For all the Courtesy Air Alumni out there

frostedflakes · Post by **frostedflakes** » Thu Apr 02, 2015 6:48 am

You'll be happy to know that Ol Jackie couldn't save the pending TC shut down and doors are shut. 13 years and she didnt kill anyone, not bad.

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Thu Apr 02, 2015 2:11 pm

Courtesy closed? Can anyone confirm this, a bit less harshly?

futboler14 · Post by **futboler14** » Thu Apr 02, 2015 3:30 pm

Courtesy was the funnest place I've worked in aviation (I didn't say best). Cracking a Pil after 11.5 hrs of flying was priceless.

We flew our bags off and we had fun doing it. From shooting fireworks to getting a free ride home from the cops after a night at Woody's or house party.... it was a good time!

dirk82 · Post by **dirk82** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 9:27 am

DanWEC wrote:Courtesy closed? Can anyone confirm this, a bit less harshly?

Rumours are true. May 1 is the day.

Best flying and best bunch of guys I've worked with. Like the OP I don't think you'll find to many ex employees feeling bad for Jackies loss on this one.

PostmasterGeneral · Post by **PostmasterGeneral** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 9:33 pm

I can second the sentiments here. Most fun I ever had flying, the guys were awesome, and the summers in Buffalo Narrows were sweet. You won't find much sympathy for Jackie amongst us. You reap what you sew, and she is single handedly responsible for the demise of her little empire.

howard40 · Post by **howard40** » Sun Apr 05, 2015 6:06 pm

Well I hope they manage to sell it and have someone keep er going.

moe · Post by **moe** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 9:01 am

Maybe Barry will buy them for cheap just like he did with all the aircraft spares years ago..

Meatservo · Post by **Meatservo** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 4:37 pm

PostmasterGeneral wrote:You reap what you sew...

Sow. You reap what you sow. To sow is to plant something in the ground, which you can reap later. You obviously meant to say that this Jackie person planted the seeds of her own demise, and not that she sewed herself an article of clothing that somehow proved to be her undoing.

Chuck Ellsworth · Post by **Chuck Ellsworth** » Mon Apr 06, 2015 4:49 pm

But she may have reaped herself.

schnitzel2k3 · Post by **schnitzel2k3** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 3:39 am

I guess West Wind and Osprey are picking up the slack of the west province flying. Makes more sense for Osprey but those boys and girls already work haaarrd.

Rosetta · Post by **Rosetta** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 11:50 am

Ah, maybe the folks running Gsky can buy some of their planes now. Or possibly the operation for 10c on the dollar. Wasn't M. Flower involved somehow? Thats two companies that don't seem to answer their emails!

rigpiggy · Post by **rigpiggy** » Tue Apr 07, 2015 1:56 pm

There was rumor that Gsky and courtesy were going to merge, they flew down to lloyd what happened

Kingairdriver · Post by **Kingairdriver** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 8:24 am

I wonder if transport finally was forced to do there job after they lost most of there flying because of safety violations. I'm very happy the owners got lucky and didn't kill anyone.

flyinthebug · Post by **flyinthebug** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 9:26 am

Im really surprised at all the hate towards Courtesy Air? Back in the late 90s and into the early 2000s, they ran some of the nicest PA31-350s I have ever seen. They were the standard that other air services in Sask gauged themselves against. Dennis and Karen ran a great operation...and sounds like someone else ran it into the ground? Sad if its true.

After Dennis was killed in his new DHC3, Karen picked up the reins and kept the company safe, profitable, and growing. It really is a shame that it went down hill so far, so fast. I haven't followed them much since Karen passed, and seems I missed a hard down turn for them over the past 10+ years. I guess there is something to the idea that a good leader makes all the difference in the world. Maybe Barry O will pick up the pieces...we shall see.

Is this "Jackie" Dennis and Karen`s daughter? When I last had contact with them in 2006, their son had taken over the operation? Just curious if anyone knows.

Good luck to the pilots and engineers who will be looking for a job.

Fly safe all.
FTB

lost in the north · Post by **lost in the north** » Wed Apr 08, 2015 4:53 pm

Nothing to do with Dennis's son or daughter. They are totally out of it.

flyinthebug · Post by **flyinthebug** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 6:51 am

lost in the north wrote:Nothing to do with Dennis's son or daughter. They are totally out of it.

Thanks for the updates!

