Pasco Commuter Friendly?

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Delta602
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Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Delta602 »

On the ads for Pasco they say pilots average 16 days a month. Anyone know of this is realistic? They say they offer confirmed seats for commuting and I'm wondering if the schedule is in fact commuting-friendly.
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Pasco Flt Ops
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Pasco Flt Ops »

Hi Delta602

We just issued our flight crew schedules this morning for all of August and the days worked varied from a low of 13 to a high of 18, with most schedules being 14, 15, or 16 days on, depending on aircraft and seniority. These were schedules with no vacation or other banked time off.

Schedules are built as best as possible in "chunks" with 3 or 4 on and then 3 or 4 off. Due to operational restraints, this can't be done every time for everyone, and there can be a range of single day or double day pairings mixed in as well. We don't schedule more than 4 days of duty in a row.

In respect to commuting, any pilot can chose to live anywhere within our route network and commute for free, confirmed on any of our flights. Since commuting is confirmed, pilots can book the flight that works best for their check-in without worry of being bumped. We currently have pilots commuting from Kelowna, Campbell River, Comox, Victoria, and Powell River. Powell River and Victoria are also pilot bases (in addition to Vancouver) so pilots based there have schedules that start and end in their home town and see them home virtually every night of the month. We certainly try to make commuting within our route network as seamless as possible, and while commuting from outside the route network could be done, it generally won't be as viable.

Hope that helps!

Pasco Flt Ops
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Black_Tusk
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Black_Tusk »

PasCo is loosing pilots by the dozens to the regional airlines. When 8-10 year Captains are leaving, you have to wonder why. If you like starting work at 6am and being done at 8pm every day after flying 13 legs and be poorly, have at er.
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'97 Tercel
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by '97 Tercel »

Free and confirmed commuting from Kelowna? They should get some resumes just on that alone. Plus live and actually work outta Victoria, and home most nights of month? I can't imagine how that wouldn't add to the pile too. Probably two of the best(other than Norman Wells and Inuvik) places to live in the country.
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Delta602
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Delta602 »

Hi Delta602

We just issued our flight crew schedules this morning for all of August and the days worked varied from a low of 13 to a high of 18, with most schedules being 14, 15, or 16 days on, depending on aircraft and seniority. These were schedules with no vacation or other banked time off.

Schedules are built as best as possible in "chunks" with 3 or 4 on and then 3 or 4 off. Due to operational restraints, this can't be done every time for everyone, and there can be a range of single day or double day pairings mixed in as well. We don't schedule more than 4 days of duty in a row.

In respect to commuting, any pilot can chose to live anywhere within our route network and commute for free, confirmed on any of our flights. Since commuting is confirmed, pilots can book the flight that works best for their check-in without worry of being bumped. We currently have pilots commuting from Kelowna, Campbell River, Comox, Victoria, and Powell River. Powell River and Victoria are also pilot bases (in addition to Vancouver) so pilots based there have schedules that start and end in their home town and see them home virtually every night of the month. We certainly try to make commuting within our route network as seamless as possible, and while commuting from outside the route network could be done, it generally won't be as viable.

Hope that helps!

Pasco Flt Ops
Thanks for that reply! Good information. I am interested in commuting from Kelowna, good to know it is possible.
PasCo is loosing pilots by the dozens to the regional airlines. When 8-10 year Captains are leaving, you have to wonder why. If you like starting work at 6am and being done at 8pm every day after flying 13 legs and be poorly, have at er.
Is this really how it is? If so then I imagine it would be hard to retain pilots. The company I'm currently at has this kind of schedule and that's why I'm considering leaving.

Delta602
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JBI
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by JBI »

Black_Tusk wrote:PasCo is loosing pilots by the dozens to the regional airlines. When 8-10 year Captains are leaving, you have to wonder why. If you like starting work at 6am and being done at 8pm every day after flying 13 legs and be poorly, have at er.
You are correct that Pasco is losing a significant number of pilots to the regionals and AC/WJ mainline. But the vast majority of them are not leaving because they dislike Pasco, but rather the opportunities away from Pasco are just too good to pass up at this particular time.

