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Animal posted:Just completed my first oceanic crossing, PSM - HHN. I can't say I memorized all the little steps. Time to find some German beer and see what Tinder has to offer. Awesome! I used to work for arinc as an HF radio operator and worked oceanic traffic for New York Oceanic and the Piarco FIR. I can answer anything related to HF procedures and CPDLC/datalink stuff.
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Jul 10, 2016 16:27
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Animal posted:Just completed my first oceanic crossing, PSM - HHN. I can't say I memorized all the little steps. Time to find some German beer and see what Tinder has to offer. Haha that sounds pretty nice.
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Jul 10, 2016 18:12
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After speaking with both the instructor I went up with last Monday and my wife just speaking with her boss a few minutes ago, who retired as an Air Canada captain 2 months ago, I'm most likely going to go commercial. In Canada people are getting right seat for some smaller regionals with as little as 250 hours multi and 1/3rd of the Air Canada pilots are going to be retiring within the next 5 years or so. Basically, now is probably the most ideal time in my entire life to try and become a pilot. With the ink just barely dry on a commercial license I shouldn't have a difficult time at all getting that crucial first job to build hours while making just enough to scrape by until I get enough time under my belt to move up.
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Jul 10, 2016 18:46
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two_beer_bishes posted:Awesome! I used to work for arinc as an HF radio operator and worked oceanic traffic for New York Oceanic and the Piarco FIR. I can answer anything related to HF procedures and CPDLC/datalink stuff. I think FAA regs require a CPDLC position report upon first way point in American airspace like going Fukuoka to Anchorage airspace. Nobody has ever bothered me if we didn't send it so I wasn't sure if the info the ADS is spitting out meets this requirement or if it's just the controllers don't care like missing the early Havana to Miami radio call.
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Jul 10, 2016 21:19
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Jul 10, 2016 21:23
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SCOTLAND posted:I think FAA regs require a CPDLC position report upon first way point in American airspace like going Fukuoka to Anchorage airspace. Nobody has ever bothered me if we didn't send it so I wasn't sure if the info the ADS is spitting out meets this requirement or if it's just the controllers don't care like missing the early Havana to Miami radio call. Not sure if the ADS reports meet the regs but I don't remember ever asking a pilot for a position report that had operational ADS. We'd ask them to reset their ADS/CPDLC and try to log on again, and if that failed then we'd require HF voice reports.
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Jul 10, 2016 22:09
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EvilJoven posted:After speaking with both the instructor I went up with last Monday and my wife just speaking with her boss a few minutes ago, who retired as an Air Canada captain 2 months ago, I'm most likely going to go commercial. Joven you're being sold a load of goods, I'm sorry. Flight schools have always sold their commercial programs the same way; "hey bro the pilot shortage is coming you should get in on this RIGHT NOW". The reality is that they are trying to generate business by playing on your hopes and desires. As for the hourly requirements, well, SCOTLAND nailed it earlier; you're not getting into the Westjet/Air Canada pipeline unless you've got 1500, no ifs, ands or buts. This is of course after you spend a year or two on the ground scrabbling away in a non-flying job earning barely more than minimum wage, and a couple of years or more building the time you need to get to that 1500. You can bypass some of this by instructing, but be warned that some companies look at you like a leper if you've ever instructed. All I'm trying to say is, buyer beware. The conditions here in Canada have not changed as much as one would like to hope they have over the last decade or so.
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Jul 11, 2016 00:39
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PURSUE YOUR DREAMS! THE TIME IS NOW! Don't question why nobody else is doing it!!!
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Jul 11, 2016 00:48
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Oh yeah, I forgot Canada has the bullshit operators where you start as a ramper, then advance to flight attendant for some reason before maybe getting the chance to become an F/O. Not meaning to cut down on his goal, but I remember watching Ice Pilots NWT while in flight training thinking I probably would have given Buffalo Joe the finger after about 3 days in that pyramid.
