Any info on this company?

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thanks!

Skyward?

F/O Crunch wrote:Skyward?

Nope. I think he's talking about Skywords out of Buttonville, (YKZ). All I know is that they do banner towing and traffic reporting. Minimums are 250TT they have just one 172, (I could be wrong). Not sure about the pay but it sounds like a pretty cool job.

Sweeto! Didn't know of em'.. Good luck 3fb

Crap job, but if you have a pulse you should be a shoo-in. I worked there for a few miserable short winter months about 6 years ago. When I got the job I was told "it's on a volunteer basis" and refused. They ended up paying a small, small amount which I am embarassed to even print. Flying is 45 mins in the morning and 45 mins in the evening for traffic- the hours absolutely suck and it is difficult to hold another job around this one. Working lunches at a restaurant is how I did it.

Banner towing is a one man show ie. YOU. You assemble it, set it up, pick it up, fly it, drop it, clean up and put it away...ground time:flight time ratio for those flights is about 4:1, worse in winter. A ton of work for an hour flight. Oh and you sell the banners too- in other words you go out and find the people that want to advertise, your reward being flight time, presumably.

I will say that the owners have found a lucrative way to combine two professions where newbies are easily exploitable- aviation and radio. The traffic reporters get paid crap too. I suppose I'm a bit bitter but hey that was the industry 6 years ago; I was laid off and would take anything. These days I think you could easily, easily do much better than this company. Proceed at own risk and DON'T work for free!

Dockjock wrote:Crap job, but if you have a pulse you should be a shoo-in. I worked there for a few miserable short winter months about 6 years ago. When I got the job I was told "it's on a volunteer basis" and refused. They ended up paying a small, small amount which I am embarassed to even print. Flying is 45 mins in the morning and 45 mins in the evening for traffic- the hours absolutely suck and it is difficult to hold another job around this one. Working lunches at a restaurant is how I did it.

Banner towing is a one man show ie. YOU. You assemble it, set it up, pick it up, fly it, drop it, clean up and put it away...ground time:flight time ratio for those flights is about 4:1, worse in winter. A ton of work for an hour flight. Oh and you sell the banners too- in other words you go out and find the people that want to advertise, your reward being flight time, presumably.

I will say that the owners have found a lucrative way to combine two professions where newbies are easily exploitable- aviation and radio. The traffic reporters get paid crap too. I suppose I'm a bit bitter but hey that was the industry 6 years ago; I was laid off and would take anything. These days I think you could easily, easily do much better than this company. Proceed at own risk and DON'T work for free!

You lowered our industry by doing what you did, DO YOU GET THAT? You are part of the problem. And rest assured, I have done the same, so I change that to "WE".

Before I fly off the handle any further for this one. I will put this out there. This post may be entirely false, but guess what? THESE OPERATORS ARE OUT THERE.

There is one group responsible for this horseshit, US. SHUT THEM DOWN. If no one applies, or those that do apply demand what they are worth, and stand their ground, they will be forced to either clean up their act or perish. But, I am sure this effort is fruitless as some schmuck will do it for less because he has money from another source, and just has to fly, because well, its just so damn cool.
Ugh, dead horse, I know, but I cannot help it.

Crap job, but if you have a pulse you should be a shoo-in. I worked there for a few miserable short winter months about 6 years ago. When I got the job I was told "it's on a volunteer basis" and refused. They ended up paying a small, small amount which I am embarassed to even print. Flying is 45 mins in the morning and 45 mins in the evening for traffic- the hours absolutely suck and it is difficult to hold another job around this one. Working lunches at a restaurant is how I did it.

Banner towing is a one man show ie. YOU. You assemble it, set it up, pick it up, fly it, drop it, clean up and put it away...ground time:flight time ratio for those flights is about 4:1, worse in winter. A ton of work for an hour flight. Oh and you sell the banners too- in other words you go out and find the people that want to advertise, your reward being flight time, presumably.

