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Capital City
- Thread starter hjheitka
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SheGaveMeClap
Your wife's boyfriend
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2001
- Posts
- 447
I had a job offer there several years ago, but didn't take it. I would have, but something better came along. The people down in PIR are great. The routes are all in North and South Dakota and Minnesota. I've got a few friends who had jobs there and they had no complaints. I don't know exact figures on pay, but the equipment was Senecas and Navajos. One of the better small freight companies out there. Hope it helps.
kamikaize
Giggity
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2001
- Posts
- 109
CCAC is a ok company the pay starts at $1500mo plus per diem. the a/c are all old but brett maintains them pretty well. the avionics are all old and out dated and most the auto pilots suck. the chief pilot id a good guy but the owners jim and clint are major a$$holes. they will try to force you to fly over gross and sometimes in weather that most the other companies wont go in. there are a few other guys on here that USED to work for them.
GLSoar
Who needs a dang motor
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2002
- Posts
- 67
CapCity
CapitalCity
Let me tell you about Capital City. The Maintenance is fantastic, old PA31-350 and Seneca 2's never a worry on that end. In fact it is the best 135 maintenance I have seen. The pay is very weak, if you want twin time it is a good place to fly your ass off. Training on the other hand is a joke. You pay for your own training, in MN, ground school consists of a beat up lab top and no aircraft or charts to go along with the program, no supervision or instructors, about 3 days, the would "crook" has been mentioned on several ocassions. The cost is between 1000 to 2500, you do get some FTD which is usefull but usally no more than 3 hours. Then you go to Pierre., SD for your 135 checkride, which is very fair, no training in the airplane. Overall if your looking to get a flying job and you don't mind paying it is a place to pass the time. It is a good stepping stone. No your ifr, Far, procedures and be competant in a twin and you will do fine!
CapitalCity
Let me tell you about Capital City. The Maintenance is fantastic, old PA31-350 and Seneca 2's never a worry on that end. In fact it is the best 135 maintenance I have seen. The pay is very weak, if you want twin time it is a good place to fly your ass off. Training on the other hand is a joke. You pay for your own training, in MN, ground school consists of a beat up lab top and no aircraft or charts to go along with the program, no supervision or instructors, about 3 days, the would "crook" has been mentioned on several ocassions. The cost is between 1000 to 2500, you do get some FTD which is usefull but usally no more than 3 hours. Then you go to Pierre., SD for your 135 checkride, which is very fair, no training in the airplane. Overall if your looking to get a flying job and you don't mind paying it is a place to pass the time. It is a good stepping stone. No your ifr, Far, procedures and be competant in a twin and you will do fine!
passion4flying
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2001
- Posts
- 118
I used to fly for Capital city. Allthough it was about 5 years ago. My experience was bad. I had a run from PIR through Mitchell then to Sioux Falls, then back the same route later that day. The run was set up that you went over your duty time everyday. I would come back and write my times down and they would take an eraser and change the times. The training was nill to nonexistent. The maintenance was allright, not the best 135 maintenance program out there though. You were expected to fly in any weather conditions. The owner did suck. ALOT!! I am sorry if I sound bitter. but that is because I am. I put my license on the line every time I flew with them. When I tried to talk to them about it, they did not care. The bastards even made me pay my training contract. Oh well, it was worth it just getting out of there. Like I said, that was five years ago. It may have changed, I doubt it though. I heard a bit after I left, that they got busted by the Feds for duty time violations. Ask around about that.
Cap City
I know a few guys at Cap City, and I guess most of their runs are going, going, gone. A company out of ATY, Watertown SD, Priority Air, is hooking up with the Courier, ICS, that was using Cap City on most of thier runs, but now ICS is starting up their own 135 with the company out of ATY.
I guess Cap City has let a few people go, or laid them off, but I am pretty sure that they are NOT hiring.
I would say got to the compay out of ATY, I think they are hiring, but I have talked to a few pilots there that HATE IT.
I know a few guys at Cap City, and I guess most of their runs are going, going, gone. A company out of ATY, Watertown SD, Priority Air, is hooking up with the Courier, ICS, that was using Cap City on most of thier runs, but now ICS is starting up their own 135 with the company out of ATY.
I guess Cap City has let a few people go, or laid them off, but I am pretty sure that they are NOT hiring.
