University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

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yak52
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University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by yak52 »

I was wondering what path is better to follow. To go to university for business degree or to go through a flight school and get all my license?
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by Bede »

Do you mean a pilot flying water bombers?

Easy- get your licences ASAP (ie not university). If you want to fly the CL215/415's get as much float time as you can.
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by currysonic »

Bede wrote:Do you mean a pilot flying water bombers?

Easy- get your licences ASAP (ie not university). If you want to fly the CL215/415's get as much float time as you can.
+1.... If you want to and, have the time/resources to do both why not pursue both if you're in a situation to do so. Or maybe get a CPL + Float rating first, find a summer float plane job and finish school in the winter. Either way is going to be hard work, but it all depends on whatever is important to you and what you want in life.
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yak52
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by yak52 »

ok, that sounds good. I just wasn't sure on what path to follow because university its a business degree plus all the flight traaining you need.
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by currysonic »

yak52 wrote:ok, that sounds good. I just wasn't sure on what path to follow because university its a business degree plus all the flight traaining you need.

Ohhhh.... so its a university degree aviation program? So you get a degree AND all the flight training in that program?
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by Floatr »

Sounds like he is referring to the aviation program at Western University in London,ON.
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by praveen4143 »

Flying the fire bosses in BC here, they expect candidates to have lots of low level flying experience. So crop dusting is a great way to get the experience. Low level survey flying is also something they consider as being good experience. Lots of float experience would be nice too...
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by Cat Driver »

They do expect you to be able to read and write English.
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by Meatservo »

I think you should go the University route if it includes flight training. Getting the job you want depends on what you do AFTER you get your commercial pilots' license. Get the license and the degree. You need the license more than you need the degree, but you're young and aerial firefighting is your goal now. You might have additional goals later, like management, that will be easier to achieve with a degree under your belt. It won't make you a better pilot, but it won't make you a worse one either.

I wanted to be a water-bomber pilot, too. I wound up doing something different along the way, which is what happens sometimes. I got work as Twin Otter captain as part of my goal to make myself attractive to CL-215 operators, and I found that work rewarding and never moved on.

When I was a kid my father was fairly insistent that I receive some type of post-secondary education. I really wanted to fly and at the time (I lived in Ontario) post-secondary flying courses were done at the college level. There were three major schools at that time, that were difficult to be admitted to, and even more difficult to stay in for the whole course, but you graduated with a diploma and your various ratings. I remember when I graduated I felt as though I had completed one of life's major achievements. I also remember being assured around graduation that our "diploma" would be considered the equivalent of a Bachelor degree by Air Canada and the Canadian Forces, who at the time were the two employers who definitely required a degree for admission. It may have been true at the time, because several of my friends from college were admitted to the Armed Forces, and a couple now work for Air Canada too.

However, I do not have a real bachelor degree, and if at one time several decades ago my diploma was considered the equivalent, that time is over. I simply do not have one. My wife, who does have a degree, and I sometimes argue about the relative validity of an undergraduate degree when assessing people. She is responsible for hiring her own minions at the bureaucratic job she has, and the requirement for them is a degree. Now the thing is, it doesn't matter what degree. She says they will learn what they need to know on the job. So I asked her, then why the degree. She says it's just a thing that proves you are able to think and commit to a project. I was, and still am, incredulous. I went to school for three years and then worked steadily as a professional pilot for twenty-five years. Some little bastard goes to school for four years and he's the guy that can "think and commit to a project".

So there you have it. It's a class distinction. All your life, you will run into annoying little roadblocks if you don't have a degree. You'll pay more for insurance. You won't be eligible for many management positions. If you want to donate some time to an Air Cadet squadron, you can be a 2nd Lieutenant if you have a degree. ANY degree. You can be an "officer Cadet" if you don't. Even if you've got decades of professional aviation experience. Superiors, corporations, banks, professional organizations, and potential employers will forever be looking down on you because of something you didn't achieve, and others did, back when you were in your late teens and early twenties.

Don't ever let anyone tell you we don't live in a class system. I expended what seemed at the time a great deal of effort back in the day to get my education, and still for the lack of one year of classes and a better piece of paper than the one I've already got, I get to be treated like a blue-collar putz for the rest of my life. Even though I can read, write, and reason better than most people who did go to uni. Go to University. Get the extra couple of years under your belt. At the very least, the opportunities to party and get laid will be something you won't forget when, like me, you enter your waning years and start counting your regrets.
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yak52
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by yak52 »

ok thanks,
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by confusedalot »

Meatservo wrote:I think you should go the University route if it includes flight training. Getting the job you want depends on what you do AFTER you get your commercial pilots' license. Get the license and the degree. You need the license more than you need the degree, but you're young and aerial firefighting is your goal now. You might have additional goals later, like management, that will be easier to achieve with a degree under your belt. It won't make you a better pilot, but it won't make you a worse one either.