However, they also have a number of senior Captains who are there for the long haul. Up until Encore and the PML, Pasco was THE place to be to get hired by AC or WJ. It was a pretty smooth transition of spend your 3-7 years at Pasco, get 704 & 705 command time and then move on to AC/WJ. This was pretty standard in the 2000s and up til about 2015.

But then a few things happened that made a lot of pilots at Pasco and the rest of the Vancouver operators question the direction their career was taking. First, with the PML, the Jazz YVR base went from being ridiculously senior to being able to hold it right out of training (and with SKY and Georgian taking more of the flying out of YYZ, it was less likely that you'd get stuck in YYZ). In addition, the upgrade times at Jazz dropped significantly. Lastly, there were a couple pilots who were in the pool at WJ mainline for over a year and then lost their spot.

Next, with the most recent application window at AC, the pilots with a degree got the "we would like to do a phone interview with you at some point in the next year" email and the pilots without a degree got the "Please try an AC Express career". This was regardless of whether they were a Saab Capt or a 1900 FO. So, you had a number of senior Captains who originally planned to stay at Pasco until AC or WJ called trying to decide their options. Did they want to fly a Saab around BC for the rest of their career? Some decided they did, some decided they didn't.

Pasco is a great company and the pilots, generally speaking, are treated well. 13 legs in a day is not a regular occurrence. The standard is between 4 and 8 legs a day. Keep in mind that includes the 6 minute flight from Campbell River to Comox and the 12 minute flight from Vancouver to Victoria. Though yes, you do get a few days of Vancouver - Campbell River - Comox - Vancouver twice and then add in a Victoria turn and perhaps another turn and it makes for a long day. I liked my schedule at Pasco better than at the regional I'm at now and was home way more. The downside of the Pasco schedule due to the nature of the business is that it can change quite a bit during the day. It was rare that we'd do 13 or 14 hour days (though they definitely did happen). Also, while you'd have some early mornings, it wasn't all the time. You do almost no night flying in the summer. It would occasionally happen that once the fall came, pilots would have to do night circuits to get their currency back.

There were days when I thought I would be done at 4pm, but they needed me for another turn and I didn't finish til 8. Did it suck? You bet - but I still got to sleep at home that night. I would say I averaged 4 - 5 nights away from home while there. At my regional job I'm away 14 nights or more. The joke is that Pasco stands for "Planes And Schedules Change Often". And, while it definitely happened less often, there were days where I'd get to go home earlier than expected. My understanding is that they're working on improving the predictability of the schedule, but there's only so much you can do with the nature of their business.

I'm not sure what the pay scales are now, but for Captains, especially if they are involved in training, there is the potential to make high five figures / low six figures. While you can do better eventually at AC/WJ (and even the regionals) probably, I would argue that's a pretty fair salary.

Pasco isn't for everyone. There are people that don't like it and choose to leave (There are pilots who don't like AC and choose to leave). However, most of the pilots I know that have recently moved on from there didn't do so because they didn't like Pasco, but because the circumstances meant that moving to a regional now seems like a better shot at getting to a mainline job quicker (there are also a number of pilots who have recently started with WJ mainline). I didn't leave Pasco because I didn't enjoy it. On the contrary I miss the flying and the people. For me, family circumstances meant that it wasn't feasible for me to stay.
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yycinformer
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by yycinformer »

Is Pasco commute friendly from a little further east, say Calgary, with the jump seat agreements?
Pasco Flt Ops wrote: Pasco Flt Ops
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Rightseatdriver
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Rightseatdriver »

Pasco Flt Ops wrote:Hi Delta602

We just issued our flight crew schedules this morning for all of August and the days worked varied from a low of 13 to a high of 18, with most schedules being 14, 15, or 16 days on, depending on aircraft and seniority. These were schedules with no vacation or other banked time off.

