Good Idea McMurray Aviation

[HappyPilot]

Hey thats a cool idea putting those pictures up with your Job Add. I think it's cool to see the airplanes and show people what they will be flying. McMurray Aviation is a good job too. Really fun and challenging flying into remote strips and was fun place to instruct. Lots of feeling of accomplishment seeing you get alot of say and was able to build alot of time instructing in a short time. looking forward to another sunny season and it has been great seeing our fleet expand. Highley recomend to pilots that want a little more then wearing a tie and pushing go. Every expectation of a real flying job has been met.

HP

[Zapp Brannigan]

Wow. I have never ever seen a post like that.


The content is right on though!

[Captain X]

Do they let the pilots sleep in the hanger for free? I hear most of em have a 2nd job at Westjet on the ramp to afford to eat. Is it a good job, sure but living in Fort Mac not so much.

http://www.bwalk.com/rental/infosheetA. ... =20&lng=EN

[David Hasselhoff]

lol


damn! I call dibs on the caravan cargo pod!

You'd be suprised how roomy those things are if you decorate with light colours...

[HappyPilot]

Do they let the pilots sleep in the hanger for free? I hear most of em have a 2nd job at Westjet on the ramp to afford to eat. Is it a good job, sure but living in Fort Mac not so much.

http://www.bwalk.com/rental/infosheetA. ... =20&lng=EN

Ha Ha sure Fort Mac isn't paradise and I dont think the job they have up is for the veteraned pilot. It's entry level to start and you come out with experience. PIC time early in your flying is more valuable then you think, it builds you up as a pilot and makes you a better captain for more reasons then just having the total time haha. ya it's fort mac, and theres fort simpson, resolute bay, inuvik.. theres lots of places to be and this place isnt too great.
Good thing for WestJet, lets you get out for 18 bucks taxes in. and with 10 days on and 5 days off its all to easy to get out of town. So thats why we work WestJet, for whatever the reason money, travel, looks good on the resume, to tell the truth i'd take the job with me where ever i go if i could.

if you are really interested in coming up and are worried about the housing, well theres always some place to rent a room and well help you find it. in fort mcmurray you do need to have a roomate to really make it affordable but thats not soo bad. you get alot more out of it!

PM if you have any serious concerns. good pilots to work with and its nothing to me if you come or not. im just happy to be able to offer this kind of experience out there. if i had more pilot friends they'd be here with me haha

And yes you can sleep in the hanger for free!

[C-GGGQ]

looks like a good gig but is it just me or is the ramp hand paid more and gets charter sooner? Does he get the 206 while the instructor would move directly to the Van? Kinda seems like a bit of a raw deal for the instructor

[CD1]

The instructors and ground crew are both entry level positions to the charter division. They will upgrade based on time with the company. There are insurance requirements for the aircraft but depending on the need, they have been waved in the past. Everyone works their way up through the ranks, C-172 than the C-206 than the caravans. The flying is very challenging and they would never put someone on a plane if they aren't ready. I know from experience its a great place to work and the money is really good if you stick around. I know housing can be an issue but I was only paying $550 / month everything in, so you can find a sweet deal once you meet people. Overall I'd be surprized if they don't find people right away, so if you are interested, put your resume in, remember who ever gets hired first gets upgraded first! Have fun, enjoy the ride!

CD

[Mister]

I wouldn't wish Fort Mac on anyone. The guy to girl ratio in Fort Mac is like 15:1, so if your a single guy, good luck! McMurray Aviation is an OK place to work. Wade is pretty easy going for the most part and Rene, well she adds some color to the place.
If you want the van...great! But be prepared to break your back loading or unloading it. The 206 is a good gig, as you can only haul so much and you get to go into some tricky strips! The Van is just bigger! If you want to build your PIC time, you can do it here.
Wade has no choice but to pay or you couldn't afford to live there. In addition a few employees from days gone by have left there short changed. As a matter of fact, just about everyone that I have talked to that has moved on, felt they were not payed what they were owed. Go figure.
I like how the the author really tries to sugar coat things. Good on you!
I hope nobody is getting yelled at for freight anymore, that was really embarrassing. La loche here I come! Good times! Anyway...if you like roommates and not dating much, like to work your bag off during the summer and sit on your hands in the winter removing snow....not to mention -45C degrees! Fill you boots and hop on in.

P.S. Don't forget to give Piper a pat every so often.

[2R]

Please do not leave your headsets so close to the Magnetic Compass .It is the only direction seeking instrument in the airplane and some dark night may be your only way home.I have seen two complete electrical failures .the first one was solved with the compass and luck the second one with a handheld GPS

[CD1]

True some of the planes, well one of them isn't decked out like your king air 200, but for the most part they all have some other means of nav other than GPS. Every plane has GPS so really its not that bad, just remember how to read a map, its not rocket science. Its bush flying, you will learn the area and the tricks of the trade.

I know Wade is upgrading the fleet, he bought a 2003 172 that has everything you could ever want in an airplane and more. The thing I think most people aren't realizing is that Wade is putting the effort in. It makes a big difference when someone cares about their service and people. It's growing like you wouldn't believe, so if you are starting out, how could you go wrong. You fly your bag off in the summer when the weather is nice, and take it easy and drink coffee in the winter. I'm not a big fan of flying into blizzards anyways, so better off leaving it for the IFR guys.

