Star Marianas Air
01-26-2015, 06:59 PM
#31
New Hire
Joined APC: Dec 2014
Posts: 8
I have mixed emotions about SMA.
Saipan is a beautiful place. Paradise. There is great hiking, snorkeling, diving, and all that outdoors stuff. The way of life is really laid back. Most of the local women are pretty nasty but there are a lot of good looking American girls there that work nursing or teaching contracts. I did manage to meet the love of my life there, which makes me kind of biased on the whole experience there.
Looking back it was a great experience. You'll get out of there with more stick and rudder skills than you'll ever know what to do with. You'll VFR into IMC so often that you will wake up in the morning at see that its 3sm and overcast at 1000 and think it's a nice VFR day/night.
The problem is the Cessna guys work six days on, one day off. And since you're part 91, the incompetent dispatchers have no qualms about calling you in on a day off to right seat in a Navajo or sit around for twelve hours watching your coworkers fly. So you don't have time to snorkel, hike, and all that fun stuff you came to the island to do. Not that you could afford it anyway on your 19k a year (pre-tax, pre-"bonus" that they take out).
After a few months of flying wannabe TopGun Chinese tourists around, you upgrade to the Cherokee Six and get better pay. It was 30k a year, but they were trying to drop it down to 24k. That schedule is 3 days on, 1 day off. They'll call you in on days off if they need someone else to sit around at the airport doing jack, but will honor the one day every seven rule set by the FAA. The daily schedule is 14 hours of duty time, but you're only at work for about 12 of those. After a month flying the Cherokee during the day, you'll move to the Cherokee at night spend a little less time at work. After three months on nights, you'll get the privilege of flying cargo to Rota and Guam and get ATP cross country time.
If you're lucky, you'll upgrade to the Navajo PIC and get Multi Time. The pay is the same until you get your ATP (after a checkride with the Honolulu FSDO that to date only the chief pilot has passed.) where it goes up to 48k a year, but the QOL gets a lot better. Navajo guys work four on, two off.
Maintenance is good. They have dozens of Filipino mechanics and a couple A&P's that do everything. My only complaint there is that when the A&Ps aren't around, the mechanics can get kind of lazy so you have to pre-flight another plane since they're not going to fix yours anytime soon. But that's no big deal.
If you go, just know that the company is going to drive you insane. You're going to get so sick of the locals and your tourist passengers. You'll get tired of the corruption and bureaucracies. You'll see highway signs on dirt roads so the governor can pocket the federal highway money. You'll see a local person walk into a grocery store with a food stamp check, buy a pack of cigarettes, cash out the rest of the food stamp check, then proceed into the video poker room to gamble it all away in a night.
You'll go out to happy hour on the beach with your buddies then crash your scooter on the way home and laugh about it. You'll spend your day off hiking down onto some coral and onto a hidden beach where you can see the sunrise perfectly. You'll go onto a dinner cruise and spend an hour happily dancing with your girlfriend while the sun sets behind you and the sky a heavenly canvas.
When you leave, you'll miss it.
Saipan is a beautiful place. Paradise. There is great hiking, snorkeling, diving, and all that outdoors stuff. The way of life is really laid back. Most of the local women are pretty nasty but there are a lot of good looking American girls there that work nursing or teaching contracts. I did manage to meet the love of my life there, which makes me kind of biased on the whole experience there.
Looking back it was a great experience. You'll get out of there with more stick and rudder skills than you'll ever know what to do with. You'll VFR into IMC so often that you will wake up in the morning at see that its 3sm and overcast at 1000 and think it's a nice VFR day/night.
The problem is the Cessna guys work six days on, one day off. And since you're part 91, the incompetent dispatchers have no qualms about calling you in on a day off to right seat in a Navajo or sit around for twelve hours watching your coworkers fly. So you don't have time to snorkel, hike, and all that fun stuff you came to the island to do. Not that you could afford it anyway on your 19k a year (pre-tax, pre-"bonus" that they take out).
After a few months of flying wannabe TopGun Chinese tourists around, you upgrade to the Cherokee Six and get better pay. It was 30k a year, but they were trying to drop it down to 24k. That schedule is 3 days on, 1 day off. They'll call you in on days off if they need someone else to sit around at the airport doing jack, but will honor the one day every seven rule set by the FAA. The daily schedule is 14 hours of duty time, but you're only at work for about 12 of those. After a month flying the Cherokee during the day, you'll move to the Cherokee at night spend a little less time at work. After three months on nights, you'll get the privilege of flying cargo to Rota and Guam and get ATP cross country time.
If you're lucky, you'll upgrade to the Navajo PIC and get Multi Time. The pay is the same until you get your ATP (after a checkride with the Honolulu FSDO that to date only the chief pilot has passed.) where it goes up to 48k a year, but the QOL gets a lot better. Navajo guys work four on, two off.
Maintenance is good. They have dozens of Filipino mechanics and a couple A&P's that do everything. My only complaint there is that when the A&Ps aren't around, the mechanics can get kind of lazy so you have to pre-flight another plane since they're not going to fix yours anytime soon. But that's no big deal.
If you go, just know that the company is going to drive you insane. You're going to get so sick of the locals and your tourist passengers. You'll get tired of the corruption and bureaucracies. You'll see highway signs on dirt roads so the governor can pocket the federal highway money. You'll see a local person walk into a grocery store with a food stamp check, buy a pack of cigarettes, cash out the rest of the food stamp check, then proceed into the video poker room to gamble it all away in a night.
You'll go out to happy hour on the beach with your buddies then crash your scooter on the way home and laugh about it. You'll spend your day off hiking down onto some coral and onto a hidden beach where you can see the sunrise perfectly. You'll go onto a dinner cruise and spend an hour happily dancing with your girlfriend while the sun sets behind you and the sky a heavenly canvas.
When you leave, you'll miss it.
10-27-2015, 05:30 PM
#33
Line Holder
Joined APC: Nov 2013
Posts: 72
Originally Posted by Goose Lives
Just got an email back from them asking for copies of certificates, medical etc. Any clue if they will allow you to skip right to the Cherokee Six's?
03-18-2017, 03:53 PM
#34
New Hire
Joined APC: Mar 2017
Posts: 2
Any update on this place now that we are in 2017?
Weighing my options, but this place doesn't seems the place to bring my pregnant wife and 2 yr old while I'm off flying. I have a Skype interview scheduled for late next week anyone currently there or having recent experience with them would be great.
Weighing my options, but this place doesn't seems the place to bring my pregnant wife and 2 yr old while I'm off flying. I have a Skype interview scheduled for late next week anyone currently there or having recent experience with them would be great.
08-02-2017, 02:09 PM
#36
Line Holder
Joined APC: Oct 2012
Position: CL-65 CA
Posts: 77
It's a place to go if your single and looking for adventure. Not sure I'd bring kids. It was my first job outside of being a CFI and I enjoyed it immensely. They had 2 fatal accidents during my tenure there though. They give you just enough rope to hang yourself if you don't know what you are doing.
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