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Jul 11, 2016 03:55
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CBJSprague24 posted:Oh yeah, I forgot Canada has the bullshit operators where you start as a ramper, then advance to flight attendant for some reason before maybe getting the chance to become an F/O. Fun fact: one of my instructors left to work there, and then did that, and continued to be my instructor. I think more people end up doing that than they would dare show on the TV program. Also, I think their Air Operator's Certificate got revoked. I don't know if it was ever reinstated. I hope that old employee-abusing fuckstain burns in hell. (And do you really want to fly a DC-3 on a regular basis anyway? You end out the job with no turbine hours!) EDIT: drat, it looks like the AOC got reinstated in January.
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Jul 11, 2016 04:26
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Actually this isn't a load of bull being fed to me by my flight school, it's stuff I'm hearing from people that have nothing to gain financially by me getting my CPL. People like that instructor I flew with out in Saskatoon because I had an afternoon with nothing to do. She said her boyfriend is already been in the right seat for one of the operators out there (Not WJE or Jazz I think one step lower) for a while and he got in at something like 350 hours. Also my wife's boss (Retired AC) and a few other people I've spoken with. My instructors really haven't said anything about future training plans. MrChips if you could elaborate on what you're hearing that's contradictory definitely pile it on.
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Jul 11, 2016 06:21
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Well I can give you four anecdotes. A friend of mine finished his CPL over ten years ago. He worked as a flight instructor for a few years then got a job as a flight engineer with Cargojet and was promptly laid off. Worked for Transport Canada running flight simulators for a while. Ended up leaving that job to take a low paying air ambulance job just to get away from TC. At around the ten year make he got hired by Porter. Next two guys I took to Oshkosh last year. Both were graduates from Sault colleges aviation program and are employed as an air ambulance pilot in a remote area and as a flight instructor respectively. The young guy who runs the local flying club recently got hired as a flight instructor and can just about pay for the gas to get himself to work. He managed to do it with only $18k in debt by doing most of the flying in the club plane so he has that going for him. To give a little contrast I took a two year college course and got hired in a skilled trade. I have a stable job and schedule and have enough money to fly my own plane for fun. If you are married and have a decent job I would not put that on the line to pursue aviation as a career.
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Jul 11, 2016 14:50
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It turns out my Aviation Document Booklet is valid through April 1, 2017 (and also I managed to find where I'd put it -- that wasn't the easiest thing) so I don't need to renew that. Next step, I think, is to get my medical renewed, and I've sent an e-mail to the local flying club to see what the process is for getting re-current after taking this much time off. I checked and it turns out my last flight was on July 29, 2007. drat, that's a long time ago!
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Jul 11, 2016 15:10
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Animal posted:Just completed my first oceanic crossing, PSM - HHN. I can't say I memorized all the little steps. Time to find some German beer and see what Tinder has to offer. To quote the "highlight" briefing by a German head of training The average German male gets 70% of his calories from beer Get a long haired dictionary to learn the language, but don't marry her...
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Jul 11, 2016 16:48
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In re cpdlc. Check in is usually Kestrel xxx, request selcal check, gander (etc) next If all good you get Backup 3598, at 30w contact gander Read back frequency, positive selcal, sleep Also,Santa Maria now have radar northbound from navix... No position reports in oceanic when non cpdlc.  But funny old thing, stops abeam the Spanish Portugese fir boundary... Who knew the Azores were Portugese
hjp766 fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 16:54
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hjp766 posted:In re cpdlc. Check in is usually NY arinc shares frequencies with Santa Maria, which can be a huge pain when it's busy, but I picked up a little Portuguese during my time there!
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Jul 11, 2016 17:13
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We didn't have selcal on the herc. RIP my ears after listening to 800 hours of HF static.
