A warning to all new pilots.....

[Captain_Canuck]

Be sure you know what you are getting into!

Make sure YOU keep your school on the up and up and make sure they do not fist you with no lube! You are the boss as your are paying the bills. If you dont like something, speak up or be walked on.

Make sure you pick a flying school that fits your needs and not one that totally sells out all the local people for the high paying customers from China and India. This is OK if the school can handle it but often they cant and the locals get screwed.

Landing that 1st job is a BITCH....trust me. I am in that boat now. Companies that want to pay you 9 bucks an hour can go and screw themselves. The only way these bullshit salaries will stop is if people refuse to take them....ITS THAT SIMPLE. I know we all want to work but you have to have some dignity people; some pride in yourself.

Make the right choice!

[Cat Driver]

Make sure YOU keep your school on the up and up and make sure they do not fist you with no lube!

Better to not accept being fisted even with lube.

[Captain_Canuck]

Oh Cat Driver, they will fist you no matter what! 200 bucks for a photocopied manual that you need for a course, thats being fisted if you ask me.

You have been around this industry long enough, how do we stop the insanity?

[Cat Driver]

You have been around this industry long enough, how do we stop the insanity?

Unfortunately all you can do is protect yourself as best you can.

It's supply and demand, they fist people because the supply of willing fistees walk in the door.

[tiggermoth]

Or, do what I did. Buy your own airplane and get a freelance instructor. No school, No problems. Working great for me.
Of course I'm not going commercial, only private so it may be different for someone going into the commercial world.

[Cat Driver]

Of course I'm not going commercial, only private so it may be different for someone going into the commercial world.

True, it's even better.

The student gets to choose their instructor.

The instructor gets to pocket all that money wasted on having to support the FTU nonsense.

[tiggermoth]

Here is another added bonus I found right away. Once I was soloed, as long as my instructor was able to sign me off to fly, away I went. No waiting for the plane to come back, no bookings to make, no overbooked airplanes, no showing up for a flight only to discover the airplane was grounded due to previous students "oopsy". Just get in my own airplane and go fly. The only downside is that the instructor and my airplane are almost an hour away so it is a bit of a drive to get there. Oh well, almost finished (about 2-3 more hours and written/flight tests) and than I can bring my plane home.

[Wilbur]

$200 is completely reasonable for a photocopied 4000 page manual. Call the publisher and ask them how their price compares to the flying school's $200 photocopy version. Can the flying school owner spell copyright?

[Captain_Canuck]

Copyright= the right to add your own info as well as many other peoples (transport, Navcanada)

[dman119]

captain canuck

were you not aware that the your first job as a pilot is not going to pay well? were you not aware that the first job is extremely difficult to get? It looks as if you recently earned yourself a commercial license and are already bitching about the industry! Its good thing you didn't come into this industry when things were a lot tougher!

[sky's the limit]

captain canuck

It looks as if you recently earned yourself a commercial license and are already bitching about the industry!

Why shouldn't he/she?

There are tonnes of issues in the industry, and if the new people are not bitching about it, the rest of us who are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome sure as hell aren't making much of a difference. Are we?

If more new pilots would refuse the lousy wages, paying for PPCs etc, the operators might start to change the way they treat people. Of course there are good operators and really bad employees, but lets deal with the middle class.


stl

[Wilbur]

Capt, I'm not sure exactly what you mean with your "copyright =" statement.

A flying school can certainly combine material from different sources and add their own, but they can not photocopy any portion of the materials that are copyrighted by someone else. They can't photocopy various pages from different publications and then combine them into "their own" manual. If they do that, they are violating the copyrights for each publication they made photocopies from, and those publishers would almost certainly take them to task if they found out. If they want to make 100 copies of "their own" manual that combines elements of different publications, they would have to purchase 100 copies of each of those publications and then cut out the pages they want to use.

[wxnut]

..and not one that totally sells out all the local people for the high paying customers from China and India.

so that means bye bye montair and pro ifr? would PFC fall under the same boat cause of BCIT?

GO CFC GO then.

Landing that 1st job is a BITCH....trust me. I am in that boat now. Companies that want to pay you 9 bucks an hour can go and screw themselves. The only way these bullshit salaries will stop is if people refuse to take them....ITS THAT SIMPLE. I know we all want to work but you have to have some dignity people; some pride in yourself.

Instead of ranting about jobs, take the time you're spending on avcanada, go and travel, bring a few suits, and drop off some resume's here and there. Why not fly for an american originated airline out of panama? get paid 4500 dollars / month, have a type rating paid for, gain F/O time, move to captain seat, come back and get a job with WJA like the snap of a finger? Afterall they only fly 73G's and EMB190's...

go and check it out over at COPA Airlines. If you want to stick ur ass in the canadian industry as a low timer, you're going to get paid less than a janitor, it's a given. If you're willing to move, get some experience in country's that will give you that job then why not do so? I mean you have to work hard to achieve what you want to get. If that means not living a 1st world life style for 4 years but getting some valuable experience and time, isn't it worth doing so? Unless your situation suggests that you are married, and have kids, and what not. But I think you're young enough to explore.

I know, it's easier to sit home and msn every day / that's what half the people do here anyway


Good Luck Canuck!

[North Shore]

Gotta Hablo Espanyol, though to work there, methinks..

[wxnut]

Actually you don't they will put you into prepaid spanish classes. There are a ton of foreign pilots flying for them.

[skydivepilot]

Good post. We definitely have to stick up for ourselves with the flight schools and employers.

[float-driver]

Tiggermoth,
What did you buy?
Happy with it?