Pilot in the Canadian Forces

[Moose47]

Flyboy 757 - do you remember Captain Don Nicks from FIS and later an instructor with the civvie contractor at the Jaw? I worked with Don here at 22 Wing while he was doing a ground tour at Fighter Group H.Q. Believe it or not, prior to that we were in the same kindergarden class at R.C.A.F. Station Saskatoon. I won't tell you the year!

Cheers...Chris

[Blakey]

I did my basic wings training on the Tutor jet in Moose Jaw. My first operational tour was on Grumman Trackers with 880 Squadron out of Shearwater, Nova Scotia. It was a great first tour. Lots of good, hard IFR in nasty weather. Our primary role was sovereignty patrols of Canada's coastal waters out to 200 miles. Basically, we'd be given a large chunk of ocean to patrol. We'd head out for about 6 hours, typically, with two pilots and one AESOP (radar operator), and record everything that was happening in that chunk of ocean. Lots of down low ops ... we'd typically be at 100' on the radalt while the copilot read the names off the fishing boats. One thing to note, this was the 70's, so no fancy nav stuff. It was all a "dead reckoning" plot with a big sea chart, an E6B "confuser", and a pencil. Lots of work for the cojo. Nav errors in the order of 70 nm after a 6 hour patrol were not unusual. Eventually, we got Omega nav, but that was towards the end of my tour. I remember being shocked at how quick the upgrade to "crew commander" came. One day you're an innocent copilot, next thing you know you're a young 20's "crew commander", mixing it up with the Soviet intelligence gatherers in the North Atlantic.

As far as secondary duties went, each squadron had a flight safety section, a training section, an operations section, and what have you. You might find yourself manning the ops desk, or preparing a flight safety lecture, or designing a better way to deliver weaponry. In the Tracker, we had the ability to drop the Mark 54 depth bomb, and to fire 2.75" rockets. Every six months or so, we'd have a RocketEx or BombEx where we'd all have to head out to the range to qualify. Tons of fun. In the late 70's, I had the opportunity to fire high explosive rockets at a part of an oil tanker that had broken up off the east coast, and had become a hazard to navigation. Also had lots of great trips to Bermuda for various naval support exercises.

My second tour was instructing on the Beech Musketeer in Portage la Prairie. There was a set of heel marks from Halifax to Portage, because I did not want to go. That's one thing about military life ... you go where you're needed, not necessarily where you want to be. That being said, I quickly discovered that I enjoyed instructing, and was quite good at it. Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut and soon-to-be commander of the International Space Station, was one of my first students. As far as secondary duties went, I was appointed as Course Director (essentially ... "Mother") to all the students who came through. I also tried out for, and made, the Musket Gold formation demonstration team. Essentially, we'd do our job during the week, and on weekends would head off to Duluth or "Upper Rubber Boot" Saskatchewan, wherever the next air show was, and do our 4-plane formation show. Tons of fun! Ended up leading the team the next year. I ultimately did three instructional tours in Portage, one teaching new instructors, and the last as Chief Flight Instructor of #3 Canadian Forces Flying Training School. I certainly learned the value of top notch instruction, and to this day have a lot of time for pilots with a solid instructional background.

In the late 80's, I did a tour on T-33 jets out of Comox. Again, had a wonderful time. Lots of fleet support stuff. We had the ability to stream targets behind the aircraft on 10,000' of cable, so that the navy could shoot at us. Didn't care so much for that part of the job! I'll tell ya, the words "Cease Fire! ... Bores Clear!" take on new meaning in your life in that role. We also had threat emitters in the nose of the aircraft that could simulate the signals of various Soviet missiles. We'd typically depart Comox, head a hundred miles or so out to sea, then turn around and head for Seattle or Portland or wherever, and wait to get intercepted. I especially enjoyed seeing the F-4 Phantoms coming out, because with their smoke trail in full-AB, you could see them coming the whole hundred miles! Once intercepted, we'd mix it up for a bit, then be escorted back to whatever base they came out of for debrief. That's another thing about military life, often times when you head in to work in the morning, you have no idea where you're going to end up that night. Ended up being Deputy Commanding Officer of the squadron, so got quite involved in personnel management, writing evaluation reports, that type of stuff. I was promoted to Major at that point, and just prior to departing the base, was tasked to lead the "Bad Guys" on a Base Defense Force exercise. Essentially, I recruited a team of "infiltrators" from various other military agencies, and coordinated incursions onto CFB Comox to test their defensive capabilities. Learned a lot on that little escapade, like how tough it is to get a young "Commando" to play dead when he still has bullets left in his gun.

Overall, the military was a great experience, and is a great career for the right person. Like I said, it has its negatives, but the positives far outweigh them. I've been flying in the commercial environment for the last several years, and like every professional pilot here, have had my share of ups and downs. It's always paid my bills, and I've considered myself fortunate to have earned a living doing something I truly enjoy. I have a cushy little retirement job now, flying a PC-12 and a Citation jet out of Kelowna, and will do it until I can't. Until then, I'll keep having fun. When the career end does come, it'll have been a great run!

Fly safe, all.

Alpha Crit

J.O. is that you??