Just my 2 cents

[Quag_mire]

If you are gonna move north I would try to work towards a Mult-IFR job. Learning IFR and all the dilemmas a captain has to go through from the right seat is very good. Two crew IFR experience with some PPC's on your ticket can go very far as well and the next step would be left seat and multi pic time is the most valuable right now. All I ever wanted todo was fly a multi engine plane after I got my multi-ifr and that is what I did. I could not stand single engine airplanes and still can't especially in the north.

[Rowdy]

quag_mire.. You gotta remember tough buds that without any PIC time it's gonna take a lot longer to move into the left seat of a twin.

Sure two crew is good news and makes life easy and straightforward.. especially with solid SOP's.. but ya still need to build some solid decision making skills on your own, without someone else there to hold your hand.

I'm not knocking either avenue.. We're all gonna go our own way in the end

Whats wrong with singles in the 'north' ?

[CD1]

Ya whats wrong with singles in the north? Its some of the best flying you'll ever do. I'm sure you go into lots of nice pavement to pavement strips in your comfy twin. There is nothing like 12000ft of runway to make your landing look good. Try a 2000ft strip in a strong x-wind with a wet grass strip, loaded to the nuts, that will put hair on your chest. Don't bash singles if all you did was sit in one with an instructor!

[Quag_mire]

I am not bashing them but engines do fail sometimes. Caravan's do crash. I am sure it is fun flying, I fly in 3000 foot strips in ifr conditions with a turbine too. I love it but single engine airplanes are too slow for me, I like being above FL180. I am just saying with all your single time you will have to go back to being an fo again on a twin to get some multi time and you will have to work your way up at another company again. My advice is find a company you are willing to stay with and put your time in with them. Find a company with multi engines and singles engine aircraft.


Quagmire

[CoolGuy]

The ratio is 5 guy to 1 girl, I never had a problem finding a girl but I am good looking. Fort Mcmurray is not a bad place to live. Probably would not want to live here for more than 5 years. Lots of beer drinking and strippers if you are into that.

[Donkey Punch]

Hey CoolGuy,

You might be considered good looking if the person just ingested and entire 24 of beer!

[. .]

Being pushed out the door to fly massively overweight.

Flying in the most marginal of "VFR" weather with only a handheld gps which lost signal in poor weather.

The most abyssmal accident record I've ever heard of anywhere. Just ask to see wades stack of photos of the recks. I'm not kidding, he has a 2" thick stack of photos of planes that have crashed there over the years. How many people dead there again? How many written off planes again? How many planes wrecked so bad they had to be choppered out again? Yah what a safe place to be.

Crazy ladies running around in bi-polar rants

La Loche 4 times a day

Those are the things that stick out in my memory about that place.

I would avoid it like the plauge. Has anyone that's posted here actually moved onto anything different to give them perspective? It certainly doesn't seem so.

To the guy that said that wade wouldn't put you in the plane if you weren't ready? How about that one guy that wrote off the 172 in gypsy lake that had what, 210hrs? Yah I'm sure a 2000' heavily sloped grass strip with greenery up to the doors was a great spot to send someone massively overweight on their first trip off pavement. Certainly the wreckage would suggest he wasn't ready.

[CoolGuy]

Ya Donkey Punch that must be it!

[CD1]

I'm not denying that there hasn't been accidents but everything lies with the PIC of the aircraft. The strip condition, weather and loading of the aircraft is based on what the pilot feels comfortable. All the allegations that aircraft go out the door overweight are blown out of proportion. I'm not denying that some pilots are more willing to take risks with their aircraft but within our current culture it is frowned upon. I'm sure the past was different, but we all learn from our mistakes and especially today with all the jobs out there, there is no reason to take unnecessary risk. Wade has never told me or have heard of him telling anyone to go flying, it is completely up to the PIC. You as the pilot need to make the judgement call and decide what is best for you and the aircraft.

Fly safe

CD

[. .]

The accident report from the FATAL accident in the seneca put blame on the owners for pushing the pilot out the door. The accident, and the report didn't change attitude of the management there. I have a very very hard time believing that anything has changed drastically in that respect. How many times is a 172 booked to la loche with 3 males and their bags, and is flown by a 4th male? I can't count the number of times I saw idiots load up the 172 or 206 until the nose wheel came off the ground and then hop in the front to bring it back onto the ground. The "safety conscious" owners you talk about watched that happen day in and day out. They put pressure on pilots who didn't want to operate the planes in the manner that their customers had grown to expect.

You talk about strip condition and loading etc lies within what the pilot feels comfortable. How comfy do you think the guy in the 172 that got wrote off in gypsy felt as he was heading out? Real warm inside I bet... First flight for money, he could do anything, the owner of the company surely wouldn't send him into harms way to make a buck.

[56BY111]

The accident report from the FATAL accident in the seneca put blame on the owners for pushing the pilot out the door.

A little confused here.
I have read this report several times. Nowhere in the report is there any blame directed towards the owners.
The only mention of outside pressures on the pilot deal with customer expectations and the fact that a co-worker had just returned sucessfully from a trip along the same route.

http://www.tsb.gc.ca/en/reports/air/199 ... 7c0215.asp

[. .]

That's exactly what I was talking about. You always got the "well the customers expect this". It was never from the customers, it was always from the owners who would rather put your life at risk than cancel a flight. Sorry for the ambiguity.