What kind of work are you doing with it? The 172 XP is great for training and maybe sightseeing with two passengers. I don't think it would be very useful for anything else. Even the work you can do with a 180 will be very limited if you're carrying a bit of gas. There are some operators using 180's...

So what is CMA like for guys with a couple thousand hours who get hired as an FO hoping for a somewhat quick upgrade? Clearly the pay sucks as it looks like it's even less than Georgian and EVAS but what is it like to work there?

I make substantially more than that on the Caravan. But you'll get jet time

Is it seasonal? At least 6 grand. Even then I think thats on the low side.

We (a float company) get lots of resumes from guys with a $10,000+ multi IFR and 7 hours on floats. The first thing I wonder is how serious this pilot actually is. If you want to do floats as a career (and its a good career) or even if you want to do it for a few years, get the float time now and wo...

I don't really understand whats so wrong about him going right seat in the twin otter with no float time. The guy in the left seat is going to babysit him anyway. I do ratings once in a while but I just help out at a school out west when i'm not working so that wouldn't really work. I think you shou...

Take your pick, Georgian Bay or Lake Country. Lake Country is the cheaper option because they use the 172 instead of the 180. I think the only other option in that area would be to find a private guy willing to train you.

We're going to start training pilots middle of next week and hoping the following week we can get into some of our lakes. I did a little fly around yesterday to check out a few places and it looks way better than last year.

I was in a similar situation to you. I had two maxed out credit cards, a line of credit and a personal loan by the time I finished my CPL in 2012. A few weeks later I started my first job flying and started paying it off. I will have it all paid off by the end of this float season. I don't advocate ...

phillyfan wrote:The real question should be, How many people actually do the "solo" time during a float endorsement?

I had one student that I couldn't let go solo without extra training, it wasn't in his budget so he didn't get his rating. He was really pissed off and I felt bad for him but what could I do...

When I got my first job I had a few hundred on floats and sometimes I still felt like I didn't really know what I was doing. That's pretty lucky to have been able to rack up 100+ hrs on floats before even getting a gig. I was lucky enough in that I could build up some float PIC by ferrying floatpla...

With all due respect you are incorrect. I agree with you that 7 hours is not enough but the operators i've listed have hired 7 hour float pilots, done their required 3 hours of training and cut them loose. I have personally seen it. I do not think it's a good idea and I have an understanding of my c...

^ That was a useful reply. I just posted a list of operators that do exactly what I said.

I only do ratings once in a while when I have time but 100% of my students get trained on glassy water. It doesn't matter if they need to come back in a few weeks to get it. If there are schools doing glassy training without real glassy water the student is going to be in a bad situation the first t...

Sandy Lake Seaplane, Kenora Air, River Air, Chimo, Adventure Air, Atikokan Aero.

I'm not recommending that someone who wants a float job only gets a 7 hour rating but it is possible.

Floats is by far the easiest way to get PIC time these days. After the first season of flying/dock work you're flying every day, anywhere from 300-600 hours per season. Even if your goal is to fly for an airline eventually (which is way less fun than flying a floatplane, but to each their own) it's ...

I looked into flying on the west coast and last year a couple companies, Harbour Air was one of them, showed interest in me but the pay was shockingly low. Harbour Air was paying less than half of what I get in NWO. And here I get room and board and tips. There is no manual labour involved with HA b...

Sounds like an average salary. I'm sure there are folks making more and some making less. There are hardly any higher time float guys around in NWO so you have to pay well to have a chance at getting anyone good.

What kind of pay increase do you guys usually get each year? Given how competitive it is getting I think going back to the same company warrants at least a $500/month raise. It's kind of strange that a few years ago I was sending out resumes and begging for my first job and now i'm getting unsolicit...

Yeah you're spot on shimmy. We do really work hard during the summer. I'm still fairly young but not sure I want to be humping drums around when i'm older.

It is nice to be able to work for 5 months a year and then travel and screw off to Florida or wherever for the rest of the year though.

I agree Cat. Per month I make nearly double what a Q400 captain at Encore makes, they can keep their smart people and i'll keep driving my little 9 seat floatplane

Bump... has the water turned liquid up north yet? Seeing a lot of float driver adds showing up in the job postings. Still at least 2 months to go for that. Last year I was dodging chunks of ice at the beginning of June. New pilots starting flight training don't really seem that interested in floats...

I don't understand why you guys are jumping all over these kids. Maybe you have info that I don't but how old was Max Ward when he started his air service? Early 20's? I say good on these guys for having entrepreneurial spirit. They had an oil problem, who knows why, maybe they had no business flyin...

I think every Beaver guy with any significant time has had that happen a few times. Some of my passengers are pretty hefty and barely fit in that seat so it aways gets bumped.

I agree with you Illya and I tried to do the same thing but in my experience nobody would look at me unless I already had the group 1 on my license. I'm not really sure why but nobody wants to hire a pilot without the group 1 even if a PPC would upgrade his IFR to the group 1 anyway. When I only had...