Cape Air
 

So what do you guys/gals think of or know about their operation? I always see them advertising on Climb350 anyone have the inside scoop?

I think robthree should be along to give you the inside scoop at some point. He's the only one I know on this board who works there at the moment. Give me a few weeks and I'll be able to help too. :)

Aileron,

Most of the information here http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/pa...-cape-air.html
and here http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/pa...-cape-air.html
is still current and accurate.

Happy to answer any specific Q's you have.

- Rob.

Hey Rob,

Thanks for the insight. I''ve sent my resume over for review and still awaiting a call... Just curious if Cape is still hiring Capts/FO's? I exceed 135 IFR mins and have plenty of turbine/single pilot ops. The one thing I'm lacking is ATP. I chucked in my stuff about a month ago and still no nibbles. Any rumors on growth or hiring?

They are hiring. They had an open house last weekend. It was mainly for potential Captains, but I asked Gene if everyone was welcome (I'd be trying for an FO position), and he said absolutely. I wasn't sure what to expect, but when I checked in, I was asked if I would be interviewing today... I told him I hadn't planned on it, but I sure can. I went and got some things out of my car, used the computers in the lobby to print out a Letter of Recommendation (they wanted one, but since I hadn't planned on interviewing, all I had was a few copies of my Resume and Cover Letter).

It was more like an interview than an open house. They had a room setup with different pamphlets about the company and some knick-knacks (pens, stuffed airplanes, t-shirts, etc.), but it wound up being the attendees waiting in a room shooting the breeze while waiting to be called for an interview.

Anyway, Ed Braz told me that I'd know by today about their decision, but I haven't heard anything yet. They are still hiring, though. I overheard some people talking about them adding new routes, so it sounds like they're continuing to grow. Robthree could probably confirm that.

Yeah I'm not in the position to attend the open house. I work and live in Hawaii so jumpseating to the east coast and making it back for my shift becomes a little risky. If I had an actual interview set up than I would use some vaca for a little buffer time.

I know that they're super busy over there right now. The only reason I got a call when I did (and it still took 3 weeks) was because a friend of mine walked in my resume. Just sit tight! Cape seems like a great place to work.

Anybody know if their mins are strict @ 1000 for FO'S? I'm just over 800/75 now

Yes, they are pretty strict. I originally got denied because I only had 950TT. I knew someone on the inside who got me the hookup.

I know I read on here captains make $15 a duty hour...whats a typical work week going to look like? also, how hard is it to pull the Indiana routes?

To my knowlege they're ending service to IND.

Pulled the plug on Indiana a couple weeks ago. All crews were displaced. Many ended up in ALB.

ALB is 9K's newest base, serving EAS routes to way upstate NY. Shifts there are 4 on, 5 off. Show time on day 1 is around noon, release on day 4 is about the same. Overnight in the outstation, car and hotel provided. 14 hour duty days, 42-44 hour credit per duty period.

Other bases have you home every night. 5/2 schedules are most common, some 4/3, 3/3/, and 4/4s are available. Daily schedules run from 6 to 11 hours of duty, with weekly duty times between 38-46 hours.

Thanks for the posts guys...do you have the pay scale? Or does it stay at 15 for a while. I take it you can pretty much bank on average of 40 hours of pay a week?

Longevity pay increases of about a buck a year are the norm.

Most lines are worth about 40 hours a week (+/-5). OT is readily available in season, if you are looking for a bit more.

hey robtree you seem pretty smart with all the cape air stuff... I got offered a PIC position and im about to be furloughed from a regional... moving to hyannis/boston/wherever is a big thing for me and i just want to know im gonna be safe here ya know... question is whats keeping cape air affloat... is it that a lot of there routes are subsidized or what??

smithee,

I'd say that Cape is as safe a place to be as any. Which isn't saying too much right about now. All the growth has been in the EAS business. To date it has been reputedly profitable. With luck the new routes will be as well.

The other business is operating to geographicly isolated areas on segments which are too short for larger airframes to be profitable on.

BOS - PVC is a 30 mile, 15 minute flight, or a 150 mile, 6 hour drive.
HYA - ACK is a 26 mile, 14 minute flight, or a 45 minute ride on the fast ferry, or 2 1/2 hour ride on the slow ferry.
RSW - EYW 1 hour flight, 6 hour drive.
STT - STX 30 min flight, 2 1/2 hour ferry, in some of the deepest, roughest waters in the world.


Many Cape air pax are quite well off and appear somewhat immune to a poor economy. The median price of a house on Nantucket is over 1.6 million. Another big segment of our traffic is commuters to the island. There is a very small pool of labor on ACK -so construction and tradesmen fly over every day to go to work - its actually much cheaper to buy a R/T ticket every day than to live on ACK. And the very high end of the Real Estate market has not been affected at all by the housing bubble bursting - so they've still go work to do, both new construction and remodeling.