I would say got to the compay out of ATY, I think they are hiring, but I have talked to a few pilots there that HATE IT.
hj - you pm'd me (curious to know how you got that) but I'll answer it in public. I'll respond to the above posts which should answer everything you asked:
shegavemeclap-not too specific but accurate. would add that we've also got a 402 and a 414.
jergar999-accurate, boring? i guess that depends on what you are into, great fishing and hunting here, but if you are expecting hundreds of beautiful freight pilot groupies anxious to fulfill your every sexual fantasy - Pierre probably isn't the place.
kamikaize - 90%bs - starting pay is now $1800, full medical and dental, 401k with match after 1 year. I agree a/c ARE old but maintained well, avionics outdated?, no gps or heads up displays here, autopilots-some work, some don't, not required for cargo 135, charter aircraft all autopilots work or they don't fly. a$$holes - i wouldn't go that far, sometimes a little extreme, but if you take care of your run and your aircraft as though your paycheck depended on it (which it does), you won't have any problems. This individual whose name I won't mention in a public forum did not have this attitude, he wanted to get the multi engine part 135 time in his log book and get paid but didn't care what image he projected, he even had a major f--k up with an airplane and he still did not get fired or anything placed in his pilot record book. You would think one would be thankful for that instead of talking trash on the internet. For the record I was not the pilot supervisor at that time. Weight and wx - you will never be expected to fly overweight - however if you fill your tanks with 4+50 hours of gas for a 0+50 minute trip and leave freight on the ground because of all that gas then yes there will be some counseling. You won't be expected to fly in wx that most other companies won't fly in. But, as glsoar later says you better be able to fly instruments and yes in this part of the country that means down to minimums, but if there are big Tstorms, freezing rain, etc you aren't expected to be flying.
glsoar - good pilot -accurate for the most part when he was working here, i think the training is more like $6-800. The reason we do that is because we don't have an employment contract requiring you to stay for a minimum length of time. Leave when you want (with the courtesy of a couple weeks notice appreciated) and we aren't out a bunch of time and money for someone spoonfeeding you the basics which is what you get on the computer based training. You get taught the company specifics at Pierre. There are books and charts to go along with the computer based training.
passion for flying - 100% BS starting from saying we had a run that went through Mitchell - never did, duty time violations - don't think so, before my time but I'm pretty sure in 3 years I would have heard about it.
habib - lost some runs-yes, are we going to run airplanes at a financial loss like some other companies just so we can say we are working?-no. Have we laid anybody off or let them go? -no. Are we hiring?-no but I'm confident that we'll get some more worthwhile work. Last paragraph - your call.
In your pm you asked my thoughts on this place - I've been here about 3 years. I wouldn't stay here if I didn't like it. My pay is alot better than that mentioned above but I am worth considerably more yet. However I enjoy the people I work with, and I like where I live. I'd like to get back into a jet but will not move to a metropolitan area to do it, I want to live here or further west excluding the coastal states. So I guess I'm limiting myself geographically.
You asked how the pilots are treated. I'm treated great. How do I treat the guys under me? Do a search for USMC principles of leadership. That's what I strive for. We try and find guys who we can tell "Here is an airplane, your run goes from Point A to B to C, with these time restraints. Keep the clients happy and let us know if you have any wx or mx issues. See you at 100 hour. Get it done." Those that can handle this autonomy love it. Those that can't handle it (generally due to inability to keep a schedule or uncomfortable flying in wx) hate it. These are the people that come up with creative excuses for their lack of ability to perform. This should answer your questions but if not stand by as I'm sure there will be some interesting responses to follow.
shegavemeclap-not too specific but accurate. would add that we've also got a 402 and a 414.
jergar999-accurate, boring? i guess that depends on what you are into, great fishing and hunting here, but if you are expecting hundreds of beautiful freight pilot groupies anxious to fulfill your every sexual fantasy - Pierre probably isn't the place.
kamikaize - 90%bs - starting pay is now $1800, full medical and dental, 401k with match after 1 year. I agree a/c ARE old but maintained well, avionics outdated?, no gps or heads up displays here, autopilots-some work, some don't, not required for cargo 135, charter aircraft all autopilots work or they don't fly. a$$holes - i wouldn't go that far, sometimes a little extreme, but if you take care of your run and your aircraft as though your paycheck depended on it (which it does), you won't have any problems. This individual whose name I won't mention in a public forum did not have this attitude, he wanted to get the multi engine part 135 time in his log book and get paid but didn't care what image he projected, he even had a major f--k up with an airplane and he still did not get fired or anything placed in his pilot record book. You would think one would be thankful for that instead of talking trash on the internet. For the record I was not the pilot supervisor at that time. Weight and wx - you will never be expected to fly overweight - however if you fill your tanks with 4+50 hours of gas for a 0+50 minute trip and leave freight on the ground because of all that gas then yes there will be some counseling. You won't be expected to fly in wx that most other companies won't fly in. But, as glsoar later says you better be able to fly instruments and yes in this part of the country that means down to minimums, but if there are big Tstorms, freezing rain, etc you aren't expected to be flying.
