Hi all,
I have my resume out there, and I am wondering which companies (as a low timer) to avoid? I have an idea of some, but I'm looking to be a bit more thoroguh. I am talking more of the charter/medivac/scheduled carriers, more so than bush companies. I don't want this to turn into a bashing thread, so if you are willing, PM your thoughts to me.

Cheers

Let's keep this to PM's shall we? No names publicly or it will be pulled.

Thanks in advance

stl

What is your Lat. and Long.?

sky's the limit wrote:Let's keep this to PM's shall we? No names publicly or it will be pulled.

Thanks in advance

stl

Thanks STL, I don't want this to be a company bash thread at all.

Cat Driver wrote:What is your Lat. and Long.?

Feel free to PM me Cat, I'm looking for any companies in Canada you have words about, particularly on the priaries.

Feel free to PM me Cat, I'm looking for any companies in Canada you have words about, particularly on the priaries.

I am afraid I have been out of aviation in Canada for so many years I honestly do not know very much about today's companies.

Take the name of the company you are considering, go to goole and type.

site:avcanada.ca companyabcd

If the company is bad enough they'll have a reputation easily apparent in the posts.

Invertago wrote:Take the name of the company you are considering, go to goole and type.

site:avcanada.ca companyabcd

If the company is bad enough they'll have a reputation easily apparent in the posts.

+ 1

Obviously you need to take everything you read on an anonymous forum with a grain of salt, but the trend in the posts, good or bad, will often be very noticable.

Randelman,

Post your experience. If you have less than 500TT you could probably weed out the medevac companies.

Being a "low timer", sometimes you have no choice but take the crappy jobs. If you have no income now, the crappy jobs sometimes pay the bills.

Ray-Ban wrote:Randelman,

Post your experience. If you have less than 500TT you could probably weed out the medevac companies.

Being a "low timer", sometimes you have no choice but take the crappy jobs. If you have no income now, the crappy jobs sometimes pay the bills.

Thats pretty much where I'm at Ray-Ban. I have just over 300 hours, but it's possible I may have over 500 this summer, depending on what happens, so I'm not weeding out the Medivac companies just yet.

Randleman wrote: Thats pretty much where I'm at Ray-Ban. I have just over 300 hours, but it's possible I may have over 500 this summer, depending on what happens, so I'm not weeding out the Medivac companies just yet.

If you can find a decent job where you're getting PIC time in a 185, 206, etc you'll be better off doing that for longer than 500 hours. Flying medevacs in a King Air or the like may sound sexy now but after a couple months the novelty will wear off and then you'll only logging 350 hours a year of copilot time, which translates into a long time until your AA's. The more PIC you get initially, the better positioned you'll be down the road.

I approached one prospective employer with some of my concerns, with info, from here and the newspapers. The Owner was more than a little peeved, I responded that due diligence required me to ask. I didn't get the job, however they continued to have enforcement actions. Sometimes you eat the bear!

ditar wrote:

Randleman wrote: Thats pretty much where I'm at Ray-Ban. I have just over 300 hours, but it's possible I may have over 500 this summer, depending on what happens, so I'm not weeding out the Medivac companies just yet.

If you can find a decent job where you're getting PIC time in a 185, 206, etc you'll be better off doing that for longer than 500 hours. Flying medevacs in a King Air or the like may sound sexy now but after a couple months the novelty will wear off and then you'll only logging 350 hours a year of copilot time, which translates into a long time until your AA's. The more PIC you get initially, the better positioned you'll be down the road.

TRUTH!!!!!


get some PIC time my friend...

Rowdy wrote:

ditar wrote:

Randleman wrote: Thats pretty much where I'm at Ray-Ban. I have just over 300 hours, but it's possible I may have over 500 this summer, depending on what happens, so I'm not weeding out the Medivac companies just yet.

If you can find a decent job where you're getting PIC time in a 185, 206, etc you'll be better off doing that for longer than 500 hours. Flying medevacs in a King Air or the like may sound sexy now but after a couple months the novelty will wear off and then you'll only logging 350 hours a year of copilot time, which translates into a long time until your AA's. The more PIC you get initially, the better positioned you'll be down the road.

TRUTH!!!!!


get some PIC time my friend...

+2

I've accidentally fulfilled most of my ATPL requirements (not in a hurry to get one) simply bashing around VFR piston singles.

just wondering if things have changed in the last 15 years. no joke. not trying to be funny or an a$$hole. just wondering.

my second job was right seat in a metro II which did not require an ATPL at the time

i did my left seat ride after 1 year on type

i would not have chosen to turn down the job in favour of one that offered any PIC time

wouldn't right seat in any twin that did not require an ATPL to go left seat be more advantageous than PIC in any single?

You certainly have a valid argument. I know people who followed a similar route and it worked out fine for them, having started right seat in a Navajo, for example, and then gone left seat and gotten lots of PIC time from that point forward. I guess it's very company dependent.

My point was as much about the type of operation as type of time. Many right seat jobs build time rapidly, which might not be so bad. But from personal experience medevacs are not usually one of those. Also, various company, contract, or insurance requirements can get in the way. It may not matter how much copilot time someone has on type if those requirements dictate a certain amount of PIC time to fly left seat.

For a lot of the turbine twin jobs, it is not the regs, but insurance or customer requirements for left seat drivers to have ATPLs (regionals, medevac, Contrails, etc), or give you so few hours per year that it will take forever to gain a left seat (charter companies, corporate). That is where the humble old Navajo (one of the few piston twins that can still somewhat support itself economically as well as aerodynamically) comes into play.

