much better air than the air your breathing in their opinion, scented of flowers and perfume even after a burrito dinner. But, if you want a place to develop some great instrument skills ACK is the place to do it, but on the other hand if you want to lose all your instrument skills the Virgin Islands would be the place to do that.
Cape Air is what you make it, but for most it is a experience building gig that develops character and customer service skills out of necessity. If you use the search feature you should be able to generate some good information, but if you need specifics we ought to be able to do that for you.

 

[Way2Broke]

I need to interject again that you will get some darn good skills, even if you think you already have them, flying between HYA and ACK, and some of the old timers at Cape Air will leave a lasting impression on you.

Oh, you might want to consider PMing Capn Sac, he is pretty much a lifer there and is in the training department. He usually has pretty good info, as I am sure some things have changed, like routes, etc. But don't hold your breath, things don't change real quick once you cross that bridge onto the Cape. They still think Kennedy is president out there ya know.

Anyone up for Unos?

 

[flygirl_1313]

Brief rundown:

Florida is very very Senior.

Caribbean has 3 bases, I believe. St. Croix, St. Thomas, and San Juan. They may have expanded that since I left.

Pay is fine, but like Way2Broke said the cost of living is high and unfortunately negates the good pay. I spent my first winter in St. Croix and loved it. It was expensive, but phenominal. Spent christmas, new years and my birthday snorkling. Not much better then that. It was a great experience.

Letter of Agreement means if you take incentive money to move down to the caribbean, you need to fulfill the whole season in that area of operation(I think that is right) Someone please corrent me if I'm wrong.

I also spent a year in New England. Again, expensive, but great experience. Good people to work with and you'll be able to shoot great approaches... your IFR skills will never be greater after flying to ACK!!! Ack and BACK!

When I worked in the Caribbean, there was no housing provided, but I don't know about now. Please feel free to PM me, if you have more questions. Good luck.

 

[Floyd94]

Brief rundown:

It was expensive, but phenominal. Spent christmas, new years and my birthday snorkling. Not much better then that. It was a great experience.

What is the retirement age at Cape Air? Are they part 135??

I was in Tortola the other day and I saw a nice looking young lady(pilot) walking up to her 402 and thought to myslef, when I grow up, thats what I want to do!

Is there a base in Tortlla?? Wow, how cool would that be?

Also, Im almost afraid to ask on the regional board, but what is concidered "decent" pay?

 

[ackattacker]

What is the retirement age at Cape Air? Are they part 135??

I was in Tortola the other day and I saw a nice looking young lady(pilot) walking up to her 402 and thought to myslef, when I grow up, thats what I want to do!

Is there a base in Tortlla?? Wow, how cool would that be?

Also, Im almost afraid to ask on the regional board, but what is concidered "decent" pay?

The 402 Operation is Part 135 Scheduled, there is no retirement age. We do have a handful of pilots retired from the majors. It is a cool job I have to admit, flying the 402 can be a lot of fun. More fun part time IMHO, which is what some of the retirees do.

There is a base in Tortolla. Since it's the BVI it's not as simple to bid, they do an advance bid because you need to get a work visa lined up.

The pay scale got a recent bump, but is still less than our competitors (Island Air, Nantucket Shuttle).

This is the pay scale. Yes we do sometimes use First Officers on the 402 but they are not required. If you come in with ATP mins you will be a Captain, not a First Officer.

Captain pay scale First Officer pay scale*
Year Duty Duty
1 15.00 9.00
2 16.00 9.80
3 17.00 10.80
4 17.50 11.80
5 18.00 12.80
6 18.30 13.80
7 18.80 14.80
8 19.80 15.80
9 20.80 16.80
10 21.80 17.80
11 22.80 18.80
12 23.80 19.80
13 24.80 20.80
14 25.00 21.00
*First Officer (PIC qualified) - $11.30 per hour.


Note that these are per *duty hour* not flight hour. And anything over 40 in a week is time and half. Also the Caribbean bases pay an extra $3 /hour in COLA and there is some sort of relocation bonus and "two season" bonus if you work a full New England and a full Caribbean season.

 

[lookin4better]

how many duty hours does one average?

 

[DGdaPilot]

What is the retirement age at Cape Air? Are they part 135??

I was in Tortola the other day and I saw a nice looking young lady(pilot) walking up to her 402 and thought to myslef, when I grow up, thats what I want to do!

Was it Scottie (sp?)??