Canadian Careers?

[SquirrelFlight]

HowD all - it's been a while since I've been on, not to mention since I last posted.

 

Anyway, I spent the last month and a half in Toronto for business. I was originally contracted to be there until mid-December, but that contract got cut short. Anyway, when I first got there, anticipating the longer stay, I hopped online to see what there was in the way of helicopter flight schools. I didn't find very many, and most were pretty far from the city. One thing I noticed is that all the flight schools I looked at hired instructors starting at 2000 hours.... which immediately raised a question for me. Assuming that the training programs in Canada are similar to those in the US (that is, 200-300 for a commercial certificate) and that insurance companies are still the reason for 1000 being the "magic" number, then how does a pilot in Canada go from being newly licensed to working?

 

There has to be something I'm missing... but I'm not sure what it is.

[Tom22]

They get an FAA certificate and take advantage of the system in the U.S. That would be my guess.

[heligirl03]

Yep, the system works differently in Canada. Most newly certificated commercial pilots sweep hangar floors, etc etc, on bases in the far North, grabbing an hour here and there for mx or whatever they can get, slowly building time until an opening comes up and they are in the right place at the right time. CFI jobs in Canada are coveted home-at-night positions sought after by higher time guys who are sick of living in a wall tent thousands of miles from their family for 6 months of the year.

 

They can train here but its next to impossible to get a job here afterwards. Training/schooling VISAs and work VISAs are two very different animals. Might be cheaper/faster to train here and go home and do the Canadian conversion though...depends on how badly you want it I guess!! And how deep your pockets are (or aren't!)....isn't that always the way???

[Whistlerpilot]

HI All,

 

Busy few days here in Pemberton BC with several large forest fires burning near by. There have been about 12 helicopters flying out of CYPS fighting the closer fires. 3 Boeing Vertols with humungus buckets, a Bell 214, bunch of Astars, and Jet Rangers ferrying crews.

 

I thermalled to 12500' today in the glider but the smoke made it hard to see very far. Lots of radio traffic and fitting into the circuit between the constant helicopter traffic is interesting.

 

Thought I'd chirp in about how it works in Canada getting started since I have dual citizenship and both licenses.

 

In Canada 2000 hours is considered a low time instructor. Most are at the second half of the career working close to home. Hardly anyone gets a private license. The schools really focus on commercial training which is 100 hours but very concentrated. You have to do 80 hours of ground instruction which is usually done as a course with a group of students. Typically the training takes around 4 to 5 months then a new batch starts. If you get on with a good school and a good intructor there will be strong focus on "operational" flying.

 

After getting the license it takes around one to three years to get a flying job it you are lucky. Those years will be spent working on the ground paying your dues as ground crew perhaps flying a bit.

 

The majority of 100 hour pilots give up and don't get flying in the end. Right now is probably the worst time to be a low time pilot in the last decade or more here in Canada. It will turn around but right now a lot of pilots are happy for a fire season because last year there were almost no fires in Canada.

 

Last summer I was really lucky to have a job as a low time pilot flying a Bell 206 40 miles from the arctic circle. Actually I mostly helped the engineers, kept machines clean, answered phones, did logistics, etc. Did get to fly too. This summer no helicopter job and that company laid off all pilots under 1000 hours (about 40?) out of a staff of about 130? pilots.

 

So did the FAA CFI and flying gliders for a living. Hope the economy comes around soon. Can't wait to get up north again.

[SquirrelFlight]

Thanks for the answers. What I was hoping to find was a way to get from newly-minted commercial pilot to *actual* commercial pilot without flight instruction as a first step.

 

I'm not even thinking of myself in this case - a lot of people have told me that I do pretty well in an instruction role (I even spent a semester teaching math at community college and got good feedback from the student evaluations; the pay sucked - a lot - so I didn't go back).... but let's face it, there are some people who are competent helicopter pilots who should never be let near a classroom. And, honestly, who would you rather have teaching you: the guy who just finished training himself, or the guy who has a few thousand hours of real-world experience?

