My time to shine with Cape Air

If you get Montana, you'll be moving to Billings where I did my 141 training and went to college. Make sure to bring a jacket and expect lots of deicing. I use to work for Delta as a ramp agent and gate agent and knew lots of the Cape Air people at the airport. The pilots seemed cool and nice for the ones who jumpseated. Lots of flights would end up getting cancelled for weather in the winter months and you won't be doing any pretty Montana flying, but they all seemed happy in BIL.You'll get some awesome weather experiences though. I loved flying out there. Huge class C airport with traffic density of an uncontrolled field. :)

Congrats man! Billings is a nice cheap place to live too. I'm already sad that I left....
 
tcco94 said:
If you get Montana, you'll be moving to Billings where I did my 141 training and went to college. Make sure to bring a jacket and expect lots of deicing. I use to work for Delta as a ramp agent and gate agent and knew lots of the Cape Air people at the airport. The pilots seemed cool and nice for the ones who jumpseated. Lots of flights would end up getting cancelled for weather in the winter months and you won't be doing any pretty Montana flying, but they all seemed happy in BIL.You'll get some awesome weather experiences though. I loved flying out there. Huge class C airport with traffic density of an uncontrolled field. :)

Congrats man! Billings is a nice cheap place to live too. I'm already sad that I left....
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Billings was nice! I didn't have too many cancellations there due to weather. It was usually too cold for ice. The winds were the one thing to watch out for. Highest wind I've ever had was there... 53 gusting 62 but at least it was straight down the runway.
 
Thanks guys. I just want to go to a place with the most amount of flying so i can become a captain for them as quickly as possible. I have heard midwest routes are the biggest builders, with Billings and BOS a close second. Then again, even in the east coast, one can expect crazy weather.

@tlove482 How long were you with Cape Air for?
 
drupilot54 said:
Thanks guys. I just want to go to a place with the most amount of flying so i can become a captain for them as quickly as possible. I have heard midwest routes are the biggest builders, with Billings and BOS a close second. Then again, even in the east coast, one can expect crazy weather.

@tlove482 How long were you with Cape Air for?
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I was there about a year. I would agree with your assessment of time building. While Montana has the longest routes, if you get bumped from a flight because of weight and balance or a full load it is easier to get on another flight in the Midwest. Also, try to get hooked up with a captain on high minimums. It will pretty much guarantees that you get on most flights.
 
tlove482 said:
Billings was nice! I didn't have too many cancellations there due to weather. It was usually too cold for ice. The winds were the one thing to watch out for. Highest wind I've ever had was there... 53 gusting 62 but at least it was straight down the runway.
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Yeah and last winter was good. The year before we had 100 inches of snow (which was a record for us) and a week of -20 to -30 Fahrenheit WITHOUT the wind chill. The wind was always to brutal part to BIL. You get these beautiful Montana days and the air was so nice and then this wind comes in all day long at like 30+ knots. I was always impressed when I was deicing an Airbus or RJ to see you guys taxiing out to the end of the runway with the deice truck behind.

I'll never forget Cape Air's first day when they took over Silver at our airport. It was about 2 years ago and a huge snowstorm. I'm sure you guys were use to it though with flying on the easy coast, compared to Silver pilots...but that was just my assumption.
 
tcco94 said:
Yeah and last winter was good. The year before we had 100 inches of snow (which was a record for us) and a week of -20 to -30 Fahrenheit WITHOUT the wind chill. The wind was always to brutal part to BIL. You get these beautiful Montana days and the air was so nice and then this wind comes in all day long at like 30+ knots. I was always impressed when I was deicing an Airbus or RJ to see you guys taxiing out to the end of the runway with the deice truck behind.

I'll never forget Cape Air's first day when they took over Silver at our airport. It was about 2 years ago and a huge snowstorm. I'm sure you guys were use to it though with flying on the easy coast, compared to Silver pilots...but that was just my assumption.
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I remember weeks on end of -10 to -20 degree days in the North Country. The plane would frost as soon as it came out of the hangar. Coffee turned to mist when thrown into the air. And the Janitrol heater failing was a legitimate inflight emergency. -30 was my own personal record, but one of our guys ("The One Man Party") I think set the record at -40 one day. F. That. Noise.
 
milleR said:
I remember weeks on end of -10 to -20 degree days in the North Country. The plane would frost as soon as it came out of the hangar. Coffee turned to mist when thrown into the air. And the Janitrol heater failing was a legitimate inflight emergency. -30 was my own personal record, but one of our guys ("The One Man Party") I think set the record at -40 one day. F. That. Noise.
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LOL! I think my record low I got to experience was -21 and one night I had -49 with wind chill. I remember offloading airbuses and my hand were frozen about 3 minutes into the offload with all my gear on. If you closed your eyes, your eyelashes would freeze together so you had to open your eyes with your hands. It was an experience to say the least.
 