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 5:24 pm

They have a recent posting for a CP?

rigpiggy · Post by **rigpiggy** » Mon May 11, 2015 3:17 pm

Latest I heard in the saga is Jackie is sending out sealed bidding packages to sell the whole kit and kaboodle

spruceair · Post by **spruceair** » Tue May 12, 2015 7:03 am

I've been hearing someone is in the process of buying them...anyone know who?

the AK · Post by **the AK** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 9:20 am

The reason for the shutdown was two-fold, and a bit complicated. First of all they had been running thru ops managers for years. In the 4 years I was there I saw 4 ops managers come and go plus another guy show up and left after a week. This problem was mitigated by the fact the CP had been a long term employee, 6 plus years. But then he quit and got a job at Suncor, by this time word had got out about how Jackie treated people and how the place was run. Cameco was the company that had been providing 90 percent of Courtesy's work. They had been watching. When the long term CP quit to go to Suncor combined with the rotating cast of people in the Ops manager position it sent up a HUGE red flag. They did fill both position but with people who weren't of the caliber that was needed to effectively manage a company of that size and more importantly tempo. At the end the only person who they could find to be ops manager was a 25 year old kid who had around 2000hrs and had started at Courtesy about 2.5 years before with 200 hours. The second reason was how Jackie dealt with Cameco itself. I didn't know this until recently but the relationship between Cameo and Jackie had been falling apart for years mainly due to Jackie's lack of interpersonal skills. She would actually send emails to her counter point at Cameco berating them. Im talking along the lines of swear filled rants. Biting the hand that fed her. The combination of no effective management and Jackie's dealing with Cameco led to Cameco pulling their contract from Courtesy. The official reason they used was the midnight one departure of yet another CP, since TC has to legally send out a notice of suspension Cameco was able to say that they didn't meet the requirements to operate as stated in the contract. The actual reason was mostly Jackie herself plus the fact that Westwind had been courting to Cameco for years about taking over the westside flying. With only court party and a few north shore flights (Areva) a week the writing was on the wall. At one point she approached the, at that time, current CP and one of the pilots to buy the company. The said pilot was 24 years old and in no position to buy anything. Unable to fill the position CP combined with the "why bother" attitude since the company had no work the notice of suspension came into effect and Courtesy Air slipped into the annals of Canadian aviation history, remembered by those of us who were there and knew what it was like. Pa-31's into U-city, Woody's, 2 feet off the channel on your way back empty from JF3 with beers waiting at the hanger, mexician ILS into YVT, night medivac's in a snowstorm, frozen breaks in JMF and all the rest.

futboler14 · Post by **futboler14** » Sat Jun 06, 2015 5:26 pm

Pa-31's into U-city, Woody's, 2 feet off the channel on your way back empty from JF3 with beers waiting at the hanger, mexician ILS into YVT, night medivac's in a snowstorm, frozen breaks in JMF and all the rest.

aileron · Post by **aileron** » Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:23 am

futboler14 wrote:
Pa-31's into U-city, Woody's, 2 feet off the channel on your way back empty from JF3 with beers waiting at the hanger, mexician ILS into YVT, night medivac's in a snowstorm, frozen breaks in JMF and all the rest.

FM fun with cabbies and diggers, Pho in La Ronge, fish fish fish and acrobatics over fire.

And inspiration for Panda, so I heard...

moe · Post by **moe** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 6:12 pm

lionheart27 · Post by **lionheart27** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 11:39 am

Anyone know how the aircraft will be parted out?

99's with Orca?
1900's?
King Air's?
Baron and 206?
Navajos?

DanWEC · Post by **DanWEC** » Thu Jul 16, 2015 5:02 pm

Just announced on the radio up here today:

We are very excited to announce the addition of Buffalo Narrows to our fixed base of operations. The transition of the fixed base of operations in Buffalo Narrows from Courtesy Air to Transwest Group of Companies will be effective August 1st, 2015. Transwest Group of Companies diversified operations initially will continue ground services and fuel operations with Snowbird Petroleum. Transwest Group of Companies looks forward to expanding the services in the fixed base of operations at Buffalo Narrows and Transwest Air is excited for the service we will be providing to the community. Transwest Group of Companies will work closely with the community to bring economic and employment opportunities for the local residents.

There's going to be a bunch of Transwestites at the hanger now. No word on the airplanes, but I believe they only acquired the FBO.

(Totally unrelated, so who left the Tucker Max book behind at the old Courtesy apartments? We should drink beer together.

)

For all the Courtesy Air Alumni out there

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