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Jul 11, 2016 17:24
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EvilJoven posted:Actually this isn't a load of bull being fed to me by my flight school, it's stuff I'm hearing from people that have nothing to gain financially by me getting my CPL. People like that instructor I flew with out in Saskatoon because I had an afternoon with nothing to do. She said her boyfriend is already been in the right seat for one of the operators out there (Not WJE or Jazz I think one step lower) for a while and he got in at something like 350 hours. Also my wife's boss (Retired AC) and a few other people I've spoken with. I stand by everything I have said in my previous post. No offense Joven but right now you are at that point in your flying development where you are very high in confidence and low in judgement - I mean, you have soloed literally two weeks ago. This not only can affect your decision-making process in the airplane, but also literally everything you do surrounding aviation as well. You have said already that you have a successful career - how much money and for how long are you willing to work for substantially less than you are right now? I'm going to lay it out for you in no uncertain terms:  For the first four to five years of your flying career in Canada, you need to be prepared to work more than full-time hours for no more than $30,000 per year.More importantly, if you're married, how much of that is your wife willing to forego? Is she willing to put off moving into a nicer house, or having a family? Because if the answer is anything less than ten years (which is about how long it takes to start making a decent living in this business), going into commercial aviation will likely to be the worst decision you will ever make. How much do you value your relationships with your friends and family? Because if you go into commercial aviation, I guarantee you that a good number of those relationships will end, and the fun thing is there's no telling which ones will survive and which ones won't. Don't listen too hard to the old-timers like your wife's boss - their career paths were dramatically different to the one you will likely face, and yours will almost certainly be infinitely harder than theirs. Back in the 70s when a lot of these soon-to-be retirees started out, it was entirely possible to go straight from the flight school and straight into a Boeing 737 at one of the little provincial airlines that used to exist. That is little more than a pipe dream today.
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Jul 11, 2016 22:00
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Ya I'll definitely be thinking long and hard about it and this is still a 2+ year process By the time I get done with my PPL we'll be losing daylight to the point where there won't be any accelerated training due to lack of daylight after work so I'm pretty sure PPL is as far as I'm going this year.. My VP was serious about me being able to fly on business trips when they make sense but that might be a once or twice a year thing. Enough incentive to get my IFR rating so I don't gently caress up scheduling because the weather refused to stay green the entire trip. (Can I fly VFR OTT with an IFR rating?) and possibly my night rating. These are both things I want eventually, even if I don't do it for a living. With all this I can still just be doing this as a hobby more expensive than a good coke habit but without the massive added expense of a CPL and abandoning a half decent paying job.
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Jul 11, 2016 22:33
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Everything involving airplanes is a horrible financial idea all the time, this has always been the case, and it will always be the case. The only decision to make is exactly how much of it you want to put up with.  Also, and this is a very good thing for you Joven, you obviously don't know anyone with a coke habit. It makes aviation look affordable! I don't dare touch the stuff, but I've seen people put tens of thousands of dollars up their nose, and they don't even have a career at the end of it. PT6A fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Jul 11, 2016 |
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Jul 11, 2016 23:17
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Anecdote number 5. My Uncle retired from Canadian airlines in 2002. He had to take a job as a school bus driver to make up for the difference in income when he switched from flying for Austin Airways (one of the old small Canadian regionals) to flying for Canadian circa 1980. Nearly lost his house but it paid off in time. Aviation is not for the faint of heart.
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Jul 12, 2016 01:23
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How old are you? if you're smart and have good vision, military flying isn't a terrible idea. great way to get your taxpayers to pay for your flight education. plus you get to fly cool stuff and pretend you're maverick
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Jul 12, 2016 02:55
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Bob A Feet posted:How old are you? if you're smart and have good vision, military flying isn't a terrible idea. great way to get your taxpayers to pay for your flight education. plus you get to fly cool stuff and pretend you're maverick Man I wish I had done that Army warrant officer Helo thing
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Jul 12, 2016 03:59
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Same here - but I super doubt I would have qualified/made the cut back when I was 18-19 and sort of forgot about it until I had passed 33 years old. I've heard it's insanely competitive though.
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Jul 12, 2016 04:49
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36 and need glasses, no military for me.
