working for peanuts?

[Cat Driver]

For me, definitely the rotary world,

Me too.

[Lommer]

Cat, I've often seen you post about how enjoyable rotary flying is, and that you've done some of it in the past. Given the pay scales, how come you keep flying fixed wing?


P.S. sorry for the thread hijack

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Lommer when I was flying helicopters it was in S. Ont many years ago, I had a young family and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and morphed into fixed wing....

..aviation is more where you are in a given time than where you would like to be.

[sky's the limit]

..aviation is more where you are in a given time than where you would like to be.

That, should be put up as a header on top of the Board Index.... Truer words were never spoken.

I've ceased to make plans at anymore, I'm fortunate enough to be able to pick and choose work now, so I've just started to let it all work itself out. After struggling like hell through the early years with "a plan" in mind, just decided to let go and see what happens. Liking this method MUCH better!


stl

[Chuck Ellsworth]

That, should be put up as a header on top of the Board Index.... Truer words were never spoken.

Easy there STL, if you suggest that I ever post anything useful you are going to risk having CID PM ing you and complaining that you being unfair.

[SkyWolfe]

hahaha... Ive been out here for a month and Ive already learned that too... I started to learn back in 2005.. NOT ONE THING went the way I planned hahahaha!!!

Cat/STL

[iflyforpie]

Hello Mr. Burns,

I used to work with you and we took our PPL at the same time, same place. Looks like we did the same thing; decided that passion wins over paycheque and entered the crazy world of commercial flying.

I didn't go for floats, deciding that Multi IFR was more up my alley and so I've only had rubber under my planes. But both flying jobs I've had I've managed to get on as a pilot/mechanic and made a pittance for an experienced AME but a king's ransom for a low time pilot.

I never had to do ramp but I certainly don't get out of shit jobs either. I still get under the belly of the plane and get a mouthful of W100 while scrubbing it, clean toilets, and wipe puke, plus fuel the planes and answer phones (as every other pilot does here).

I had to spend a few years wrenching because other flying job offers came in too low for dollars. But I have to admit I would probably have taken them if I didn't have a family to support.

The big problem with the flying industry is there is too much supply and not enough demand. The only way to weed out the excess is to pay low and hand out shit jobs. If you are still around when someone dies or they decide the grass is greener, you get to fly airplanes. It doesn't help when there are many pilots who offer to fly for free simply to build hours.

The job you desire can be done by pretty much anyone with a commercial license, a float rating, and a heart beat. I can tell you that the float drivers that started 30 or 40 years ago never had a 50 hour float course or any bush pilot experience other than what they were shown on the line and managed to get away with on their own. I've even known some guy's who have gone so far as to falsify their log books to get on.

Yeah insurance is insurance. But you don't get hours by being on a dock. It's not that they can't get you on, it's that they are unwilling to spend a couple extra hundred bucks a year and the higher deductible that will be the least of their concerns if there is a 'whoopsie'.

Do you have your M1? If you don't you only need 12 months experience on M1 aircraft, your log book, and pay the $35 to TC for the extra rating. No tests if you have M2. Then try to get on as a pilot/mechanic and haggle for a raise.

Aside from all that, I'm jealous. Saw your posts on FB, looks pretty sweet. Passions don't have a price or follow logic. Go with your dreams.

Cheers,

CN

[Wburns]

thanks, its funny cause that original post i wrote 2 years ago. Who dragged it out of the woodwork? I know who you are and remember those times. Its funny to look back on a little. I wouldn't have picked a different road had I of had the choice. Well maybe I would have gotten into realestate before the boom in kelowna but hey, hindsight being 20/20 mine not as good. Good to here your doing well. Cheers.

[Mr. North]

"He could see the cities where the men spent their weeks. The houses with pulled blinds, and air-conditioners, and television sets; the places where lonely men passed time in a limbo of takeout food and untidy kitchens, waiting until Friday to leave work early. To beat the traffic. Oh, never to beat the traffic, no matter how early. To drive past the outskirts: the warehouses, the overpasses, the industial parks, the horizon of apartment towers.

To head up north, with the car radio loud.. Up the highway, on and on. And finally, as the distance from the city becomes too great and the summer countdown begins to fade, to come down the long, gravel road. Those lovely summer roads, finally, through the woods. Finally, to the water." - Summer Gone by David Macfarlane

At this point in my life I cannot imagine doing anything other than bush flying. I pity my non flying friends, some aimless in direction, others on the road to success.. all caught up in the rat race that is city life.

[just curious]

and the summer countdown begins to fade, to come down the long, gravel road. Those lovely summer roads, finally, through the woods. Finally, to the water."

Too bad it's still frozen up.

[buster79]

sounds like i'll be putting the bike away and takin the sled out for one last ride! 15cm of snow suposed to hit us tonight!!

[Mr. North]

No shit! I should have checked the weather before posting something like that!

[buster79]

still snowing!!!