I understand there has been attrition with the corporate operator Syncrude in Fort McMurray. Pilot Career Center says they are currently not hiring and other then a visit to their office it seems difficult to get in contact with the Chief Pilot via the phone. Any past, present or other pilots on AvCanada that have come across their crew in any of the locations that they fly to? Interested in Making the trip up this early summer for a few meet and greets. Most of my time is on the Navajo or B200 in the mountains. 2800Hrs, Mostly PIC. New To Alberta for flying in General, just looking for a place to hang the hat.

Im not a strong contributor here to AvCanada but maybe I should start, I HAVE used the search function but it just seems there is some older information here.

Thanks,

I think their FO's are in the 100k range. There's a reason the CP is difficult to get a hold of

Thats a pretty healthy salary to start! Considering the price of realestate has come down so much, and rent, could be a far better opportunity to purchase a home. I get the feeling the CP is hard to get a hold of cause of the size and scope of Syncrude as an Oil Company itself? I have nothing against a trip to YMM to make a visit and get a feel for the town. I had been up there years ago and Im sure its night and day considering all the new developments that took place and now the shadow population has diminished.

Like any other "true" corporate position will they hire DE Captains?

Thanks

Few years back we heard a Captian left to go drive truck in the sands. This was not a young man but one who had paid his dues and finally made it to a good corporate position. Makes you wonder.

Thanks LongJon. Cant imagine driving a truck for a whole day is any better then flying a handful of hours. To each their own.

Any idea about DEC possibilities and upgrade times?

All positions there are trained in the left seat legs are swapped, command is whoever has the seniority. So, no you won't be in command. And you will work more then a few hours a day when you do work.

They are not currently hiring and I doubt they will be anytime soon the way the price of oil is. You would be a fool to move to YMM and buy a stupidly over priced home right now. You wont see an upgrade there for a miniumum of 2+ years if you are lucky. Hiring is happening industry wide, go throw paper out while you can.

Word is on the street that Syncrude is hiring again, rats! wrong time for me! good time to be buying a house in Alberta I think. markets recovering well by all appearances. GL Hope for an Oil Super Cycle.

Oil will always be cyclical. That’s why I left the Patch (though I wasn’t flying for Syncrude) and relocated to the mountains.

I’m pretty happy making almost that in a much nicer locale.

Years ago when I flew in to Ft McNewfie all the time I met a few guys there, the basically fly to yyc, yeg, ymm, and whatever Mildred lake ident is, and that's it. Over and over and over and over. It takes a special kind of person to do that day in and day out for any money. You'll get sick of each other pretty quickly if you don't have the right type of personality to fit in there. They all seemed like good people but no time builders. Back then they wanted 4000 hours but who knows what they're at now.