Carson Air

[Les Habitants]

I think its up to 21K now

move up to the big leagues at CMA and get 24K!

great! $8 an hour! Now we're on par with minimum wage. Much better.


Seriously, forget about Carson, and go for Perimeter as previously mentioned. Winnipeg based Scheds start at 27 K, Thompson based at 31 K. Scheds are 16 days on a month. For captains, pay starts at 52 for YWG and 61 for YTH (unrestricted, of course). Great options there to fly the Dash or medevacs later on. Medevacs 1 week on and 1 week off, FO start at just over 40 K with 300/week in per diems, captains at 89 plus 300 per diems.
Unlimited sick days, lots of flying, no pressure to fly overweight/in bad weather, and if there ever was any pressure, you can SMS it and it will be dealt with accordingly, the maintenance is good, the Ops Manager and CP/Assistant CP are top notch guys, and there is a union protecting you. Did I mention jumpseats with Jazz, WJ, and AC as well as several other charter companies?


But you wanna go fly for Carson? wanna go live in Calgary? bahh...go ahead! I know where I'm going! I'll never have to pay a training bond in my life!

[HORUNNER]

what do the medi vac guys fly for sched??

[YWGGuy]

Seriously, forget about Carson, and go for Perimeter as previously mentioned. Winnipeg based Scheds start at 27 K, Thompson based at 31 K. Scheds are 16 days on a month. For captains, pay starts at 52 for YWG and 61 for YTH (unrestricted, of course). Great options there to fly the Dash or medevacs later on. Medevacs 1 week on and 1 week off, FO start at just over 40 K with 300/week in per diems, captains at 89 plus 300 per diems.
Unlimited sick days, lots of flying, no pressure to fly overweight/in bad weather, and if there ever was any pressure, you can SMS it and it will be dealt with accordingly, the maintenance is good, the Ops Manager and CP/Assistant CP are top notch guys, and there is a union protecting you. Did I mention jumpseats with Jazz, WJ, and AC as well as several other charter companies?


But you wanna go fly for Carson? wanna go live in Calgary? bahh...go ahead! I know where I'm going! I'll never have to pay a training bond in my life!

Hang on, so getting the glorious amount of 21K a year they STILL have to sign a fucking training bond? This ought to be criminal!

Working at Perimeter is great, not only do we work 16/month but our crew schedule does an AMAZING job accommodating any request you have for your time off, which you can then use your jumpseats to get back home to see family, friends or just to travel. The pay is ok for what it is, sure the F/O pay is fairly poor but living in Winnipeg sure beats living in Vancouver or Calgary at 21k a year. I will agree with all comments about the lack of pressure to fly a broken airplane or anything.

We also have a great training program with a good Metro Sim that makes the training very reasonable, while the training department is tough than most other companies they give you the tools to succeed.

At the end of the day, I have no clue why anyone would go work for Carson, even with their minimum time if you go to Perimeter, wait out on the ramp or want to go to YTH coming in with time you will probably get on the plane pretty quick. Also with the way things are going they may just need to start hiring a bit of outside blood to help out.

[Captain X]

Most folks going to Carson are going for a quick upgrade? That is if the person has 1000+ hrs. Get in get some MPIC move onto Jazz WJ AC. Most folks move to the 705 carriers right after carson.

Is it any different than scabby navajo outfits from all over the country? I guess you have a choice.

1. Shitty pay living shitty in a northern town
or
2. Shitty pay but living in a decent albeit expensive city

[transplanted]

Does anyone know the sched that the medivac crew fly???
5-5?
7-7?
???

[200hr Wonder]

4 on 4 off 12 hour shifts for the Medivac drivers.

[HORUNNER]

Does Carson do there own training or do they send f/o's to a sim training unit; if so anyone know which one they use?

[Switchfoot]

Does anyone know the sched that the medivac crew fly???

5 on 5 off in YLW
4 and 4 in YVR and a night shift

[Rowdy]

Most folks going to Carson are going for a quick upgrade? That is if the person has 1000+ hrs. Get in get some MPIC move onto Jazz WJ AC. Most folks move to the 705 carriers right after carson.

Is it any different than scabby navajo outfits from all over the country? I guess you have a choice.

1. Shitty pay living shitty in a northern town
or
2. Shitty pay but living in a decent albeit expensive city

Not exactly.. a lot of them make sideways moves to other BC and AB ops. Not into the 705 world.. with the exception of a few that have gone to Jazz. Then maybe to WJ after

MOST of the scummy navajo outfits are gone. Plus.. all the ones left that I know of, pay more than carson.

[sixtyseven]

Just off the top of my head, here is a little list of the places I have personally seen people move on to after Carson in my time here:

Jazz (too many to count)
Canadian North (multiple)
Air Canada (multiple)
Morningstar
Cargojet (multiple)
Porter (multiple)
Voyageur
Hawkair (multiple)
numerous corporate jet outfits

very rare do you see a sidestep

and here is another funny thing. I have seen about 6 people go to another outfit and then come back to Carson due to various reasons. If it was that bad, they wouldn't come back.

Sure, sit on here and complain about the conditions. Just don't apply then if that's not for you. If you have a family and can't get by on that pay that's understandable. But you have to realize that if you can log 700-1000 hours a year on a turbine aircraft and see the left seat after one year, log a bunch of >12.5 time it might just be worth a little sacrifice at the beginning of your career. The work here is easy, maintenance is top notch and you are treated well. I watched people go to ramps, king air medivacs flying 300 hours a year, etc and it may have seemed good then. But everyone that takes the Carson Road left them in the dust and is laughing now. So go ahead and bash the people that go there, but just remember that you could be sitting right seat beside one of them someday because they bit the bullet to advance their career.

[ditshisturber]

what sixtyseven said +1

[Les Habitants]

.

[altiplano]

+1 again on what he said. Few sideways moves out of there - In the last while I knew guys who went to AC Jazz WS Porter Air Spray HawkAir Cdn North Morningstar Corporate...

I don't know what's changed, if anything, but you build a pile of time and get an upgrade probably faster than any other turboprop gig out there. I saw guys there go direct entry PIC off PA31s and 200 hour guys and instructors go PIC after a year.

Carson pay and the 2 year commitment is horseshit, no way around that - on par with CMA I guess... not that it's any excuse. But at least you'll probably go captain in a year or less and the pay takes a good jump, you pocket a lot of per diems too.

[wallypilot]

Does Carson do there own training or do they send f/o's to a sim training unit; if so anyone know which one they use?

Generally guys go to SIM for the B350, and in house training for the METRO. B350 SIM is in Dallas at Simuflight.

[Hozer]

How many hours do the YVR Medivac guys fly a month? What are the minimums to upgrade?

[iflyforpie]

At least two of my instructors at Carson went from the 172, to the Metro, straight to West Jet F/O; but this was about five years ago.