Schedules are built as best as possible in "chunks" with 3 or 4 on and then 3 or 4 off. Due to operational restraints, this can't be done every time for everyone, and there can be a range of single day or double day pairings mixed in as well. We don't schedule more than 4 days of duty in a row.

In respect to commuting, any pilot can chose to live anywhere within our route network and commute for free, confirmed on any of our flights. Since commuting is confirmed, pilots can book the flight that works best for their check-in without worry of being bumped. We currently have pilots commuting from Kelowna, Campbell River, Comox, Victoria, and Powell River. Powell River and Victoria are also pilot bases (in addition to Vancouver) so pilots based there have schedules that start and end in their home town and see them home virtually every night of the month. We certainly try to make commuting within our route network as seamless as possible, and while commuting from outside the route network could be done, it generally won't be as viable.

Hope that helps!

Pasco Flt Ops
Hey so just to confirm....if you want to live and commute from Kelowna, do you have to find a crash pad to stay at while you are in Vancouver?
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Delta602
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Delta602 »

Hey so just to confirm....if you want to live and commute from Kelowna, do you have to find a crash pad to stay at while you are in Vancouver?
I'm pretty sure the answer is yes. There must be some decent (and affordable) crash pads close to YVR I would imagine.

If only I could see an example schedule of one of their pilots to see if commuting really is a good option.
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Sweatspot
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Sweatspot »

If Pascal could work in longer blocks (say 8-10 days in a row on, with a simular number off) and provide crash pads in YVR or YYJ for guys commuting on the network they might get more captains from rural areas looking at staying longer? These changes would work for me.
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'97 Tercel
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by '97 Tercel »

Seems like more job ads than Wasaya! Anybody show up to the September groundschool?
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flyboy14914
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by flyboy14914 »

Does anyone have any up to date information about commuting and pilot bases with PASCO? The last update in this threat was 5 years ago.

I'm looking to confirm that PASCO still provides free and confirmed in-network commuting for pilots.

Also, do they still have an active pilot base in Comox??
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static_invertor
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by static_invertor »

Is the 750 hours for Pasco a hard limit for FOs due to insurance requirements?
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by PeterParker »

static_invertor wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 6:04 pm Is the 750 hours for Pasco a hard limit for FOs due to insurance requirements?
A friend of mine said they were hiring 250 hour FOs for their Saab out of Calgary before Covid, so I doubt it... Throw in your resume even if you don't meet the requirements. I'm sure they will hire you if they like what they see...
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Turboprops »

PeterParker wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 4:11 pm
static_invertor wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 6:04 pm Is the 750 hours for Pasco a hard limit for FOs due to insurance requirements?
A friend of mine said they were hiring 250 hour FOs for their Saab out of Calgary before Covid, so I doubt it... Throw in your resume even if you don't meet the requirements. I'm sure they will hire you if they like what they see...
Ya but you had to work ramp there to get a FO spot at 250 hrs.
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by PeterParker »

Turboprops wrote: Mon Aug 22, 2022 3:18 pm
PeterParker wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 4:11 pm
static_invertor wrote: Sat Aug 20, 2022 6:04 pm Is the 750 hours for Pasco a hard limit for FOs due to insurance requirements?
A friend of mine said they were hiring 250 hour FOs for their Saab out of Calgary before Covid, so I doubt it... Throw in your resume even if you don't meet the requirements. I'm sure they will hire you if they like what they see...
Ya but you had to work ramp there to get a FO spot at 250 hrs.
Back in 2019, these were OTS hires for the Saab operations out of Calgary.
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Flathead05
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Flathead05 »

Anyone get a call back from Pasco recently?
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Re: Pasco Commuter Friendly?

Post by Turboprops »

PeterParker wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 4:11 pm
Back in 2019, these were OTS hires for the Saab operations out of Calgary.
Lol sucks for the guys hauling bags in Vancouver, I personally know people trying to get a flying spot with PASCO through ramp to flight (2019)
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