I wanted to be a water-bomber pilot, too. I wound up doing something different along the way, which is what happens sometimes. I got work as Twin Otter captain as part of my goal to make myself attractive to CL-215 operators, and I found that work rewarding and never moved on.

When I was a kid my father was fairly insistent that I receive some type of post-secondary education. I really wanted to fly and at the time (I lived in Ontario) post-secondary flying courses were done at the college level. There were three major schools at that time, that were difficult to be admitted to, and even more difficult to stay in for the whole course, but you graduated with a diploma and your various ratings. I remember when I graduated I felt as though I had completed one of life's major achievements. I also remember being assured around graduation that our "diploma" would be considered the equivalent of a Bachelor degree by Air Canada and the Canadian Forces, who at the time were the two employers who definitely required a degree for admission. It may have been true at the time, because several of my friends from college were admitted to the Armed Forces, and a couple now work for Air Canada too.

However, I do not have a real bachelor degree, and if at one time several decades ago my diploma was considered the equivalent, that time is over. I simply do not have one. My wife, who does have a degree, and I sometimes argue about the relative validity of an undergraduate degree when assessing people. She is responsible for hiring her own minions at the bureaucratic job she has, and the requirement for them is a degree. Now the thing is, it doesn't matter what degree. She says they will learn what they need to know on the job. So I asked her, then why the degree. She says it's just a thing that proves you are able to think and commit to a project. I was, and still am, incredulous. I went to school for three years and then worked steadily as a professional pilot for twenty-five years. Some little bastard goes to school for four years and he's the guy that can "think and commit to a project".

So there you have it. It's a class distinction. All your life, you will run into annoying little roadblocks if you don't have a degree. You'll pay more for insurance. You won't be eligible for many management positions. If you want to donate some time to an Air Cadet squadron, you can be a 2nd Lieutenant if you have a degree. ANY degree. You can be an "officer Cadet" if you don't. Even if you've got decades of professional aviation experience. Superiors, corporations, banks, professional organizations, and potential employers will forever be looking down on you because of something you didn't achieve, and others did, back when you were in your late teens and early twenties.

Don't ever let anyone tell you we don't live in a class system. I expended what seemed at the time a great deal of effort back in the day to get my education, and still for the lack of one year of classes and a better piece of paper than the one I've already got, I get to be treated like a blue-collar putz for the rest of my life. Even though I can read, write, and reason better than most people who did go to uni. Go to University. Get the extra couple of years under your belt. At the very least, the opportunities to party and get laid will be something you won't forget when, like me, you enter your waning years and start counting your regrets.
Similar situation, got a flying college degree but it is not uneeverseety. Years ago it was certainly seen as an equivalent or at least close to it, but now there is a huge societal rift between those who have a university degree and those who do not. Basket weaving counts for more educational credit than a mere technical skill.

So yes, the class system is alive and well. Go to university. Do the flying after. You will advance further.
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by Cat Driver »

How did I ever manage to fly for a living and never went past grade eight?

Even more strange is I was quite successful and retired able to live a fairly good lifestyle.

Was it because flying was easier in my day because the airplanes were simple to operate and we had no idea there were all those rules and SOP,s to follow?

Oh, well I was never known for having class anyhow. :smt040
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by Meatservo »

Well Cat, at one point it was Ernest K Gann flying out of Newark over Buffalo. Now it's some weirdo who pulls instead of pushes when he hears the stall warning and ploughs the plane into peoples' houses. At one time ambitious young people wanted to be pilots so they could live a life of adventure. Now unimaginative young people want to be pilots because anyone can do it and it's not that hard and they won't have to achieve much. Big deal. Might as well get a degree when you can so you might be counted as being worth something in the big reality-tv bureaucracy that we live in now. No offence. You grew up in a different world. Grade eight in your day was the intellectual equivalent of a present-day bachelor degree. Maybe more.
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Re: University or flight school for becoming a aerial firefighter?

Post by Cat Driver »

Grade eight in your day was the intellectual equivalent of a present-day bachelor degree. Maybe more.
Grade eight gave me the ability to read and write so I could educate myself.

To be really successful in any field one must know as much as possible about the field you are working in being able to read and write allowed me to self educate.

The interesting part of my flying career I can not remember ever being asked for my education history.
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