I will say that the owners have found a lucrative way to combine two professions where newbies are easily exploitable- aviation and radio. The traffic reporters get paid crap too. I suppose I'm a bit bitter but hey that was the industry 6 years ago; I was laid off and would take anything. These days I think you could easily, easily do much better than this company. Proceed at own risk and DON'T work for free!

the above is the biggist bunch of bullshit i have ever seen on avcanada.

-flying is 2 hrs in the morning and 2 hrs at night on mondays and thursdays. the rest of the week is one 2 hr flight either am or pm

-you get paid per hour of banner flying. yes the set up is on your time

-winter banners are rare. sure beats pumpin gas -40 in northern AB

-pilots have nothing to do with selling banners

-not volunteer basis

-this job was ideal because at 250hrs i didn't want to spend $8000 on an instructor rating and do a job that i really didn't want to do.

-skywords was lots of work for low pay but it got me to 1000hrs in under a year and a half with all PIC time. i thought it was a good gig cuz i didnt have to move to north to work a ramp for shit pay. instead i lived in TO for shit pay.

-don't apply if you are a mary

What I wrote is true. That was the state of things 6 years ago- anyone remember?
I stand by my post. It was crap, I worked for crap. Lesson learned. I quit after 3 months to work in the office of a startup company that didn't even have their first airplane on the property yet.

Nowadays you refresh the jobs page on AvCanada after an hour and there are a couple new jobs.

Well I made a post with the same subject name about a week ago and no responses... so I'll ask on on this thread - Skywords advertises for Vancouver. Do they have pilot bases there?

so far a/c only based at CYKZ. 2 C-172's. there are plans to have a plane based in edmonton for traffic patrol. they're still working on it.

yeah hit refresh and new jobs appear. great... for people with SOME sort of experience.

look people, if you have 250 hrs TT and want to build and log PIC time, work independently, split for a better job when you have some hours built up. then this gig works out well and it did for me. now i am doing way better things. this is a springboard job. build your time and all the while keep sending resumes out to the companies you desire to work for. its called starting at the bottom of the ladder.

dockjock you are a wank. sorry man but you are.

You're welcome dummy. Because of my refusal to work for free the job now pays. DUmbass

Has anyone got any call backs or interviews from these guys? Just curious.

im just curious, you said you got to 1000hrs in less than a year, when you started you had 250, and you did 10 hours a week...... that doesnt make sense...... sounds like bullshit to me.

dear lyncher: read my post closer... i made it to 1000 hrs in JUST UNDER A YEAR AND A HALF. did i say i started with 250 hrs...? NO i didn't. I had around 300. 10 hrs a week eh? where did you get that # from? do the math again.

you douchebag

diddydumdiddydoo wrote:

Crap job, but if you have a pulse you should be a shoo-in. I worked there for a few miserable short winter months about 6 years ago. When I got the job I was told "it's on a volunteer basis" and refused. They ended up paying a small, small amount which I am embarassed to even print. Flying is 45 mins in the morning and 45 mins in the evening for traffic- the hours absolutely suck and it is difficult to hold another job around this one. Working lunches at a restaurant is how I did it.

Banner towing is a one man show ie. YOU. You assemble it, set it up, pick it up, fly it, drop it, clean up and put it away...ground time:flight time ratio for those flights is about 4:1, worse in winter. A ton of work for an hour flight. Oh and you sell the banners too- in other words you go out and find the people that want to advertise, your reward being flight time, presumably.

I will say that the owners have found a lucrative way to combine two professions where newbies are easily exploitable- aviation and radio. The traffic reporters get paid crap too. I suppose I'm a bit bitter but hey that was the industry 6 years ago; I was laid off and would take anything. These days I think you could easily, easily do much better than this company. Proceed at own risk and DON'T work for free!

the above is the biggist bunch of bullshit i have ever seen on avcanada.

