Orca Airways

CleansUpNicely · Post by **CleansUpNicely** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:51 am

Very true Bruce plus at those companies you can have a second job if you want to to supplement your income. Seems to me that Orca is the perfect example of why unions exist in this industry. Hint hint to any Orca pilots on here.

bruce! · Post by **bruce!** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:57 pm

Hozer · Post by **Hozer** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:18 pm

Heard a Rumor that Orca has recently lost some of there cargo routes. Any truth to this or is it just BS.

human garbage · Post by **human garbage** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:30 pm

I can confirm Bruce is right about the two 'four hour shifts' and a day rate. When I was there a few years back it was straight pay from the time you arrived at the airport until you went home. The new day rate scheme sucks balls. As someone pointed out, you are not truly free from duty. I suspect it was brought in to prevent having to pay overtime for any day that exceeds 8 hours. Nice dodge for the company, but a real shaft for the pilots.

A bond for the 'Ho now? Wow. Good luck with that. It will cost as much in legal fees to collect as its worth when someone jumps it. Why fricken' bother? I'll withhold my prediction of paid PPCs - I want to believe they are better than that.

I don't know about the loss of routes but will look into it. Doesn't seem likely given Carson and Sunwest are the other choices out of YVR running equipment that is much more expensive to operate... Who knows though. Drop the ball enough and being cheap won't matter to the couriers...

yvrflyguy · Post by **yvrflyguy** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 12:48 pm

They lost 4 runs last week and it looks like there may be more to come. Sounds like most of their pilots are down to working 2-3 days a week. Don't be surprised when the orca whale gets beached belly up in the mud flats of yvr.

Hozer · Post by **Hozer** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 2:38 pm

"Don't be surprised when the orca whale gets beached belly up in the mud flats of yvr."

CleansUpNicely · Post by **CleansUpNicely** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 4:38 pm

Any idea which runs they lost and/or are losing?

bruce! · Post by **bruce!** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 6:48 pm

i heard ylw yyj ycd dhl not to sure what the 4th would be.

dieselbro · Post by **dieselbro** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 7:02 pm

I'm quite suprised to be seeing things turn so sour for this operation. Especially after growing consistently from such a small outfit to one that has 15+ aircraft. Anyone have any info as to why they have lost these routes?

pilotwannabe · Post by **pilotwannabe** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:43 pm

I heard they lost the routes due to the previous ops manager imposed a 11 hour rest period without consulting other managers... Basically pissed off customers, they lost the runs due to performance issues, pilot hours get cut.... standard economics I guess...

ohno · Post by **ohno** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:03 pm

I doubt thats true pilotwannabe. I've heard that the Orca pilots voted on what would be sufficient for time to reset between reporting for work and they came up with 10 hours and 15 min. To me that would make sense to meet the regulations. What I have been told by pilots who work at Orca is that the owner dictated that if any bag run was to be affected it was DHL cuz they weren't renewing the contract anyways. Also as soon as the old operations manager left the owner told pilots that the rule was that they only needed 9 hours in between shifts to meet the reset requirements. I guess if you live in the plane it works...???

bruce! · Post by **bruce!** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:45 pm

i can confirm ohno is correct with all that. basically the company is going down the crapper because it is ran by an idiot! not to sure where you got your info pilotwannabe but you should go check your sources bud.

CleansUpNicely · Post by **CleansUpNicely** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:35 am

They only need 9 hours now? So in an environment that is saturated with low-time pilots who routinely work 14 hour days, they've actually gotten rid of a rule that was designed to make the company safer? Sacrificing safety to make a buck I suppose.

My question is how would 9 hours ever work? Even if I lived in a camper van in the parking lot, 1 hour is not nearly enough for me to shower and prepare and consume two meals.

bruce! · Post by **bruce!** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:02 pm

be interesting to see if they are still doing over 14 hr duty days since the 6 months of that was supposed to end in mid march.

human garbage · Post by **human garbage** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:53 pm

pilotwannabe wrote:I heard they lost the routes due to the previous ops manager imposed a 11 hour rest period without consulting other managers... Basically pissed off customers, they lost the runs due to performance issues, pilot hours get cut.... standard economics I guess...