milleR said:
I remember weeks on end of -10 to -20 degree days in the North Country. The plane would frost as soon as it came out of the hangar. Coffee turned to mist when thrown into the air. And the Janitrol heater failing was a legitimate inflight emergency. -30 was my own personal record, but one of our guys ("The One Man Party") I think set the record at -40 one day. F. That. Noise.
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Even with the heaters working, it was bearly I doing the inside above 32 at altitude.
 
drupilot54 said:
Hey JC-ers. I wanted to thank everyone for all the help given to me to prepare for this interview. I am glad to say that i have been offered and have accepted a position at Cape Air and will be starting in December. I am so excited and super ready for this. Thank you again. All your help is definitely appreciated.
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drupilot, I'm curious what your hours are.
 
@tlove482 Finding that captain with high minimums, is that easier than it sounds once i become a line pilot?

@derFlieger I have just a little over 500 hours (which is what they said their hard minimums were when i contacted them in May. Of course they prefer higher).
 
drupilot54 said:
@tlove482 Finding that captain with high minimums, is that easier than it sounds once i become a line pilot?

@derFlieger I have just a little over 500 hours (which is what they said their hard minimums were when i contacted them in May. Of course they prefer higher).
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It involves a little bit of luck, but usually there will be a captain within a class of you that will be on high mins. Just ask scheduling to be paired with him. You will probably have to TDY at the outstation that the captain is based at though. That way you can fly his entire line with him and not just the middle legs.

Sent from my Venue 8 3830 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for that info. I am thinking they will also help me decide on where to go, especially since they probably want me to be a captain as fast as possible?
 
One question, how long did it take after the interview to get the job offer?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
tcco94 said:
If you get Montana, you'll be moving to Billings where I did my 141 training and went to college. Make sure to bring a jacket and expect lots of deicing. I use to work for Delta as a ramp agent and gate agent and knew lots of the Cape Air people at the airport. The pilots seemed cool and nice for the ones who jumpseated. Lots of flights would end up getting cancelled for weather in the winter months and you won't be doing any pretty Montana flying, but they all seemed happy in BIL.You'll get some awesome weather experiences though. I loved flying out there. Huge class C airport with traffic density of an uncontrolled field. :)

Congrats man! Billings is a nice cheap place to live too. I'm already sad that I left....
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Good ol' Rocky! I didn't go to school there, but I was a controller in Billings the last 4 years. On those cold days I'd see the ramp people and think to myself that I wouldn't want to be doing that!
 
tlove482 said:
Billings was nice! I didn't have too many cancellations there due to weather. It was usually too cold for ice. The winds were the one thing to watch out for. Highest wind I've ever had was there... 53 gusting 62 but at least it was straight down the runway.
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It was gusting up in the 70s a couple times. The radar antenna is rated for 80kts I think, so the tower uses that as a guideline for evacuation too. Happened a couple times while I was working there.
 
Stinger said:
Good ol' Rocky! I didn't go to school there, but I was a controller in Billings the last 4 years. On those cold days I'd see the ramp people and think to myself that I wouldn't want to be doing that!
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There's a chance I may have met you! I did a tower tour a little over a year ago. Definitely probably would remember your voice on the radios from flying in BIL.

I remember always irritating you guys when we would have to call every hour to update our runway status. We would get a call the minute our runways were over 1 hour by Delta Ops asking for updated runways... even if you guys didn't have an update. I miss playing that phone game lol.
 
I don't have much to add since I've been out of Cape Air for quite some time, but: I'd still be there if they paid more. Best job I ever had. No joke! :)

Congrats and have fun!
 
tcco94 said:
There's a chance I may have met you! I did a tower tour a little over a year ago. Definitely probably would remember your voice on the radios from flying in BIL.

I remember always irritating you guys when we would have to call every hour to update our runway status. We would get a call the minute our runways were over 1 hour by Delta Ops asking for updated runways... even if you guys didn't have an update. I miss playing that phone game lol.
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Good chance you did. I also went to Rocky's ATC class a few times. I never got why Delta would call for runway conditions. We call the runway whatever is listed in the notams.
 
Stinger said:
Good chance you did. I also went to Rocky's ATC class a few times. I never got why Delta would call for runway conditions. We call the runway whatever is listed in the notams.
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We called because our Ops or dispatch wouldn't release our flight unless we had updated runways EVERY hour. They wanted it with braking action from you guys. They annoyed us just as much as we annoyed you. I've had ops call our station manager in the middle of the night and say nobody is updating runways when we don't have a scheduled arrival for like 4 hours?!

Typically, I looked outside to see if anything drastic occurred over the hour to change it or not. Otherwise, I didn't call so I didn't keep bother you guys. Lol....just prepare for this winter though, they'll be calling a lot...I'm sure of it. I'm not there anymore though.
 
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