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Jul 12, 2016 13:32
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Does anyone happen to know whether an inguinal hernia is a "definitely won't get a cat 3 medical" issue or a "might not get a cat 3 medical" issue? I'm pretty sure I've got one (and I'm actually pretty sure that I had it when I got my cat 1, but I guess it didn't get caught), and bearing that in mind, I don't want to waste the doctor's time if I'm just going to be told to go get surgery and then come back later. Edit: I did google this already. The guidelines for the person conducting the examination say inguinal hernias are not safe in the aviation environment (disqualifying, I assume), but the CARs say it's only a problem if it might cause incapacitation. I do have a call into the actual doctor about it, but I thought I'd ask here first. I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I'd prefer not to have surgery if I don't need it. PT6A fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Jul 12, 2016 |
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Jul 12, 2016 20:46
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EvilJoven posted:After speaking with both the instructor I went up with last Monday and my wife just speaking with her boss a few minutes ago, who retired as an Air Canada captain 2 months ago, I'm most likely going to go commercial. As MrChips mentioned, the info you are getting is an exaggeration of the current situation in Canada but I suppose not totally incorrect. Depending on your definition of regionals, then some people are getting hired at 250 hours. Other regionals like Jazz have agreements with certain Aviation Colleges like Seneca & Sault, where they offer a cadet style program to top grads. The AC retirement numbers are off too. We are currently in what would have been peak years if mandatory retirement at 60 was in effect and although some are still going early others are and will be pushing it to 65. I am in the bottom quarter of the seniority list and am forecast to move up about 410 numbers in the next 5.5 years. On a list of 3300 you can see that the number is a bit off. People like your Wife's boss have a somewhat unrealistic view of the industry for the most part. They lived through the best years and were part of the right demographic group to have amazing careers for the most part. My average income for my first 5 years of commercial aviation was 16,000 per year or so, and in year 1 I spent more than I made keeping my car on the road to make it to the airport to instruct. That said, I think it still is a decent time to get into aviation in Canada, the peak might have been 3 years or so ago, but any major economic event can and will bring this industry back down onto its knees. I consider myself very lucky in terms of how my career has gone so far because I know that the career path of some of my friends and classmates has not been as great.
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Jul 12, 2016 21:26
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PT6A posted:Does anyone happen to know whether an inguinal hernia is a "definitely won't get a cat 3 medical" issue or a "might not get a cat 3 medical" issue? I'm pretty sure I've got one (and I'm actually pretty sure that I had it when I got my cat 1, but I guess it didn't get caught), and bearing that in mind, I don't want to waste the doctor's time if I'm just going to be told to go get surgery and then come back later. I had surgery for an epigastric hernia and still hold a first class no problem.
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Jul 12, 2016 22:47
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e.pilot posted:I had surgery for an epigastric hernia and still hold a first class no problem. Yeah I know it'd be okay if I got surgery, but I'm assuming that I do, in fact, have to get the surgery to hold a medical. Otherwise I'd probably just leave it alone because it's not painful or anything. EDIT: The doc got back to me, and it is disqualifying until repaired. Welp, off to the doctor with me! PT6A fucked around with this message at 12:55 on Jul 13, 2016 |
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Jul 12, 2016 23:10
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What Canada really needs is a foreign owned RyanAir But seriously, on pilot side, how little do you think they are planning on paying their aircrew?
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Jul 14, 2016 18:29
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bunnyofdoom posted:What Canada really needs is a foreign owned RyanAir Is Calgary's airport really expensive to land at or something? None of the new ultra-low-cost carriers want to serve it, it would seem. Just as well, I'd rather pay extra and have a seat I can actually fit in.
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Jul 14, 2016 19:19
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PT6A posted:Is Calgary's airport really expensive to land at or something? None of the new ultra-low-cost carriers want to serve it, it would seem. Yes. Calgary has some of the highest landing fees of any airport in Canada and by extension the world. Also, I am seriously laughing at probably half of Jetlines' proposed destinations. I give them about a 5% chance of surviving their first five years; same with Newleaf really.
