I'm just looking for the pros and cons, sorry about the pun, for these two companies.

One is unionized, the other is not.

They fly real tankers, not those things that piddle on fires and raise the humidity.

bigredone wrote:They fly real tankers, not those things that piddle on fires and raise the humidity.

Wrong!! Both companiies have piddler divisions.

http://www.ciffc.ca/graphs/aircraft.html

Yeh, and how many gallons of water can a scooper put on a fire when they have a pickup spot colse to the fire compared to a wheel equipped tanker?

Oh , I forgot water does not extinguish fires.

Bigredone, please define Real Tankers for me please. I am obviously missing something here.

Does real tanker mean an aircraft that started life for one mission and when it could no longer fulfill that role, was then bastardized and made to try and fulfill another role for which it was never designed!!

Freeride from what I know the one that is unionized has, profit sharing, benefit packages, pension plan, seriority list etc. the non-unionized one does not.

Both operate a mixed fleet of Birddogs, land based Tankers and Scoopers.

And of course there is the accuracy on drops that comes from being a water scooper, the number of drops done by scoopers compared to land based tankers is signifigant.....

...I used to watch the land based guys miss their drops and head back to the airport for some more of that expensive long term retardent.....then I would just do what water scoopers do best.....scoop water and knock down the fire.

OOhhh I almost forgot...we could also go to the tanker base at the airport and have them fill us up with long term.....but never saw a land based wheel equipped tanker follow us to a lake or river and scoop a load.

Freeride: As usual, a thread on avcanada has been reduced to boys comparing their package size. If you are looking for straight anwsers, try and find a pilot in the flesh to talk to. Short of that, just pm someone around this drivel who sounds like they might actuall know what you need to know. I am new to the gig but pm me if you want and I'll share what little I know.

Cheers,
McPhoo

You guys are to easy

Gee McPhoo, why didn't you just answer his questions when he asked it then and maybe this thread wouldn't have went south. I at least tried to pass along what I know but I guess from now on we will make sure our posts meet with your approval before hitting the submit button.

Conair has a rigid seniority system and most of the guys are young. It will take you years to get out of a birddog a/c as all the guys are relatively young. There is some movement as some guys leave for airlines and such, but the lifestyle appeals to most who do it and few have left. Few like going to Alberta so many seniors choose their aircraft to stay in BC.

I have no idea how long it takes to get to a single-engine tanker or if they even hire direct, but I don't consider a Firecow to be a tanker anyway.

Money's good there, but they have a 4-year payscale so after 4 years you have to rely on the union for negotiated raises. Everything is tied to the length of contract. You used to need about 4000+ hours and an ATPL to get on. They also have a great fleet. I don't know what its like to work for Airspray but there is no union.

I have a couple of friends at Conair (I know, some of you are staggered at the concept, but I still have a couple).

No need to get your knickers in a knot CLguy. I didn't have the time at the moment to make a lengthy post. Some one PM'd me later and I did share the info that was asked. Simple really. Yes, you did share a bit. Point noted.

Perhaps I was just a little annoyed with what seemed like another digression into arguing over semantics when the guy just wanted an answer to his question. Too often (not always of course) a serious question is just met with drivel around here. I know, I know, this is a public forum and we can all post most anything we want but since many if not most of the members are professional pilots, it would be nice to see more professional behavior at times.

All I meant really was that when it comes to salary and other details, it has been my experience, that fellow forum members are more willing to share details through a PM as opposed to a public post.

Sorry to piss you off. My sincere apology.

Be happy

McPhoo

I don't have any experience with Airspray but I was atConair this spring for a late interview and I was very impressed. The company had an imaculate hangar and a nice feeling to the place. The pay scale seemed pretty thin for the first three years though.

Both are excellent companies, good pay, and even the non - union has great benefits, and a pension plan matched by company as an option (for the lifers). Conair has more aircraft working in the system, so with that more jobs. At Airspray, they hire for the needed posiotion, so you can go direct into a tanker, or consider... there the only birdog is the commander so at least it's a twin turbine. It may even take a few years to get that at Conair. BC vs AB, ? thats a toss up, depends on the year and personal preferences. Both companies bid compettitively on the same contracts, oh and Airspray owns all the aircraft they fly, completley with the spares too.