What floatyghosthat said. You don't need any background in aviation, nor post secondary education to be able to do the job. In my experience, having prior aviation experience only really gives you a leg up in roughly the first month of training. Some of the most skilled specialists I know hadn't eve...

We used to have one of those for a bit at my site. It's similar to an AWOS in that it's automatic and broadcasts on a VGM, but the main difference is an AWOS gives a complete weather report updated at regular intervals, an AU only puts out the wind and altimeter setting.

Okay, so I guess my real question is WHY? Every FSS knows you're inbound. They have a strip on you. They even give you as traffic to other aircraft, even BEFORE you inform them of your presence. So why is this "warning, I'm inbound, hide the women and children" call even a requirement? I suspect th...

From what I understand, it's not just radar requirements, there's a number of other factors involved in having pre-taxi clearances. You need SIDs, STARs, agreements with the ACC, and other stuff as well. I don't forsee getting that in YTS any time in the near future. In the mean time, when we(FSS) d...

In my experience, the only time we'll ask if a medevac flight's a priority is if we're dealing with more than one. Since we don't know the urgency of the flights, we ask in order to sort out who goes first.

Timmins actually just got bumped up to an E

I asked this same question to my local FSS team a little while back. I may be wrong in some ways, but I know the night shift for the local radio is 2030 local to 0630 local. They do a change at 1230 and 1330 local also. They rotate on 3 radio positions and maybe one person checking the weather too....

Don't know too much about the other two, but Rankin isn't so bad to work at anymore. Instead of living up there full time, the staff there are based in Winnipeg(I think) and do two weeks in, two weeks out.

FSS isn't a bad gig at all. There is possibility to cross train later on, but isn't the easiest to get.

Varies from station to station. Some stations have 8 hour days, some have 12, ours is 10.7.

There is possibility to cross train later on. Just keep in mind, it's not as simple as it sounds; You will have to jump through many hoops, and there's no guarantee that you will actually get it.

FAJW, miss that bird. Anyone know who has it now?

Just out of curiosity, how'd you aquire a copy of MANOPS? Normally only NavCanada employees have access to those documents.

As one of the friendly neighbourhood FSS you'll be speaking to in Muskoka, it's not that different than at an airport without a ground frequency. Instead of broadcasting to traffic, direct your calls to Timmins Radio. As we do have to do a lot of multitasking, we apreciate a heads up call with your ...

If you say "have the numbers and traffic," they can skip giving you the runway, wind, altimeter and weather information, but FSS are still required to pass you traffic even if you say you have it.

Could you point me to the CARS reference for this?

I don't know how it would work for parental leave, but I was able to collect regular EI while I was on course. I had been laid off in January and my course started the beginning of April, so I was already collecting prior to my course. I can't remeber the exact details, and it may have changed in th...

It's not up to the FSS. They shall give to you exactly what the controller gave to them, how they gave it to them . If the controller says FPR, they say FPR. If the controller reads out the entire route, they read out the entire route. And no, the FSS does not necessarily have your flight plan in fr...

I ran into this problem too. From what I was finally able to gather after hitting a lot of dead ends of "Oh, you're FSS? Then you're not my problem," is that it is up to your CAME and primary physician what you can take and safely work. I'm on SSIs for anxiety and depression, since my medication can...

The reg in question doesn't mention whether there is an on-site service or not, but I'll assume that, since it's an MF, there is. I don't know if it is mandatory to call 'clear' or just on the ground, but looking at it from a legal standpoint, that call is a declaration on air(and tape) that the air...

If you're referring to the aptitude test, there is definitely math on it. It may have changed slightly in the eight years since I took it, but they'll be generally looking for the same things; Mental math and guestimation, listening skills, spatial reasoning, reading comprehension, and a personality...

Not exactly. I have been a controller for >20 years. I was a flight instructor in the RCAF before that. Let me just say that during wings training on the basic jet course in the air force, the success rate was ~80-85%. I will let you draw your own conclusions. Just trying to understand your POV. Wo...

I work at YTS FSS. As a formal investigation is in process, all I can really say is my hat's off to the pilots.

I said it was a possible explanation. If you're really dying to know, try locating the people looking after them and ask them.

Quick possible explanation. Most VORs are monitored from central locations. If a monitoring light goes from green to red or orange, a notam is issued until a tech can get out to the site to have a looksee. The problem then has to be identified and fixed. If a new part is necessary, often those need ...