glsoar - good pilot -accurate for the most part when he was working here, i think the training is more like $6-800. The reason we do that is because we don't have an employment contract requiring you to stay for a minimum length of time. Leave when you want (with the courtesy of a couple weeks notice appreciated) and we aren't out a bunch of time and money for someone spoonfeeding you the basics which is what you get on the computer based training. You get taught the company specifics at Pierre. There are books and charts to go along with the computer based training.
passion for flying - 100% BS starting from saying we had a run that went through Mitchell - never did, duty time violations - don't think so, before my time but I'm pretty sure in 3 years I would have heard about it.
habib - lost some runs-yes, are we going to run airplanes at a financial loss like some other companies just so we can say we are working?-no. Have we laid anybody off or let them go? -no. Are we hiring?-no but I'm confident that we'll get some more worthwhile work. Last paragraph - your call.
In your pm you asked my thoughts on this place - I've been here about 3 years. I wouldn't stay here if I didn't like it. My pay is alot better than that mentioned above but I am worth considerably more yet. However I enjoy the people I work with, and I like where I live. I'd like to get back into a jet but will not move to a metropolitan area to do it, I want to live here or further west excluding the coastal states. So I guess I'm limiting myself geographically.
You asked how the pilots are treated. I'm treated great. How do I treat the guys under me? Do a search for USMC principles of leadership. That's what I strive for. We try and find guys who we can tell "Here is an airplane, your run goes from Point A to B to C, with these time restraints. Keep the clients happy and let us know if you have any wx or mx issues. See you at 100 hour. Get it done." Those that can handle this autonomy love it. Those that can't handle it (generally due to inability to keep a schedule or uncomfortable flying in wx) hate it. These are the people that come up with creative excuses for their lack of ability to perform. This should answer your questions but if not stand by as I'm sure there will be some interesting responses to follow.
passion4flying
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2001
- Posts
- 118
All of these are peoples opinions (including mine). Take what information you want. But, I left for a reason. Let me give you an example. One night in January, a friend of mine was told to take off when the weather was forcasting SEVERE icing in clouds from 1000 feet to the tops which were around 10000 feet. We took off (I flew that night) he got to about 9000 feet trying to get above the stuff, he stalled the airplane and lost around 5000 feet. The plane was so heavy it stopped flying. If I remember the regs right. No airplane is certified for severe icing, but we were told to go anyway. Like I said that was a while ago, things may have changed. And to Roger Ball, don't say my post was 100% bull**CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**. Fist off you were not even there to see my experiences first hand. So I would say you are not a subject matter expert on my post. Just give your opinion on what is happening now, and try not to criticize other people, it does not make for a professional member of our industry. Hjeitika, good luck on your career. If you need anything PM me.
Passion
Passion
You said it.
Passion:
I respect your point of view, but you said it yourself, talk about what is going on now, and that is what rogerball is trying to do.
I know a lot of these smaller and even bigger 135 cargo outfits were more coyboy back in the day, but I think most have done a lot to change their ways.
I know some guys there and I don't think that they are forced to fly into anything anymore. And they do like it, but I know there is only so long you can fly a piston, and everyone wants to move on, some time.
And Roger, I did not realize that a few of thoes guys left, and that Capcity did not let them go, sorry for the incorrect post.
And I respect the fact that Capcity does not want to go broke like Priority will, I think ICS may be bad news. Sounds like they only care about the bottom line and just get it thereitis.
Habib
Passion:
I respect your point of view, but you said it yourself, talk about what is going on now, and that is what rogerball is trying to do.
I know a lot of these smaller and even bigger 135 cargo outfits were more coyboy back in the day, but I think most have done a lot to change their ways.
I know some guys there and I don't think that they are forced to fly into anything anymore. And they do like it, but I know there is only so long you can fly a piston, and everyone wants to move on, some time.
And Roger, I did not realize that a few of thoes guys left, and that Capcity did not let them go, sorry for the incorrect post.
And I respect the fact that Capcity does not want to go broke like Priority will, I think ICS may be bad news. Sounds like they only care about the bottom line and just get it thereitis.
Habib
Helpful!!
Hey thanks fellas for your input. the information provided is appreciated. As you can tell I'm relatively inexperienced with cargo flying and just trying to get informed whether it be good or bad. It sounds like an opportunity, and in this time an opportunity is better than nothing, not to mention the airplanes are bigger than a C172. Keep the comments coming, nothing needs to be left unsaid.
Hjheitka
Hey thanks fellas for your input. the information provided is appreciated. As you can tell I'm relatively inexperienced with cargo flying and just trying to get informed whether it be good or bad. It sounds like an opportunity, and in this time an opportunity is better than nothing, not to mention the airplanes are bigger than a C172. Keep the comments coming, nothing needs to be left unsaid.
Hjheitka
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