 

So, what's the answer? I don't know, but I was doing some mental masturbation the other day and thought what if there was a company or two that matched new pilots with experienced pilots who would work as a team until the new pilot got enough hours to qualify for "real" work? Sort of like an apprenticeship. I don't know if it would be organized like a temp-agency that would contract out the two-pilot teams, or if the company would have to own their own ships and contract out the whole package (ship, both pilots, and possibly other support services)... or something else I'm not aware of. So, the overall idea is, you'd get your COMM, then sign on to this "apprenticeship" company who would match you up with one (or more) experienced pilots, and put you to work right away. Then, when you get your 1,000 hours you can start looking for other jobs on your own.

 

Like I said, just some mental masturbation... I don't know if anyone else has ever tried something like this....

[kodoz]

...but I was doing some mental masturbation the other day and thought what if there was a company or two that matched new pilots with experienced pilots who would work as a team until the new pilot got enough hours to qualify for "real" work? Sort of like an apprenticeship...

 

This was briefly discussed (and summarily shot down) just a month ago. [link] I don't think anybody thinks it's not a good idea from a training perspective but from an operating efficiency standpoint, it's not gunna happen. I did offer any operator who was interested in establishing an internship help making it as hassle-free as possible. No takers.

[rotorrodent]

HowD all - it's been a while since I've been on, not to mention since I last posted.

 

Anyway, I spent the last month and a half in Toronto for business. I was originally contracted to be there until mid-December, but that contract got cut short. Anyway, when I first got there, anticipating the longer stay, I hopped online to see what there was in the way of helicopter flight schools. I didn't find very many, and most were pretty far from the city. One thing I noticed is that all the flight schools I looked at hired instructors starting at 2000 hours.... which immediately raised a question for me. Assuming that the training programs in Canada are similar to those in the US (that is, 200-300 for a commercial certificate) and that insurance companies are still the reason for 1000 being the "magic" number, then how does a pilot in Canada go from being newly licensed to working?

 

There has to be something I'm missing... but I'm not sure what it is.

 

This is how it works in most of the British Empire! Same goes for Australia where a dear friend of mine got his commercial and is now flying Tours until he gets 1500 hours, then he can start on his Instructor ratings. UK and Canada are the same pretty much.

 

Cheers

 

Rotorrodent

[SquirrelFlight]

This was briefly discussed (and summarily shot down) just a month ago. [link] I don't think anybody thinks it's not a good idea from a training perspective but from an operating efficiency standpoint, it's not gunna happen. I did offer any operator who was interested in establishing an internship help making it as hassle-free as possible. No takers.

 

Ah. it has been a while since I've been on here, and I didn't find the prior discussion with a quick search - thanks for the link.

[West Coaster]

One thing I noticed is that all the flight schools I looked at hired instructors starting at 2000 hours.... which immediately raised a question for me. Assuming that the training programs in Canada are similar to those in the US (that is, 200-300 for a commercial certificate) and that insurance companies are still the reason for 1000 being the "magic" number, then how does a pilot in Canada go from being newly licensed to working?

 

There has to be something I'm missing... but I'm not sure what it is.

 

Whistlerpilot is right, a 2000 hour pilot up here would be a fairly low time instructor. When I trained it was under 2 instructors. One had over 20,000 hours in helicopters and the other "new" instructor had 8500 hours in helicopters, both were former chief pilots of the 2nd and 3rd largest heli companies in the country.

 

Stats figure that of all the pilots in Canada who get their commercial heli licence, at best 1 in 4 will ever get a job flying. It's dog eat dog for jobs just pushing brooms or painting fences at the airport. I got my foot in the door by pestering a company for 8 weeks straight till they gave me a job to shut me up. When I got home and told my wife, she screamed and tackled me like we'd just won the lottery.

 

In a way..... we did. Been living the dream ever since

[SquirrelFlight]

Thanks for the replies. I guess there wasn't that much that I was missing.

 

If I head a better head for business stuff, I might look into trying to set up a company that contracts pilot (maybe even helicopters and pilots) two at a time - one "rookie" and one "mentor". Alas I don't, so it'll have to remain a pipe dream a little bit longer... off to read through the flight instructors manual again...