Northern Operators threatened by 'absurd' Transport Canada rules

[teacher]

Another boo hoo story by operators about the perils of safety.

As someone who's been told in my younger flying years that "I have 100 people who want your job if you don't do it" among other gems it must be tough having to actually treat employees properly, follow the rules and pay their pilots for them to stay.

There may be some exceptions to the regulations (cycles vs hours flown) but in the end, a tired human is a tired human regardless of where they work.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/tra ... -1.4298642

[Rockie]

The one seemingly reasonable rationale cited for different rules for northern operators was ten minute sectors ferrying fuel drums, but the new rules would still allow an 11 hour day started at 0700 and 18+ sectors. Hard to see how that would break a northern operator.

What this guy doesn't explain is how northern pilots are less susceptible to fatigue and therefore warrant less restrictive regulations.

[schnitzel2k3]

If a plane crashes north of 60, and no one is around, does it still make a sound?

I think end of the day its public perception. The general public doesn't regularly travel in those northern sectors so TC accepts the risks along with anyone traveling or working with those operators.

S.

[digits_]

LOL:

Medevac operations could be impacted by the new rules, too, critics say.

I bloody well hope so!


While the pilot shortage might put less experience in 705 ops, and therefore maybe increase risk / small incidents there, it certainly will drastically increase safety for 703 operators. I've talked to pilots who actually left without having other jobs lined up because they didn't feel safe at their current company. The state of the industry allows them to do that without too much risk. And that is great.

[HansDietrich]

LOL:

Medevac operations could be impacted by the new rules, too, critics say.

I bloody well hope so!


While the pilot shortage might put less experience in 705 ops, and therefore maybe increase risk / small incidents there, it certainly will drastically increase safety for 703 operators. I've talked to pilots who actually left without having other jobs lined up because they didn't feel safe at their current company. The state of the industry allows them to do that without too much risk. And that is great.

Yup. I was one of them!

[confusedalot]

Sounds like Mr. Priestley is not so priestly. I was doing that sort of back breaking work when I was young and fit, then quickly became young.....and unfit.

Shame on you Mr. Priestley.

And Mr. Priestley's response is probably to say that it is because I was unsuitable in the first place. Some things never change.

[Prodriver]

If they were worried about safety they would base a SAR team and Aircraft out of Edmonton or Namao and not Comox. The Minister sure seems to drink the Kool-Aid, great party member. Starting to feel like a communist country.

[Diadem]

You know what would allow northern operators the greatest flexibility? No duty days at all! Let them work their pilots 24/7, and not even give them vacation. While they're at it, make it legal for them to not pay anything, so that the companies will be in excellent financial shape.
The North isn't some special twilight zone where physics and physiology don't apply. Adapt to the modern world or die.

[goingnowherefast]

The SaferSkies campaign should go to the CBC with some of the horror stories they have accumulated.

[altiplano]

"Smaller operators and their associated organizations felt like the one-size-fits-all approach is not suitable for their unique type of operations, however, they did not provide alternate regimes supported by science to address this situation," the statement said.

Says it all - No ideas or alternatives to this NPA, which doesn't go far enough as it is.

What do bush operators in Alaska do? Must be similar challenges to our Northern operators.

The work was already done for us... We should just copy the FAA rules.

[Donald]

Neither Priestley or Sparling are aware of pilot fatigue ever being blamed for a serious incident in Canada.

[B208]

I wonder why the author didn't solicit input from any pilots or pilots' associations for this piece.

[Meatservo]

This guy seems to think a medevac pilot waiting on the ground for the patient to be stabilized is waiting in a feather-bed with a hot water bottle and a glass of warm milk. What an asshole.

This “pilot shortage” is already here. There is a shortage of pilots who want to live the lifestyle of a working pilot for the same wages they did in the 1980s, when gas and houses and food were about five times less expensive.

The new rules will end up being an advantage to both the regional operators and the 24-year-olds with 1800 hours, a bunch of bogus “PICUS” time and 100 hours of night circuits to finish off their “airline transport pilot” licenses. They can now be “Captains” on large passenger-carrying turboprops with 250hour copilots, and they can reap their undercut-y 70,000$ annual fortunes, and the airlines can blame the government for the situation, and hopefully no-one will notice they were already doing it anyway.

Collectively, air operators have created this situation by trying their best to turn flying into a crappy, cheap McJob and they are finding that everyone who wants that kind of job is already making more money, and spending weeknights and weekends at home, driving a steamroller or a digger.

[dhc#]

NAILED IT

[Mick G]

You know what would allow northern operators the greatest flexibility? No duty days at all! Let them work their pilots 24/7, and not even give them vacation. While they're at it, make it legal for them to not pay anything, so that the companies will be in excellent financial shape.
The North isn't some special twilight zone where physics and physiology don't apply. Adapt to the modern world or die.

