Historically it was almost unheard of. Post Covid, while not common, it is an order of magnitude greater than it used to be. What makes this puzzling is that it is actually much harder to get fired now than it used to be. Talking to friends who are check airman at American and Delta, I think it is s...

Air Canada used sim evals for many decades up until about 2004 or so. Not sure why they stopped. Probably $$$. No issue at all if you have some basic flying skills. I am not sure why confirming that a candidate has the baseline aptitude and ability that they claim to have and that they need to do a ...

Steep turns, 2 engine non- precision approach, single engine ILS. Speeds , pitch, and power settings all given to you beforehand, all raw data. Pretty basic stuff. (Unless you are one of the few who has spent 2000+ hours in an airplane and managed to avoid acquiring the most basic of flying skills ....

Pay didn’t used to affect how well you flew an airplane, but did affect to a large degree how long you stayed in a job. I worked some very poorly paid jobs and learned to fly an airplane pretty damn well. Subsequently the sim ride at AC for both myself and my new hire colleagues was a fun non-event....

Air Canada used to assume that by the time a person had an ATPL, 2000 hours, and a 705 Type Endorsement, that they could fly an airplane. Historically the assumption for the mist part held true. That assumption is now being challenged and has nothing to do with pay.

Sim evals are real and being selectively applied in the case of certain applicants. Evals are done in the 767 sim. Consideration currently being given to sim evals for all candidates as in years past.

The recruitment problem at Jazz is serious but at this point a fairly short term issue. When AC hiring slows, the music will stop everywhere, just like it always has. Coupled with the shrinking of Jazz after 2025 and the pilot shortage is over - for the medium term anyway. AC knows all this because ...

Thumbs up Rudder.
Thx.

Well this is going to get interesting. What Air Canada knows and the “ bearded children” probably don’t, is that a labour arbitrator is very constrained in what they can consider when rendering a decision. They cannot just award what they want or what they think is fair. They have to consider a myri...

Imagine if every RJ pilot currently flying the airplane at Jazz had been hired to fly the airplane at AC. Think about that…because you own it. Eventually the airplanes would almost assuradly have been operated by a regional carrier, but not after first depressing wages and working conditions for a d...

Cndnaviator….. I would you call you out for being the ultimate hypocrite except it wouldn’t be fair as you probably weren’t around when the race to the bottom started. And who started it? The predecessor to Jazz who was constantly offering to fly the CRJ cheaper than AC pilots were. Pilots who had t...

Been involved in two pilot strikes- both cases had no choice but it isn’t a fun rodeo. This is my fear , hopefully I am wrong. I usually am. AC will cost the price if giving us whatever it takes to prevent a strike, and also the cost of the likely contract after a strike. They or their consultants k...

Serious question. So the BOD told management that the priority was to “ protect the summer.” Makes sense. So my question is, would it be possible for us to go on strike in June when we have the most financial leverage? My read of this mediation is the earliest we could strike is Aug. Is this the cas...

....we had a contract clause that stated that ALL new hires start off in one of two positions. One was 50 seat RJ FO, the second was Relief Pilot. There was ZERO capacity for the Company to train a brand new pilot into any other position. This was done so that anyone who was currently holding a pos...

I’m old. I don’t do VO. I stood on the informational picket line outside the terminal in YYZ. I have walked two picket lines that produced much needed changes to our employment contracts that are still benefitting junior pilots today. And you think I am the reason your career isn’t what you think it...

Pawnees are pretty tough and this is probably going to be determined to a failure due to fatigue cracking or corrosion. Looks like the rear spar pulled out of the fuselage. Having said that, dumping the entire load while simultaneously pulling up is pushing the margins. During the load dump G is loa...

Truedude..I thought that was the minimum amount of metal allowed after 2025 in the CPA. Irregardless, the clue is AC exercising options on the additional A-220’s, which incidentally is part of the reason AC needs 6000 pilots in a year. The writing is in the wall. But I could, and would love, to be w...

After next summer , Jazz probably only has to crew 80 Q-400’s. Like I said, I think AC corp. had played this masterfully. ALPA, not so much. Hopefully I am wrong.

My gut feeling is that AC/Jazz have played this masterfully - give just enough to nurse the operation thru next summer and then it doesn’t matter. To understand why, you have to understand that pilot hiring at AC has always been the driver of all pilot hiring in Canada right down to flight instructo...

Yes, I understand that. My thought is that the judge is going to say; “ Hey, AC couldn’t offer 60% because Jazz was already cancelling 50+ flights a day last summer and costing the company tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue. (Remember, a company’s financial viability is the overriding consi...