GypsyPilot
Mohawk Town
This is an interesting video... Key Lime has always had a bad rap, but I admire this guy’s enthusiasm and he seems to do a decent job of explaining what it’s like to work there:
A day in the life of a Key Lime Pilot...
- Thread starter GypsyPilot
- Start date
GypsyPilot
Mohawk Town
That would be around $40k/yr these days. Pretty bad... But Denver was WAY cheaper to live in back then, even checked for inflation.
GypsyPilot
Mohawk Town
Ha. Nice... When I was in community college, the Tivoli was our student center/bookstore.
arkflyr
Well-Known Member
In 2005 starting pay at Central Air in an AC500 was 1500$/month for the first six months increasing to 1800$ thereafter if I remember correctly.
As for Key Lime, well I don’t know much beyond their reputation but hopefully things have improved over there over the years. They used to do some engine work for us during the waning days of ACT.
gotWXdagain
Polished Member
I watched one of the DO Jets take off out of APA back in February, at about 500’ it dumped an assload of gray smoke out of the right hand engine, and kept going on its merry way trailing a nice long gray cloud. Lol whatevs.
nibake
Powder hound
I remember looking a little closer at Key Lime a while back. My jaw dropped at the jet/brasilia captain pay. About 60% higher across the board when compared to something like Endeavor (I just picked them as a typical regional for comparison). Talk about a huge disparity. It made me curious what is up with that. I remember noticing that they were direct hiring 121 FO positions so a person wouldn't have to do the metro life if he/she didn't want too. It makes me curious how seniority is for upgrade there. Unless I'm missing something (maybe the desire to live to a an old age?) It seems like the payscale leaves other regionals in the dust. As a matter of fact, it looks like the payscale is currently higher than my soon-to-be mainline payscale at Minnesota's own sun-on-the-tail airline. I do get better vibes about life expectancy there, though.
I know this is the cargo thread, but it is Key Lime we are talking about after all.
I know this is the cargo thread, but it is Key Lime we are talking about after all.
CFIT99
I'm probably commenting ironically...
holy crap i made close to that as a Saab FO in 2010.....
z987k
Well-Known Member
Do you know what a metro looks like?
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Dog rocket
z987k
Well-Known Member
denverpilot
Well-Known Member
I just wish they’d not use the ramp near my hangar at APA as a dumping ground for the metros they’re yanking parts off of to keep the others flying.
Looks like ass when I take someone flying. Junkyard. If not on the passenger terminal side, as soon as you taxi to the taxiway near 10/28.
Passengers get to see their garbage piled there without engines and flight controls and such. Total mess.
But they pay the airport a lot more than I do, I suppose. And buy a lot more fuel.
Locally there’s mixed reactions when you ask folks about them. Many seem to like flying for them. Others worry about the safety record. I don’t really have a solid opinion. Other than their airplane litter is all over my airport ha.
Was surprised they used a metro that didn’t have the “KL” at the end of the tail number in the video. Most have that. Drove a friend crazy finding a tail for his airplane because that’s his initials. Haha.
I told him at least they weren’t “UA”. LOL.
I used to badger him by sending him phone photos of all of them on their maintenance ramp.
Have been inside a couple of the metros with permission. Definitely as stripped as possible and basic panels. Some real honest work in those cockpits taking those things into the mountains.
Someone mentioned the pay scale for the passenger stuff. They don’t seem to fly too often. The charter thing out of APA isn’t technically supposed to be on a schedule... no airline service allowed by the rules at the feeder airport, but they publish dates and times and people buy tickets online. Kinda pushing right up against the rules for the airport but not pushing so hard they pop the balloon and bring the wrath of local homeowners past the Airport Ops people into their laps.
They have a pseudo terminal setup inside Denver JetCenter East Building and signage to find them for passengers. Parking lot is way too small for that chit for their larger airplanes. Cars everywhere blocking Aspen Flyjng Club and other training businesses in the building.
But everyone seems to get along even though it’s kinda a mess. Not really built to be a pax terminal.
Looks like ass when I take someone flying. Junkyard. If not on the passenger terminal side, as soon as you taxi to the taxiway near 10/28.
Passengers get to see their garbage piled there without engines and flight controls and such. Total mess.
But they pay the airport a lot more than I do, I suppose. And buy a lot more fuel.
Locally there’s mixed reactions when you ask folks about them. Many seem to like flying for them. Others worry about the safety record. I don’t really have a solid opinion. Other than their airplane litter is all over my airport ha.
Was surprised they used a metro that didn’t have the “KL” at the end of the tail number in the video. Most have that. Drove a friend crazy finding a tail for his airplane because that’s his initials. Haha.
I told him at least they weren’t “UA”. LOL.
I used to badger him by sending him phone photos of all of them on their maintenance ramp.
Have been inside a couple of the metros with permission. Definitely as stripped as possible and basic panels. Some real honest work in those cockpits taking those things into the mountains.
Someone mentioned the pay scale for the passenger stuff. They don’t seem to fly too often. The charter thing out of APA isn’t technically supposed to be on a schedule... no airline service allowed by the rules at the feeder airport, but they publish dates and times and people buy tickets online. Kinda pushing right up against the rules for the airport but not pushing so hard they pop the balloon and bring the wrath of local homeowners past the Airport Ops people into their laps.
They have a pseudo terminal setup inside Denver JetCenter East Building and signage to find them for passengers. Parking lot is way too small for that chit for their larger airplanes. Cars everywhere blocking Aspen Flyjng Club and other training businesses in the building.
But everyone seems to get along even though it’s kinda a mess. Not really built to be a pax terminal.
Yeah... I didn't know how high they operated. Makes more sense now. That thing not having an autopilot though...
z987k
Well-Known Member
Doesn't need one. It does require a competent pilot though. Not a babysitter.
Oldschool Pilot
Well-Known Member
I did TDY for a few weeks in Denver supplementing Key Lime due to their pilot shortage at the time a few years back. All I can say is if you want to fly freight don’t fly out of a major airport. I found myself just sitting around and waiting from anywhere 45 min to almost 2 hours before loaders even touched my plane. There’s no way to gauge when they will start loading. At a smaller hub where I was permanently based we relied on a single UPS jet. I was able utilize flight aware to know exactly when I had to be at the airport. Basically 30 min after landing at the latest to be at my plane. It helped me get much needed sleep and not having to sit around and wait. Just a little food for thought
D
Deleted member 27505
Guest
Hell, that sound like more than you'd make doing the same job today.
Similar threads
