The forum post at hand is a brief but telling snapshot of the informal knowledge-sharing that underpins much of the career-building process in the regional and cargo flying world. The original poster is seeking firsthand accounts from anyone who has flown as second-in-command for Air Cargo Carriers, a Part 135 operator known for flying the Shorts SD3-30/SD3-60 series—stout, twin-turboprop freighters that have long served as a niche entry point into professional multi-engine flying. The brevity of the query is itself instructive: there is little public documentation about day-to-day operations at small feeder-cargo carriers, so pilots routinely turn to peer networks like r/flying to fill in gaps that company websites, job boards, and even ALPA-affiliated resources don't address.
For working pilots and especially those early in their careers, this kind of question matters because operators like Air Cargo Carriers occupy a specific and somewhat overlooked niche in the aviation career pipeline. The Shorts 330/360 is an unusual airframe by modern standards—slow, boxy, non-pressurized in some variants, and largely absent from major fleets—but it remains in service with a handful of small freight operators because it's economical to operate on short, low-density cargo routes, particularly overnight feeder runs for integrators like FedEx. Flying SIC on this type offers real multi-engine turbine PIC-track experience, often with minimal hiring minimums, making it attractive to pilots trying to build time toward the 1,500-hour threshold or toward regional airline hiring minimums. However, the operational realities—night flying, marginal weather, older avionics, single-pilot-adjacent workloads even with an SIC aboard, and inconsistent quality of company training and support—vary enormously between small 135 cargo operators, which is exactly why direct testimonials carry more weight than a job posting.
This inquiry also reflects a broader and persistent trend in the aviation labor market: the enduring role of night-cargo feeder operations as a proving ground, even as major airline hiring has cycled through boom-and-bust phases in recent years. While mainline carriers and even regionals have tightened hiring in 2024-2025 amid slower pilot attrition and softened demand growth, the night-freight sector—flying aging turboprops like the Shorts, Metroliner, Caravan, and Beech 99—continues to function as a relatively steady, if unglamorous, entry point. Pilots weighing offers from operators like Air Cargo Carriers are essentially making a bet on accumulating quality PIC-adjacent turbine time and dispatch/decision-making experience under Part 135 rules, often in exchange for lower pay, unpredictable schedules, and physically demanding conditions (early-morning or overnight cargo runs, minimal crew support, aging equipment).
More broadly, this thread underscores how much career-defining information in aviation still flows through informal, crowd-sourced channels rather than formal industry reporting. Corporate and airline pilots who came up through similar cargo-feeder or check-hauling backgrounds will recognize the pattern: due diligence via forums, union boards, and word-of-mouth remains essential when evaluating smaller 135 and 121 supplemental operators, since safety culture, maintenance rigor, and crew support at these companies can differ dramatically from carrier to carrier despite similar regulatory oversight. For flight departments and chief pilots at larger operators, this also serves as a reminder that a portion of their pipeline—particularly SIC and captain candidates coming from Part 135 cargo backgrounds—bring operational experience shaped by exactly these kinds of under-resourced, high-autonomy flying environments, which can be a asset in terms of adaptability and decision-making under ambiguity, even if the equipment and infrastructure they trained on look nothing like a modern glass-cockpit jet.