GET A GRIP Diadem. You need to get out of your city office job and have a serious reality check; you obviously haven't worked in the north, nor do you understand the challenges that we face. Bureaucracy and red tape has got in the way of a lot of common sense in the north and has regulated a lot of companies out of existence.

With people as far removed as you, we will soon end up wearing construction helmets to unload cargo.......where does it end? Just you city mucky mucks getting their nose into the wrong hornets nest.

[Rowdy]

Edited

[Diadem]

GET A GRIP Diadem. You need to get out of your city office job and have a serious reality check; you obviously haven't worked in the north, nor do you understand the challenges that we face. Bureaucracy and red tape has got in the way of a lot of common sense in the north and has regulated a lot of companies out of existence.

With people as far removed as you, we will soon end up wearing construction helmets to unload cargo.......where does it end? Just you city mucky mucks getting their nose into the wrong hornets nest.

I started my career in the Arctic, and I spent years up there. I flew scheds, charters, and medevacs. I hand-bombed cargo. I worked fourteen-hour days extended to seventeen due to unforeseen circumstances, got a few hours of sleep and a cold meal, and did it again. It wasn't safe, it wasn't productive, and it didn't make for pilots who wanted to keep working there. If the rules change and the companies up there have to hire a few more pilots so that their current employees don't have to work such horrific hours, then the industry as a whole will be improved.
If you think more regulation is bad, then why wouldn't less regulation be better? My proposal was facetious, but it was hyperbolic to prove a point: If air operators will be more profitable with fewer regulations, then why don't we get rid of all regulations altogether? Because people will die. We have regs to prevent accidents. Do you think that the current iteration happens to be the perfect set-up for northern operators to maximize efficiency? They just happen to be exactly right? Or would a lot of the managers complaining to the media love to be able to work their pilots twenty hours a day for six months straight in the summer without a day off? Establishing regulations is a compromise between safety and the ability to operate profitably, and there's no objective point on the scale where you can say "This is best" because people on both ends have different priorities are constantly pushing for changes. In my opinion, the optimal point should be shifted towards safety, and if an operator can't work profitably without putting people's lives at risk then they shouldn't be in operation.

[Mick G]

GET A GRIP Diadem. You need to get out of your city office job and have a serious reality check; you obviously haven't worked in the north, nor do you understand the challenges that we face. Bureaucracy and red tape has got in the way of a lot of common sense in the north and has regulated a lot of companies out of existence.

With people as far removed as you, we will soon end up wearing construction helmets to unload cargo.......where does it end? Just you city mucky mucks getting their nose into the wrong hornets nest.

I started my career in the Arctic, and I spent years up there. I flew scheds, charters, and medevacs. I hand-bombed cargo. I worked fourteen-hour days extended to seventeen due to unforeseen circumstances, got a few hours of sleep and a cold meal, and did it again. It wasn't safe, it wasn't productive, and it didn't make for pilots who wanted to keep working there. If the rules change and the companies up there have to hire a few more pilots so that their current employees don't have to work such horrific hours, then the industry as a whole will be improved.
If you think more regulation is bad, then why wouldn't less regulation be better? My proposal was facetious, but it was hyperbolic to prove a point: If air operators will be more profitable with fewer regulations, then why don't we get rid of all regulations altogether? Because people will die. We have regs to prevent accidents. Do you think that the current iteration happens to be the perfect set-up for northern operators to maximize efficiency? They just happen to be exactly right? Or would a lot of the managers complaining to the media love to be able to work their pilots twenty hours a day for six months straight in the summer without a day off? Establishing regulations is a compromise between safety and the ability to operate profitably, and there's no objective point on the scale where you can say "This is best" because people on both ends have different priorities are constantly pushing for changes. In my opinion, the optimal point should be shifted towards safety, and if an operator can't work profitably without putting people's lives at risk then they shouldn't be in operation.

Your argument has no merit. The current employment standards act already takes care of your concerns (read here: https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/en/services/e ... -standards).....do we now start to regulate marine, taxi drivers, bus drivers etc... in a way different than is already spelled out in the employment standards act???
You are lumping everyone together into a single group and unnecessarily focusing on one sector which has operated just fine for the last 100 years. You are just the type of person who is probably driving this recent and quite absurd Transport Canada rules...........remember this is a free country and no employee is forced to do anything

[bobcaygeon]

The science says an Air Canada pilot requires only 4 days (8 nights in his bed) time free from duty in
a 28 day period. (Option 1: the only one an AC pilot can work under) I doubt they'll offer to do that but they will gladly identify that 12 hrs is the longest duty day that is safe.

Selective restrictions and science applied.

Don't even get me started on the commuters. At least with shorter duty days they be able to catch the last flight home.

[TailwheelPilot]

Your argument has no merit. The current employment standards act already takes care of your concerns (read here: https://www.ece.gov.nt.ca/en/services/e ... -standards).....

You really should have read your link first...

The Employment Standards Act does not apply to:

Federal Government Employees
Territorial Government Employees
Worker’s in federally regulated industries such as airlines, banks, and most telecommunications operations.