Whats the latest with MRA?? Do they still have 208's and where are there runs? Any east coast stuff?? Any Metro's and if so what do they do with them? Any info would be greatly appreciated.
If you would like to get an eye-ful of info on Martinaire, go to www.caravanpilots.com and scroll down through the postings. Sounds like a scary place to fly!!
When I flew there a few years ago it was a great place to work. The trng was very tough though. They would'nt fire you if you would'nt go into icing though. It was your discretion if it was bad enough but they were certified to go into light to moderate. The planes were well maintained to do that kind of stuff. I was a low time pilot there and was a little intimidating to do it in the beginning (especially being from Fla) but you found out what the limitations were. After being in the Caravan they would upgrade you into the Dornier or the Metro and it was all single pilot. They expected alot out of the pilots and I think that's why it sometimes it get's a "bad wrap". I got alot of valuable experience there and the people were all great and are still friends of mine.
Don't know if they still have that kind of working atmoshpere now but at the time I would recommend it to anyone. Jimbo
Can't speak for it now, but Martinaire was a great job when I was there. (Jan98-Dec 98) Excellent experience. I have heard some of the DO228 are being operated now out of Vegas as tour AC, don't know by whom.
Where do Martinaire pilots typically go after building single-engine turbine PIC? With the Metro's gone, there's no multi in sight there. For a pilot with low (50-100 hours) multi time, is alot of Caravan time enough for the regionals or corporate? Do they give preference based upon single-pilot IFR and the turbine? Or are they stuck looking for another freight op with twins after Martinaire?
I don't know if it applies in today's post 9-11 environment, (read that insurance) but here's my experience. I went from Martinaire to flying Learjet FO for a 135 operator. To this day, I only have about 47 hours of multi-engine recip time. My feelings are that the turbine/single pilot IFR experience is much more important than 500 hours of giving multi-engine instruction. Not that there's anything wrong with building time that way, some of us just never had the opportunity. My experience with the Caravan was invaluable in transitioning to the jet. Good instrument skills are the foundation of flying larger, faster, multi engine AC. The "multi-engine" skills are easy to learn IF you are a good IFR current freight dog.
I would summarize my Caravan experience this way:
Paid better than most Baron/twin Cessna jobs
Safer than most Baron/twin Cessna jobs
Learned a turbine AC
Got a bit of Turbine PIC in the process
Feel free to PM me with any questions you have, I'd be happy to help.
I agree 100% with LJDRVR. The experience was invaluable. I have a little over 100 hours Multi recip. The 135 single turbine experience opened alot of doors for me. The Caravan is a great dependable plane. It is alot of fun to fly also. But the important thing is it's Turbine (It counts in the turbine PIC catagory for SWA and Fedex).
So please don't discount it cause it's "not multi". 135 Caravan flying in my opinion will open doors sooner than the standard routes most people take. Alot of Martinaire guys would land good jet and turbine multi jobs just in networking at thier destinations. I personally got a job with a regional flying jets.
In my experiences you have a little more respect in the aviation community by going this route also.
Again this is just my .02 cents.
Jimbo
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