-flying is 2 hrs in the morning and 2 hrs at night on mondays and thursdays. the rest of the week is one 2 hr flight either am or pm

-you get paid per hour of banner flying. yes the set up is on your time

-winter banners are rare. sure beats pumpin gas -40 in northern AB

-pilots have nothing to do with selling banners

-not volunteer basis

-this job was ideal because at 250hrs i didn't want to spend $8000 on an instructor rating and do a job that i really didn't want to do.

-skywords was lots of work for low pay but it got me to 1000hrs in under a year and a half with all PIC time. i thought it was a good gig cuz i didnt have to move to north to work a ramp for shit pay. instead i lived in TO for shit pay.

-don't apply if you are a mary

well I think you are the douchebag I bolded your exact quote where you say you had 250 hrs

and ok, I agree, i did @#$! up the math its 16 hrs a week.
16hrs a month, and you did say a year and a half, I apologize, but you made shit pay, lived in expensive city, when you could've been flying a better aircraft, getting better experience, making more money and experiencing the inevitable. you will have to move in this industry, you cant stay at your parents' place forever......

People can do whatever they want, im assuming that your comment of being a mary is an insult? if it is then thats not cool, if it isnt then I have no idea what you're talking about.

yeah, you got me on the 250hr thing... i'm a dink for making that error.

where are you going to get a good paying job with 250 to 300 hrs tt toronto or elsewhere? i had another job, yeah, cuz skywords was part time and managed to live and get my kicks downtown. a class 4 instructor?

what a/c are you gonna fly with that time? ok you work a ramp for 6,12 18 months in the north to get on a kingair of something and log co-pilot time. i used that "ramp time" to log time.

get your head out of your anal canal mary...

or you go straight onto a PC12......... with absolutely no ramp time.

diddydumdiddydoo wrote:

Crap job, but if you have a pulse you should be a shoo-in. I worked there for a few miserable short winter months about 6 years ago. When I got the job I was told "it's on a volunteer basis" and refused. They ended up paying a small, small amount which I am embarassed to even print. Flying is 45 mins in the morning and 45 mins in the evening for traffic- the hours absolutely suck and it is difficult to hold another job around this one. Working lunches at a restaurant is how I did it.

Banner towing is a one man show ie. YOU. You assemble it, set it up, pick it up, fly it, drop it, clean up and put it away...ground time:flight time ratio for those flights is about 4:1, worse in winter. A ton of work for an hour flight. Oh and you sell the banners too- in other words you go out and find the people that want to advertise, your reward being flight time, presumably.

I will say that the owners have found a lucrative way to combine two professions where newbies are easily exploitable- aviation and radio. The traffic reporters get paid crap too. I suppose I'm a bit bitter but hey that was the industry 6 years ago; I was laid off and would take anything. These days I think you could easily, easily do much better than this company. Proceed at own risk and DON'T work for free!

the above is the biggist bunch of bullshit i have ever seen on avcanada.

-flying is 2 hrs in the morning and 2 hrs at night on mondays and thursdays. the rest of the week is one 2 hr flight either am or pm

-you get paid per hour of banner flying. yes the set up is on your time

-winter banners are rare. sure beats pumpin gas -40 in northern AB

-pilots have nothing to do with selling banners

-not volunteer basis

-this job was ideal because at 250hrs i didn't want to spend $8000 on an instructor rating and do a job that i really didn't want to do.

-skywords was lots of work for low pay but it got me to 1000hrs in under a year and a half with all PIC time. i thought it was a good gig cuz i didnt have to move to north to work a ramp for shit pay. instead i lived in TO for shit pay.

-don't apply if you are a mary

My experience was much closer to Dockjock's, and that was two years ago. I flew there for 7 months, and got just over 200 hours. At the time it was $20 per flight. Banners and traffic were paid exactly the same. If you didnt take off, you didnt get paid. The planes weren't hangared, so that made for some seriously crappy winter mornings.