Turbine4Life

DO NOT COME WORK HERE!!!! This company has a massive amount of management problems and they treat their pilots like S#!^ compared to a lot of other part 135's. Seriously buddy, there are a couple recent posts on this website that are novels about how terrible a company Tradewind is to work for. See the links at the bottom of this post. The ADO climbed the ranks quick being in the right place at the right time and he has no management training or people skills. The chief pilot is a good guy but he is just a puppet and has to go to the ADO for everything. This place is a revolving door for pilots! I have a buddy at Ameriflight here in Puerto Rico and it is public knowledge that they have a bunch of turnover. Ironically it pales in comparison to the turnover here at Tradewind. All Tradewind can seem to get to come work for them are super low time D-bags that can't keep a job anywhere else. They tell you that you can be based in one location and then based on their shortage of pilots will force you to go and fly in their other location. Quality of life is terrible here. Pay is inadequate to be based in SJU or the Northeast. Northeast has insane cost of living and SJU has a lot of expense you don't think about. For example because you are clearing customs after every flight you can't bring your own food for the day. So you have to buy food at the airports, which really adds up. After health insurance, taxes, and eating on the road your take home is less than $1,500 a month as a first officer. I made more take home after tax income at my part time job in high school than Tradwind pays their FO’s. And before some corporate D-bag jumps on this post to try and spin the pay, YES that $1,500 take home number includes per diem. They also give you $30 a night when you layover in an international location but it is impossible to eat dinner in St Barts for less than $30 and then you are left with paying for breakfast which costs you even more money out of pocket. So look at your monthly expenses like rent, cell phone, bar tabs, car payment, etc. Add $250 which is my average additional food cost over per diem for being based in SJU. Subtract that total from $1,500 a month and then see what you are left with. Half the pilots that come to Tradewind have financial issues within the first couple months and that just adds to the stress of working for a company that shows pilots little to no respect. I would wager a guess that at least eighty percent of the SIC’s that I fly with have less than $50 in their bank accounts every single payday. You see when Tradewind publishes that you are going to make $42K as an FO, that number includes the average about of per diem that an FO is paid annually. Super shady tactic if you ask me. Most candidates assume that they will get per diem on top of the $42K and that is just not the case. If you want to go and fly for a part 135 in the Caribbean go to, MN Aviation, Ameriflight, or IFL group. All of them are currently hiring and have much better reputations than Tradewind. If you want to fly the PC-12 which is a very sweet aircraft I must say, then go fly for Boutique Air or Surf Air. I know for a fact they too are hiring way below their posted minimums just like Tradewind.


Here are the other Tradewind posts that are MUST READS for pilots considering apply here.


Not 100% accurate but about 90% accurate and management has done nothing to fix most of the issues addressed in this post.
The Truth About Tradewind


Pretty spot on.
Dear Tradewind Thanks For The Divorce!