[snowbear]

Can you kill on demand? Can you die on command? That is all your country will require of you. When you try to get a civilian job you will need to find a company with ex military pilots because the rest will not like your skill set. Check the eye surgery thing very carefully. I know more guys who have had medicals lost than those that are successful

Good luck with your choice

[trampbike]

trambike,

Congrats! The biggest step is out of the way. Not get ready to take some abuse and suck it up for a while. It gets better after Basic Training, believe me. And the reward is worth every effort you put into it.

Use your experience wisely. It can help you a lot if you want. Just don't rely only upon your civilian background to put your though flight training.

Good Luck!

PM for any questions at any time.

Thank you very much AuxBatOn. Do you know that you are the one who made me apply again? In a post on the francophone section of this forum you told me that ROTP was never closed (I was told otherwise by a ill-informed recruiter in 2008!) and that they were still hiring pilots... That's when I started to gather information by myself about the pilot job in the CF, and without this spark, I probably would have finished my CPL and my degree before even thinking about trying to apply again. You saved me 2 years and a ton of money!

[TheCheez]

Can you kill on demand? Can you die on command? That is all your country will require of you. When you try to get a civilian job you will need to find a company with ex military pilots because the rest will not like your skill set. Check the eye surgery thing very carefully. I know more guys who have had medicals lost than those that are successful

Good luck with your choice

^someone who has no idea what he's talking about.

[Flyboy757]

snowbear wrote:
Can you kill on demand? Can you die on command? That is all your country will require of you. When you try to get a civilian job you will need to find a company with ex military pilots because the rest will not like your skill set. Check the eye surgery thing very carefully. I know more guys who have had medicals lost than those that are successful

Good luck with your choice


^someone who has no idea what he's talking about

Totally agree with your response Cheez. Snowbear totally unaware of the facts.

[DirectorF]

Hi,

Could you update us on your situation? Did you get the surgery and how did it go.I am a little worried about my vision as well.

[confusedalot]

Can you kill on demand? Can you die on command? That is all your country will require of you. When you try to get a civilian job you will need to find a company with ex military pilots because the rest will not like your skill set. Check the eye surgery thing very carefully. I know more guys who have had medicals lost than those that are successful

Good luck with your choice

Ummm, respectfully I think you have it the other way around. A CF background is a fair sized plus with the serious operators.

Never been military (I actually got accepted decades ago but the scare stories of getting jammed behind a desk made me squeam)

Wonder to this day how it would have all turned out.

[Meatservo]

Can you kill on demand? Can you die on command? That is all your country will require of you. When you try to get a civilian job you will need to find a company with ex military pilots because the rest will not like your skill set. Check the eye surgery thing very carefully. I know more guys who have had medicals lost than those that are successful

Good luck with your choice

Ummm, respectfully I think you have it the other way around. A CF background is a fair sized plus with the serious operators.

Never been military (I actually got accepted decades ago but the scare stories of getting jammed behind a desk made me squeam)

Wonder to this day how it would have all turned out.

I know it was a few years ago Snowbears comment was made, but it's still visible to others and confusedalot already commented, but I think it's important to speak up when someone says something incorrect. Like a large percentage of Canadian pilots, I was an air cadet in my teens and gave serious thought to a military career. And honestly I guess I'm a bit of a Canadian Forces fanboy. I will always owe the CF a debt of gratitude because I was a little peice of shit when I was in my early teens and the instruction I recieved in their youth program, while some progressives deride it as nothing more than military indoctrination, was what gave me a goal to focus on, and they gave me a pilot's license and frankly they gave me my career, even though I have always been a civilian. During cadets I read the book "Bush Pilot with a Briefcase" by Grant McChonachie and decided to focus on bush flying. I have worked side-by-side with RCAF pilots in the high arctic, and I now have a few friends who are current or former RCAF pilots. I can say that that statement "the rest will not like your skill set" is total bullshit. A pilot is a pilot. In the civilian world with a bit of imagination you can do almost any kind of flying and some people become very good at it and very experienced. In the military the training is absolutely excellent and military pilots invariably find that they fit in quite well when they enter the civilian flying life. I have never met a former military pilot who wasn't an excellent airman, nor have I met one who looks down on his civilian counterparts for their experiences.

As for the killling, well I think you'd have to have quite a morbid turn of mind to be the kind of person who joins the forces because he expects to kill people. I have never killed anyone but I expect finding yourself in a position where having to do so is a possibility is probably nothing but unfortunate. As for the dying, well if you're a pilot for long enough you're going to gather quite a collection of dead friends over the years whether you're military OR civilian, so developing strategies for avoiding death yourself and accepting it when it happens to others is an adult skill you'll need no matter what you decide to do.

[confusedalot]

Good post, I too was an air cadet and never regretted the experience. They gave me a private pilot licence. And a whole lot more.

Most respect current and former CF staff, but alas, some just don't get it.

[Beefitarian]

Ha, good trick. I started reading this as if it was not a from decade ago when corrective eye surgery was much less routine and still kind of magic.

[TheRealMcCoy]

I had my eyes done in 2011'ish in order to get into the military as a pilot and not be disqualified from flying jets. They didn't bat an eye over it then and I got in perfectly fine.

[fanboy94]

Are you currently flying fast jet @TheRealMcCoy?