Pilot shoots up helicopter
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Re: Pilot shoots up helicopter
Personally I think work camps in this country are one of the worst things out there that our society accepts. Poor terms of service and poor living conditions are all so the company can improve the bottom line, have a heavy social cost. I saw once (and sort of participated in) what could only be considered a worker's riot in camp once. Two weeks of nothing but over boiled frozen mixed vegetables, skunky pike fillets and instant mashed potatoes for supper was just too much. When the word was that a steak night that was planned to sort of celebrate the end of the job was canceled it came close to burning the cook house down.
Re: Pilot shoots up helicopter
You say, " Personally " ? So, what is the extent of your total camp experience?
Having worked in camps from Melville Island to Northern Manitoba, I can honestly say they ain't that bad. And..I think it has little to do, if anything, with getting bushed.
I went for an interview with what is now the largest Helicopter Charter Company in the world. Four guys interviewed me, and three of them were divorced. They said that was a general rule within the industry. Reason being, your away from home at least six months a year, and that I should think about it if I planned to make it a career. I did think about it, flew Helicopter for a year, and quit for that reason - I wanted to have a family life. My first summer was Northern Saskatchewan, where I spent 3 months without a day off,at first, in a ten person tent camp. In the middle of a muskeg where you couldn't even go for a walk. If you did the flies would eat you. Flying 60hrs per month, and reading everything in site didn't help. Nobody in the camp during the day except me and the cook. It is very hard to keep your head together. And, that was 25 years ago. I was in a camp at Lac La Biche last year...and it was much better. Otherwise, nobody would stay.
All the Yong Street crowd may think they know. But they really don't.
Having worked in camps from Melville Island to Northern Manitoba, I can honestly say they ain't that bad. And..I think it has little to do, if anything, with getting bushed.
I went for an interview with what is now the largest Helicopter Charter Company in the world. Four guys interviewed me, and three of them were divorced. They said that was a general rule within the industry. Reason being, your away from home at least six months a year, and that I should think about it if I planned to make it a career. I did think about it, flew Helicopter for a year, and quit for that reason - I wanted to have a family life. My first summer was Northern Saskatchewan, where I spent 3 months without a day off,at first, in a ten person tent camp. In the middle of a muskeg where you couldn't even go for a walk. If you did the flies would eat you. Flying 60hrs per month, and reading everything in site didn't help. Nobody in the camp during the day except me and the cook. It is very hard to keep your head together. And, that was 25 years ago. I was in a camp at Lac La Biche last year...and it was much better. Otherwise, nobody would stay.
All the Yong Street crowd may think they know. But they really don't.
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Re: Pilot shoots up helicopter
My longest stint was 86 days in a row in a near a lovely place called Steen River. Amongst a lot of other places euphemistically called "cities".You say, " Personally " ? So, what is the extent of your total camp experience?
Agreed I've heard that camp has been improved, I never seen days in a tent. Just a lot of drafty old ATCO trailers, some better, some worse. Since I used to work construction between that ever long summer job musical chairs routine, I also had the pleasure of spending winters in camp. I found out I have a hard time not seeing the sun for too long. Did that for four years about 18 years ago.
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Re: Pilot shoots up helicopter
flyinthebug wrote:Just last summer, we chartered up to a camp in the NWT to relieve a Helicopter pilot who basically had a similar type of breakdown. When we flew him up 4 days earlier, I mentioned to one of the managers that so-n-so didn't look very good.
I met the plane that picked him up on the ramp and the helicopter pilot staggered to the doorway and I reached up to assist him. He could barely walk, and his talk was completely mumbled and made little or no sense. I knew he was sick and we got him directly over to the hospital. He suffered a mental breakdown...in the old days we called it a nervous breakdown.
He had been long lining in all white conditions & bright sun. He simply lost his mind. He landed safely and then became aggressive with everyone at camp and they called and said please come get him.
Some camps are extreme on people`s entire lifestyle. The only difference between some camps and some prisons is the pay is much better at camps. I feel extremely sorry for this pilot and hope he gets the help he needs and maybe even return to flying one day.
godsrcrazy, I empathize with you and thinks its admirable that you defend your friend this way...and please understand that no one meant any disrespect to your friend directly. The whole thing did come across as funny, but more like a nervous laugh kind of funny? Maybe because a lot of us can relate to feeling that way in the north?
It was close to home for you, so you certainly will be more offended by people making fun at your friends expense. I have spent a lot of my career in the north, isolated, and spent many nights at camps when the wx wouldn't allow me to leave. Im just glad I never was based at a camp of any sort, as not many of them are very nice places to live and work.
Fly safe all.
I am not sure if this is a friend or not as i have not heard the name of the pilot. I just don't see in humour in this that some others do. I have spent more then my share of time in camps and have felt the effects. Thank God never to that extreme. As i mentioned in my earlier post. The bottom paragraph was from James at Lakeelse not me.