But most are operated by companies who also have piston singles and generally this is where you start. The typical time is two years or 1000TT to Navajo captain at a small charter company (YMMV).

This is better IMHO than being a low-time F/O for longer on a turbine, effectively logging only half your hours on your way to an ATPL. I was always taught that the multi part of the multi-turbine was the most important as far as experience goes. But PIC is still king.

mattedfred wrote:just wondering if things have changed in the last 15 years. no joke. not trying to be funny or an a$$hole. just wondering.

my second job was right seat in a metro II which did not require an ATPL at the time

i did my left seat ride after 1 year on type

i would not have chosen to turn down the job in favour of one that offered any PIC time

wouldn't right seat in any twin that did not require an ATPL to go left seat be more advantageous than PIC in any single?

When I was sitting in the CP seat in YWG back in the late 90s, I used to get alot of drop in visits from the guys sitting right seat in the tubes. They wanted to fly our C206 or 185 for a summer, so they could get some PIC time (we were on the same field as Per*m&ter). The problem with starting out in the right seat of anything over 12,500 is that eventually you WILL need that PIC time for your A. I remember one poor guy had 3200 hours and 175 hours PIC and approx 2800 right seat Metro). He couldnt upgrade because he couldnt get his A, and he was stuck (literally) in the right seat with no hope for an upgrade until he got his PIC time and A. That would be my only concern starting out in the right seat of a mid sized twin, is getting stuck there. mattedfred, how did you reach your PIC requirement before you did the left seat ride? Maybe I missed where you got your PIC time?

Randleman..Just do a search on any air service you are looking at. There is alot of info on this site about the "Bad ones". Good luck in your job search!

Fly safe all

I have thousands of hours pic,got my A's, 1,000 f/o on turbines, can't find a job except back to pic on floats.

Having said that, if you want to move on in the twin world, get your min pic for your A's, and jump in the right seat on a ho. Get those magic 500 mpic's and your all set to move on.

IMHO

What do you guys mean when you say "get your A" ?

EITHER YOUR A TROLL OR...
ATPL

Pilot_king! wrote:What do you guys mean when you say "get your A" ?

We refer to our ATPL (Airline Transport Pilots Licence) as "A" just as a short form. Like our Commercial Pilots Licence is CPL and Private PPL etc. There are ALOT of acronyms in aviation. I still learn new ones all the time.

flyinthebug wrote:

mattedfred wrote:just wondering if things have changed in the last 15 years. no joke. not trying to be funny or an a$$hole. just wondering.

my second job was right seat in a metro II which did not require an ATPL at the time

i did my left seat ride after 1 year on type

i would not have chosen to turn down the job in favour of one that offered any PIC time

wouldn't right seat in any twin that did not require an ATPL to go left seat be more advantageous than PIC in any single?

When I was sitting in the CP seat in YWG back in the late 90s, I used to get alot of drop in visits from the guys sitting right seat in the tubes. They wanted to fly our C206 or 185 for a summer, so they could get some PIC time (we were on the same field as Per*m&ter). The problem with starting out in the right seat of anything over 12,500 is that eventually you WILL need that PIC time for your A. I remember one poor guy had 3200 hours and 175 hours PIC and approx 2800 right seat Metro). He couldnt upgrade because he couldnt get his A, and he was stuck (literally) in the right seat with no hope for an upgrade until he got his PIC time and A. That would be my only concern starting out in the right seat of a mid sized twin, is getting stuck there. mattedfred, how did you reach your PIC requirement before you did the left seat ride? Maybe I missed where you got your PIC time?

Fly safe all

The Metro 2 is under 12500, where as the Metro 3 is over 12500. In other words, you can have a CPL and be a captain on the 2, but you need your ATPL to be a captain on the 3. A lot of guys who start off on the 3 will do a left seat ride on the 2 when the time comes, and once upgraded will fly the 2 until they get their AA's.

Flygal wrote:

flyinthebug wrote:

mattedfred wrote:just wondering if things have changed in the last 15 years. no joke. not trying to be funny or an a$$hole. just wondering.

my second job was right seat in a metro II which did not require an ATPL at the time

i did my left seat ride after 1 year on type

i would not have chosen to turn down the job in favour of one that offered any PIC time

wouldn't right seat in any twin that did not require an ATPL to go left seat be more advantageous than PIC in any single?

The Metro 2 is under 12500, where as the Metro 3 is over 12500. In other words, you can have a CPL and be a captain on the 2, but you need your ATPL to be a captain on the 3. A lot of guys who start off on the 3 will do a left seat ride on the 2 when the time comes, and once upgraded will fly the 2 until they get their AA's.

......
Welcome to the board flygal. What you said makes perfect sense. I just am not sure of any companies that run both 2`s and 3`s? Perimeter is all 2s and Bearskin all 3`s? So are you saying guys jumped ship or are there specific ops in Canada with both 2s and 3s? Interesting idea though. It was the perimeter crews that always approached me as they wouldnt get their upgrades without their A, even though the 2-tube is under 12,500. Do you know of a company that runs both and uses this type of upgrade system? Maybe Perimeter has 3s now? Ive been away from the field in YWG for over 10 yrs but they used to run 2s only.
Fly safe all.

flyinthebug wrote:

Pilot_king! wrote:What do you guys mean when you say "get your A" ?

We refer to our ATPL (Airline Transport Pilots Licence) as "A" just as a short form. Like our Commercial Pilots Licence is CPL and Private PPL etc. There are ALOT of acronyms in aviation. I still learn new ones all the time.

I thought it was AA, after the first letters in the license number; since pretty much anybody who has stuck around flying long enough to get one either has been (or should have been) to AA...