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Jul 14, 2016 20:26
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EvilJoven posted:Ya I'll definitely be thinking long and hard about it and this is still a 2+ year process By the time I get done with my PPL we'll be losing daylight to the point where there won't be any accelerated training due to lack of daylight after work so I'm pretty sure PPL is as far as I'm going this year.. To tack on another anecdote, I've presently got about ~1200 hours and have yet to bother sending in resumes to Jazz/SKV/GGN. I am working as a Multi and IFR instructor and hoping to close in on 1500 by winter and start applying. The last ~1,000 hours has taken me about 2.5 years to amass. But the big thing I did differently, and what I've recommended to everyone I've advised since, is start slow and maintain another income. Entry level aviation in Canada is unsustainable. My first year-ish I taught quasi part time and worked in an unrelated field for the Federal Government. During that time I banked as much cash as I could. The following year (Calendar 2015) I was able to arrange a Leave Without Pay and instructed full time - as probably the busiest instructor in the place I made a whopping $19k but the savings from the year earlier backstopped that. I went back to the feds for about 4 months in early 2016 but then quit outright when got my current MIFR instructing gig that does still come with a rather poo poo income but by now I've become a Class 2 (more $$$ per hour) and am getting more billable hours every week so that helps. From what I've gathered you can take two paths here in Canada - slow and steady where you have savings and/or another income (the bar industry was really popular amongst my colleagues - nights weren't super busy for a fresh Class IV instructor anyways), or ramp-to-fly jobs that will probably get you your hours faster (if you play your cards right) but require either a vow of poverty or a second paycheque from The Bank of Mom & Dad. A guy I know got his CPL on literally the same day as me and decided to go up to Rankin, tough it out and managed to survive for a while, got onto a King Air up there for pretty poo poo pay as well, but is now an FO at Jazz (for perspective). The boom is coming but yeah, I can smell a Flight School Sales Pitch from a mile away and this has all the hallmarks of one. As a note, the words 'Pilot Shortage' make my bullshit meter go off the charts. There is no shortage. There is a moderate-to-significant uptick in attrition and hiring, but not a "holy poo poo who's going to fly these planes?! shortage." Don't get me wrong, now is the best time in recent memory to be diving into this field IMO, but that is relative to the exceptionally poo poo years we've just passed.
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Jul 15, 2016 01:41
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MrChips posted:Yes. Calgary has some of the highest landing fees of any airport in Canada and by extension the world. Also, I am seriously laughing at probably half of Jetlines' proposed destinations. I give them about a 5% chance of surviving their first five years; same with Newleaf really. Hmm, I wonder why? Simple supply and demand, or something else? I'm at the very least surprised no one's trying Red Deer to try and pick up some ultra-low-cost folks from Calgary -- it's roughly the same distance as Frankfurt/Hahn is from Frankfurt itself, and that doesn't seem to be hurting Ryanair.
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Jul 15, 2016 02:07
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I have 12 month on monday. Systems oral, manuevers in the sim and then a LOFT. Ughhh. Totally dreading this poo poo. I have forgotten literally everything about all of the systems in my jet, I'm pretty sure. All my classmates feel the same way, too.
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Jul 15, 2016 02:59
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Let me reiterate here. My flight school isn't trying to talk me in to anything. I just want to make that clear because so far those guys have been really good about not trying to separate me from my money. Today was precautionary and forced approaches. Again my instructor said I surprised him with how good my hands on flying skills are. He also said that me being so comfortable in the cockpit is going to bite me in the rear end because it's causing me to occasionally miss minor checklist items that can become major problems really fast. That's poo poo I gotta take to heart. It didn't help that I was doing my takeoff checklist while we were watching a guy doing a low flyby and then listening to him talking to tower about how he was going to deal with his stuck gear. Manual extension worked fortunately. Still, no excuse.
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Jul 15, 2016 04:25
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Anybody in Syracuse? Flying there from Wilmington today with a two plane section for a lil cross country action.
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Jul 15, 2016 11:21
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Bob A Feet posted:Anybody in Syracuse? Flying there from Wilmington today with a two plane section for a lil cross country action. That's the second closest airport to me. I've flown out of there in the past but now I fly out of KRME. Why the eff would you guys fly all the way up here? PM me if you want any info. i am kiss u now fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Jul 15, 2016 |
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Jul 15, 2016 15:00
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Bob A Feet posted:Anybody in Syracuse? Flying there from Wilmington today with a two plane section for a lil cross country action. I live in Syracuse. Pm me
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Jul 15, 2016 17:41
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Syracuse is my flight schools go to place to go for American check rides. Apparently dinosaur BBQ is the place to eat
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Jul 15, 2016 17:45
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