Does 11 hours off duty to get 8 hours of prone rest sound unreasonable? I sure don't think so... If that is what pissed off clients then tough shit. Pilots are people, not machines. Minimum rest requirements exist for a reason.

bruce! wrote:i heard ylw yyj ycd dhl not to sure what the 4th would be.

In keeping with the DHL theme likely YKA...

bruce! wrote:be interesting to see if they are still doing over 14 hr duty days since the 6 months of that was supposed to end in mid march.

Its 6 non-consecutive 30 day periods, not six months. That is all academic given that with 9 hours off duty now there is no way the pilots are going to get their extra hour off to comply anyhow.

If they are using it, they shouldn't...

SpiltMilk · Post by **SpiltMilk** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:35 pm

Since when does an OPS MGR need to consult other Managers in order to comply with the regs concerning Duty Times and Rest Periods? Pretty sure that is he or she's responsibility. It's the OPS MGR who has to make sure that the flight crew comply with the regs.

PILOTWANNABE: that is what you always will be. Not a Pilot nor a Professional.

Charlie Papa Lima · Post by **Charlie Papa Lima** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:11 pm

Such a shame that the changes DC and JS implemented in the short time that they held the reins, are going to waste. The company certainly appeared safer under their guidance and the increased rest periods were greatly appreciated by the pilots. I guess that it is time for the pilots to stand up for themselves and fight for realistic rest periods as 9 hours between shifts isn't enough.

DC and JS were a breath of fresh air for Orca in many ways and their departure speaks volumes about the inner workings of the company.

I'm sure that there are a lot of other reasons for the not so subtle slide towards the old days around the South Terminal that anyone outside the company doesn't know about but from the outside the future doesn't appear to look so great.

bruce! · Post by **bruce!** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:21 pm

i would rather jump off the dinsmore bridge than work for AN

Pontius Pilate · Post by **Pontius Pilate** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 4:17 am

I'm sure we can find a higher bridge... Have a good trip

bruce! · Post by **bruce!** » Sat Mar 31, 2012 6:01 pm

dont want to hurt myself

dieselbro · Post by **dieselbro** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:24 pm

Heard another rumour recently about this outfit. Really seems ridiculous but you never know...

Pilots are taking another paycut so that the company can afford to buy some Metros for the fleet.

Discuss/Confirm/Deny?

iflyforpie · Post by **iflyforpie** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 8:31 am

So they now pay to fly the airplane?

Pandy · Post by **Pandy** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 1:27 am

dieselbro wrote:Heard another rumour recently about this outfit. Really seems ridiculous but you never know...

Pilots are taking another paycut so that the company can afford to buy some Metros for the fleet.

Discuss/Confirm/Deny?

hmm is this new? or a few months old?
I know earlier in the summer the pilots were given a paycut.
They were switched to Salary without being told. Managment only told the pilots of the pay cuts when the pilots asked why their checks were smaller.
I hope for the pilot's sake that this isn't ANOTHER paycut.

I'm QUITE sure that unilateral move is illegal. It's amazing the TC & labour laws they are able to ignore.

90% of their runs are bag runs....yet just under 50% of their A/C have the required crew door. hmm how does that work I wonder?.....

boeingboy · Post by **boeingboy** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 7:36 pm

This place is just another Sonic blue - I'm suprised it took this long for the really bad, bottom feeding companies to return to YVR.

Apparently they won 3 runs for Dynamax/DHL from - of all places - Carson air. You don't get much cheaper than Carson and still make anything. So 3 runs for 3 planes and nothing to rob parts from like they do with the hoe's. That will be good!

And where are they getting them from?????? None in Canada, so they will end up comming from some field in the states or south america. Now you have no spares and planes that will be giving you headaches from the start.

They will be doing Castlegar (for sure), Kamloops and Fort St John (I believe).

I hate to say it - but they are going to end up piling one of these (Metros) into the ground.

altiplano · Post by **altiplano** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:04 am

Sad to see the south side still such a frackfest...

I wouldn't be surprised to see KC selling the Metros to Orca - I'm sure he's getting tired of those runs and with the money he's printing in BCAS contracts and Fedex/Purolator runs who needs the headache?

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