New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
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New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
Hi all,
1st forgive me if this is the wrong forum.
I just joined here! My name is Mike, I'm 16 from the United States currently with 19.7 hours and 1/2 way to my PPL. You're probably wondering why I'm on a Canadian Aviation Forum. Well I am part Canadian and hope to fly in the Canadian Airline Industry. I do have a couple questions.
1. Is it hard to convert the FAA licenses to Transport Canada?
2. Do Canadian Airlines (ex. Porter, WestJet) hire Americans? I know about the residence thing and I have no problem moving to Canada but what does that all mean.
3. Would I be at a disadvantage going to college in America?
4. Is it realistic for me to consider flying in Canada?
Thanks for your help all and I hope to learn a lot from here!
Mike (1B9Pilot)
1st forgive me if this is the wrong forum.
I just joined here! My name is Mike, I'm 16 from the United States currently with 19.7 hours and 1/2 way to my PPL. You're probably wondering why I'm on a Canadian Aviation Forum. Well I am part Canadian and hope to fly in the Canadian Airline Industry. I do have a couple questions.
1. Is it hard to convert the FAA licenses to Transport Canada?
2. Do Canadian Airlines (ex. Porter, WestJet) hire Americans? I know about the residence thing and I have no problem moving to Canada but what does that all mean.
3. Would I be at a disadvantage going to college in America?
4. Is it realistic for me to consider flying in Canada?
Thanks for your help all and I hope to learn a lot from here!
Mike (1B9Pilot)
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Re: New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
Welcome to the forum Mike,
I guess the 1st question is what do you mean part Canadian? Do you have Canadian citizenship? You are going to need the right to work in the Canadian airline industry.
1. Converting from FAA to TC is fairly easy, just a couple of written tests at the commercial level, at the private level I believe it is pretty much paperwork. http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/s ... e-2283.htm
2. I am sure that if you meet their requirements being American is not going to hurt your chances. You might not even have to live in Canada, you could commute to your job. Lots of airline pilots do that.
3. I cant see any disadvantage to going to college in the states. I know lots of great schools down there and the industry doesn’t seem to have any prejudice against one school or another. I would recommend that you go to school where your parents live because it would be cheaper to live at home.
4.Providing you can obtain the right to work in Canada it is not out the question to pursue a career in aviation in Canada, that being said the grass seems greener on your side of the fence, but that could be just perspective.
Any more questions feel free to ask, there is a wide range of experience on this board and for the most part we are pretty friendly.
I guess the 1st question is what do you mean part Canadian? Do you have Canadian citizenship? You are going to need the right to work in the Canadian airline industry.
1. Converting from FAA to TC is fairly easy, just a couple of written tests at the commercial level, at the private level I believe it is pretty much paperwork. http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/s ... e-2283.htm
2. I am sure that if you meet their requirements being American is not going to hurt your chances. You might not even have to live in Canada, you could commute to your job. Lots of airline pilots do that.
3. I cant see any disadvantage to going to college in the states. I know lots of great schools down there and the industry doesn’t seem to have any prejudice against one school or another. I would recommend that you go to school where your parents live because it would be cheaper to live at home.
4.Providing you can obtain the right to work in Canada it is not out the question to pursue a career in aviation in Canada, that being said the grass seems greener on your side of the fence, but that could be just perspective.
Any more questions feel free to ask, there is a wide range of experience on this board and for the most part we are pretty friendly.
c_172pilot
Aviation is proof, that given the will,
we have the capacity to achieve the impossible."
Aviation is proof, that given the will,
we have the capacity to achieve the impossible."
Re: New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
Just a side note, that Canadian regionals require on average a lot more experience than Americans regionals. I would say the average new hire at Porter or Jazz has around 5 years commercial flying experience.
Re: New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
Yeah I did notice that the mins were high. I am not a Canadian citizen (I wish I was) and would have no trouble moving there. I've read that building time can be done at places like Westcoast Air or Harbour air which seem like fun gigs. I also toyed with the idea of flying for a regional here in the USA flying the Dash8 which could help with Porter. Any ideas and thanks for the advice above 

Re: New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
You won't start out at Harbour Air; they're one of the top-end float operators, and it's usually the place where float pilots finish their careers. West Coast Air has historically hired pilots from their dockhands, but not many, and they were just bought by Harbour Air, so that might change. Also, never work for WCA, in any capacity.
You'll have to start off either instructing or working ramp/dock/dispatch, for up to two years, and most likely in northern Canada. There are lots of threads on this subject, so do a search, especially of the "Employment" forum.
You'll have to start off either instructing or working ramp/dock/dispatch, for up to two years, and most likely in northern Canada. There are lots of threads on this subject, so do a search, especially of the "Employment" forum.
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Re: New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
That's not really the issue - do you have the right to live and work in Canada through your "part Canadian?" If you don't then the road is probably going to be a harder one, and you might be better off staying at home.I am not a Canadian citizen (I wish I was)
Good luck!
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Re: New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
I'll just say, "Welcome to the forum!" 

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Re: New To the Forums, A couple of Questions
Too bad you don’t have your Canadian citizenship. You cant work in Canada until you are a citizen or have a working visa.
Harbour air is a great place to work, I haven’t worked there but I have friends that did and they loved every minuet of it. As Modi13 pointed out they are pretty top of the heap when it comes to seaplane pilots so it would take a long time to build up the experience required.
Seeing as you cant work in Canada there are some operators who fly into Canada, Kenmore Air http://www.kenmoreair.com/ Has a very large fleet of seaplanes and they fly into Victoria. You could always go north to Alaska if you would like to try bush flying.
Any more questions, fire away!
Harbour air is a great place to work, I haven’t worked there but I have friends that did and they loved every minuet of it. As Modi13 pointed out they are pretty top of the heap when it comes to seaplane pilots so it would take a long time to build up the experience required.
Seeing as you cant work in Canada there are some operators who fly into Canada, Kenmore Air http://www.kenmoreair.com/ Has a very large fleet of seaplanes and they fly into Victoria. You could always go north to Alaska if you would like to try bush flying.
Any more questions, fire away!
c_172pilot
Aviation is proof, that given the will,
we have the capacity to achieve the impossible."
Aviation is proof, that given the will,
we have the capacity to achieve the impossible."