Gilliam Air - BN2 position

[justwanttofly]

Looking for info on this company but didnt come up with much.

Is it a seasonal position or do the BN2s fly all year?
Are they strictly a VFR operation?
Whats the pay/rotation?
What kind of routes do they do?
Has anyone heard back?

All the best to those who applied.

[cdnpilot77]

You should be all over this one!!!

[FOD_Vacuum]

It is a great start to build some multi time. As far as I know, they operate single pilot day VFR out of Gillam MB. They mostly fly to Shamattawa, Kelsey, Thompson, Churchill and the polar bear areas, land on ice up north etc. Schedule would be pretty much work everyday with the odd weekend off. You fly the airplane to St Andrews for maintenance and get to hang out in Winnipeg for the day. Pay is decent for a 500TT pilot, with pay increases ever so often. The have two BN2s and operate them frequently. Other than that, the pilots operate the fuel pumps also at Gillam if they are not flying. Housing is provided. It is a pretty fast turnover rate since there is nothing to do in Gillam and it is year round.

[CAL]

if I could do it all over again.......I would do this...not to mention many others.....
aviation.......ohhhhhh (deep breath) aviation......
never assume you are in a bad spot....................

[lost in the north]

It's a one year commitment, no bond just a handshake. Also was told that about half the guys stay for a second year.

[tferguson]

What FOD said...day VFR, they keep busy. FWIW, the owner seemed quite friendly while we were passing through YGX for fuel.

[justwanttofly]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a decent gig!

Has anyone heard back yet?

[cdnpilot77]

The owner is a very interesting guy to talk too! Good luck to whomever gets this one, it is a great opportunity for a lower time person to get some quality mpic time!

[SterlingCooper]

This seems to be the most positive review a company has gotten in a while.

What's life like in Gillam? More or less what you'd expect in any of the obscure places where pilots go to cut their teeth i'm guessing?

[fish4life]

It's a Manitoba Hydro town, I heard it used to be if you weren't a hydro worker you were a nobody in the town but it sounds like it's better than that now. Lots of construction going on with the new hydro dams now so it might be a bit more lively although I think most people never leave the camps. There is a road to Thompson although it is gravel and it gets lots of abuse from all the truck traffic as a result of the new dam being built.

[FOD_Vacuum]

Gillam (not be confused with Gimli) is a Manitoba Hydro town. A lot of houses are newly built, and there two hotels in town(one that I do not recommend staying at). The runway in Gillam is gravel and pretty long as it used to accommodate 737's back in the day when the dams were being built to fly in workers. Other than that, there are one or two family run restaurants I can think of that you can go to to have some burgers, but other than that it is a fairly boring place to live. I have heard stories of Gillam Air doing odd things against CARs, just like any other small operator. Again, good pay for the work you do. Both pilots I knew recently moved on to bigger companies.

[fish4life]

They're is still 737's running in there.