Love To Fly

I've probably spent four months on Guam over the past five years and have never ever seen a snake. I've even looked for them.

Sincerely,

Willie Edwards

KAT3

Pm me with your questions.

flyreggiefly11

It depends on the person. Some have been there for 3 years, others leave after 1 yr, one even left after 6 months.

They are trying to buy Navajos. They want to do pax service to Rota, and then Guam. But do NOT go based on the HOPES of flying multis here. It has always been a "believe the rumor when you're sitting in the navajo ready to take off" kind of thing. They fed us with talk of Twin Otters before I even got there; and in my 1 yr 4 months there, I never saw a multi with SMA pilots flying it.

BeardedFlyer

So what is the pay?

Redstone256

I'd be interested in knowing the pay as well. What about cost of living? Someone mentioned $350 a month rent but what does that get you? A plantation house or a efficiency apartment in the barrio?

KAT3

If its the cherokee side, I've been there and done that, PM me.

Neosporin

Bob Christian? OMG, run awaayyyyyyy.

no, go for it. I flew for PIA back in the 90's, PA 32's, I made 36 landings in one day once, SPN-TIN-SPN, all day. then flew the Shorts eventually.

The tree snake thing is a VERY old story.

Only part of Tinian is inhabitable, the Navy owns half of the island.
Saipan is great, lots of old relics from the war. Good people, great locals, good food, and seafood. Tinian also.
Don't worry there are lots of mainlanders, teachers, Dr's, etc.
have fun!!!

HoneyBadger7

Looks like a nice time builder

Redstone256

If anyone knows, or has heard, I've got a few ?'s about SMA and living there....

What is the pay schedule like? I saw somewhere that they pay a fixed salary regardless of number of hours flown. I supposed that's good if you're only making 15 minute hops between Tinien and Saipan all day. Is it enough to live on and still have enough to put away into savings?

Are SMA pilots still required to live on Tinien or can you live on Saipan? I would want to bring my wife and she'll be in the market for some kind of a professional position (she's got a business degree). It looks like there would be more opportunities for that on Saipan

If pilots can/do live on Saipan, what's the best way to get to work if you're based out of Tinian?

What are the schedules like? Is it a four 14 hour days on / 3 off type schedule or more like 8-5 five days a week?

Where do most pilots live? I've been looking at garagesale.saipan.com to get an idea of cost of living and it looks like a basic apartment is going to be in the $400-$600/mo range. There are some posted that are significantly cheaper but I would be concerned about the neighborhood.

Is owning a car pretty much mandatory? I read that there's no public transportation. I would imagine having one shipped over there would be prohibitively expensive and it's better to just buy one there then sell when leaving. Could one make it with just a bicycle or scooter of some kind?

Does SMA have any kind of cooperative, CASS style agreements with any airlines? Living so close to Asia, it would be really cool to hop over to Japan, Thailand, or Manila for a few days to check out those places. I've never been anywhere outside of North America and the Caribbean.

Thanks!

rickair7777

I'd do it for a year if I was low-time. Plenty of diving, snorkeling, hiking, etc on those islands. Natives are friendlier than many places.

Lot of strippers on Guam, imported from Cali. They cater to Japanese tourists...if you're not a Japanese tourist, you can date them. Watch out for the local "girls" though.