Oh yeah one other thing, we burn AvGas, not kerosene. And a lot less of it than what you're probably used to.

yea good explanation. I'm very excited to come fly I just want it to be a good move. But I guess I'm just happy to have another offer in todays industry. Especially one with such a good reputation. Thanks for the info I'll see ya next month

I m working in Naples, FL. KAPF
Does Cape Air need pilot base in RSW?

I hear FL goes very senior, but that's just what I've heard floating around.

it's very true

On today's seniority list the most junior of the four RSW pilots has a DOH of early '06. There are about 100 full time pilots on the list junior to him.

I see, I m redsox fan graduated from BSC love working back in northeast; I got TT:1600hr; still need about 100hr xc (50nm) for ATP checkride qualified.:cool:

Will Caair continue hiring through end of year?:confused:

Go Sox! Hah I'm curious about continued hiring there also....and dumb question but how senior would BOS be these days? Thanks!

Do they have part time pilots? If so, where?

hey nightip... just wondering how training is... they still have me in the oct 22nd class but i wont be able to come until nov... do you know of any nov classes??

I'm in the early November FO class. No exact date yet, though...

I sent Krista an email on Friday, just waiting for a response.

my class is a PIC class... do they run a PIC and FO class at the same time??

Yes. The only difference is the checkride.

Goin' good so far. The training pipeline is a little backed up so my class is just starting to get into the plane tomorrow. Groundschool was only 5 days long (long days, but you get it over quick!), and then we've basically had this last week off with just one flow trainer and one sim. So far seems like excellent training. :)

By the way, we have an intern in our class who's doing the SIC thing. He's the only one, but he went through the same groundschool as the rest of us PICs. His training syllabus is 10 units long instead of 12 in the PIC syllabus, but it's very similar.

I still need 140 hrs xc(50nm) to get ATP; will Cair still continue hiring during winter?:confused:

Go Redsox!:cool:

Maybe, though I heard the incoming class is mostly FO's so I don't know how many of those slots they will be looking to fill or how many of them will upgrade to capt within the next several months. The Caribean is going to be really busy this year; only time will tell who they might be looking to hire this winter. Remember, for the ATP you don't actually have to LAND anywhere, the flight just has to go 50 nm from the point of origin.

Mason, sorry for the late reply... its been a really bad week.

All pilots are hired for full time service. After a complete season of flying (North/Summer or South/Winter) it is not unusual for pilots who move on to Net Jets or someplace like that, to remain on the seniority list and pick up open time on thier days off from thier other job.

That's the part I really want to make sure because I've heard so many different explanations about the ATP xc requirement.

If I flew w/student to an airport that took 25nm to get there and came back (rountrip total distand 50nm), that will qualify as xc time for ATP:confused:

Also, if my airplane is traveling 100kt and I flew 1 hr (100 nm) w/out secondary airport, that can count as xc:confused:

Just want to make sure I will be on the same page w/DPE for checkride.

Nope, it needs to be 50nm away from the departure airport, but you don't have to land.

Yes, you can count that for the ATP certificate only. For point-to-point cross country time (i.e. for Part 135 PIC mins), you need to have simply landed at a different airport; there are no distance requirements.

I probably should post this in the airline pilot knowledge base area but I know robthree is a C402 pilot and should be able to answer as well as others who might read this.

I am curious with a heavier load of people on the 402 how often you have to bump baggage? How much baggage even fits in the nose area? I've read the weight up there is somewhere around 250lbs in the avionics bay and 350 in the nose compartment but wonder just in terms of space how much can truly fit in there?

And I've also read about there being an aft shelf "A" and "B." When the airplane is configured in the highest seating capacity...is there even space back there for baggage or do some of the seats fall on top of these weight areas?

Thanks in advance for anyone's help. One of these days I'll make it out to Boston and fly on Cape Air. By far one of my favorite operations and favorite airplane.

402Fan,

With a heavy pax load in the 402 ample ballast in the AV or Nose is essential. If the checked baggage is not sufficient, we throw sand bags up there as well.

Bumping of bags for space is uncommon, bumping bags for gross weight is almost unheard of.

The A & B aft shelves are in the cabin and there is ample space for bags there. Balance is the primary concern when you start loading bags in the aft.

just a curious question...does cape air hire into the atr in guam? or how long does it take to get awarded it?

thanks

Thanks....

Nope. It's pretty senior, the most junior SIC was hired in '05.

We just recently had to go looking outside of the company for SIC's for the ATR and have some of them in training right now. Although you are correct when it comes to PICs, they are pretty senior guys.