PacificWings

[FlyinDude]

Anyone know any info on Pacific Wings based out of Maui? They fly caravans around the islands and are seeking people without 135 min's. It sounds too good to be true...so, anyone know anything?

 

[PA-44Typed]

“seeking people without 135 min's”
to help with the bags……..or to be a gear monkey…no wait, fixed gear…..uh……uh….tour guid……..uh…flight attendant….. uh to be a 10th passenger!!!!!

 

[jebmei]

I have a buddy who is in ground school to be a Captain with them. They pay the Captains okay - I think around 29K/year (and living in Maui).

FO's do more customer service than flying. Personally, when I was a low timer, I would not of taken a FO job in a single engine/ single pilot aircraft. I think CFI work or VFR 135 captain jobs serve a low timer better than sitting right seat in a caravan.

Anyone know any info on PW based out of Maui? They fly caravans around the islands and are seeking people without 135 min's. It sounds too good to be true...so, anyone know anything?

 

[Hold West]

I have a buddy who is in ground school to be a Captain with them. They pay the Captains okay - I think around 29K/year (and living in Maui).

29K on Maui gets you a tent on the beach and a can of dog food every other day.

Perhaps I overstate, but it's expensive out here. I'm on Oahu, and the rental market on Maui is tighter than here. Look carefully at cost of living before your jump.

I don't know anything about the company, but they are all pleasant enough to work with on frequency. Anyone flying for them will see some of the most beautiful scenery in world, every flight, every day.

 

[FrozenPilot]

Beware the local security.....
http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=13550

 

[filejw]

And that would be dry dog food not caned.

 

[Kingair1181]

I went out to interview with them last Sept. They are a small operation, only 5 A/C I think, and when I went to interview the starting pay was $8/hr or $8.50 for an FO. You will work as a baggage handler/customer service rep for the first 30 days and then they send you to school on the Caravan. You then fly approx. 40 to 60 hrs a month and on your days off you load bags and check the customers into the flight. Most pilots who I talked to worked a 2nd job just to make ends meet or still had their parents helping them out. $8.50 an hr out there would be roughly half that here in the states, depending on where you live. Moreover, if you plan to fly for them, if you don't stay on and get some PIC time then your time out there will be worthless. I talked to several Capt's who work for the majors and all of them told me that SIC time on a Caravan is a joke. Unless you are dead set on living on the island for a while or hoping to stay out there and make Capt (they do have a quick upgrade time) I would highly suggest looking elsewhere. Just my 2 cents but good luck either way....

 

[Piper877]

Don't do it. There is way too much drama and it's extremely hard to live on Maui for $8.00/hr. A couple months in you'll be so burned out you won't feel like flying for free after working 4:30 a.m.- 1 p.m.
Please stay very far away.

 

[mauipilot]

Used to be a really good company to work for, a little eccentric but good none the less. However, they lost all of their senior captains and their director of ops who held the place together. Maintenance was good to, but I'm not sure anymore. I left about a year and half ago. At the time we had in house training which was a lot better than what I got from flight safety, but I think they went back because they don't have anybody to do the training in house anymore. There are other options if you want to live in the islands they are probably a better fit for most people. Also I don't know of any SIC that ever made it through the upgrade process to Captain. Maybe since I left, but nobody made it in the year or so that I was there.

 

[Eagle-ista]

PW operates under the "Air Nevada" certificate. They have issues...

1) They lost their Director of Operations, Chief Pilot, and a few of their senior Captains when they had a "difference of opinion" with local law enforcement. Rumor was they were assaulted when they refuse to pay for additional security.

2) SIC time in a single pilot aircraft is worthless. If they don't have an SIC training program, you are just window dressing, or a bag thrower. You can't even swing the gear in a fixed gear aircraft. The only way it's worth anything is if puts you in line to upgrade, and then it's only worth something at PW, nowhere else.

3) Listen to the people that are telling you how expensive it is to live in Hawaii. I did it for a year. After the year, my wife and I were $20,000 in debt, and we rented a room with no kitchen. I was working on the mainland, my wife was flying in Hawaii, making around the level of a Captain at PW.

Working (more than) full time for PW could make you bankrupt, the locals aren't happy about you being there, since that job should be theirs (in their opinion), and most mainlanders can only handle living on an island for a few weeks, a condition called "Island Fever".

It is a beautiful place, and the flying is exquisite, but there are substantial costs that you probably won't encounter on the mainland.

By the way, every time I wrote PacificWings with a space between the words, it was reduced to PW by this website. I don't know why, but it is curious...