Hey,

I'm one of the fresh 200 hour right of school pilots. The ramp into flying route intrests me seeing as I already have 2 years of ramps under my belt and it's something i truely enjoy, I am only 21 and I have ALOT of dues to pay in this industry. I recieved an e-mail from Sunwest saying that they are willing to do the, ramp to ramp/first officer then finally to a pilot position. Just wondering if anybody knows the rough estimate of how long it usually takes at sunwest to move up from ramp to a joint ramp/first officer position?

The time to fly varies a lot. I'd say on average at the moment it is about one year. Generally you will go Navajo F/O and part time ramp after about a year, then full time turbo-prop F/O after another year, then back to Navajo as capt after that.

There are other threads on this site about this too.

+1

It's closer to a 2 year wait on the ramp.

privateer wrote:+1

WOW..... A Ho with a working autopilot

Big Pistons Forever wrote:

privateer wrote:+1

WOW..... A Ho with a working autopilot

.... YEAH!.. and when there's no flying to be done... they work ramp!

Does Sunwest hire Navajo captains externally or only from internal upgrades? And if they hire externally what kind of experience do they want?

Apply to Perimeter... With AC starting up the hiring engines the wait should be lower than Sunwest for a while - Many of the guys to get on the Metro recently have been <1 year on the ramp.

If you want the boring AC job really fast then giver at Perimeter. If you want a decent rate of progression from ramp to F/O and then on to Captain, I would take the Sunwest route. The diversity of aircraft types and flying is second to none in the country. It has always amazed me that Sunwest has everything from a Navajo, Metro, King Air, Learjet, Sovereign, CL604 and more in between. RH is compassionate and honest to his employees. There are more companies out there that are just as respectable but I have to give Sunwest top marks as a great career starter, that could see you one day looking back and saying "I did it right"!

Brooks.

Not a bad gig for a low timer. Lots of chances for advancement.

If you're looking to get as much time as fast as you can, Sunwest isn't the best place for that. but on the other hand, you get to live in Calgary, have a monday to friday schedule, go hit on some ladies downtown on weekends and you'll still get about 600+ hours/year when you're a ramp/navajo FO. I started on the ramp a Sunwest about 3 1/2 years ago. In that time I went from full time ramp to Navajo FO/ramp - turboprop FO - Navajo Captain. It's a great place to start your career. they have a lot of variety and some awesome employees too. I know if I would of gone up north I would have double the flight time but then again, being down south, I don't have to use the northern scale when I go to the bar. for me, that's a good trade off

The Northern scale, I like that. Whats the matter you don't like Blackberry Blondes?

What would be the chances of getting into the right seat on one of their turbo-props with 1500TT, 265 mpic and the AA's written? Any hiring going on this fall?

longjon wrote:The Northern scale, I like that. Whats the matter you don't like Blackberry Blondes?

Or Thompson Tens?

modi13 wrote:Does Sunwest hire Navajo captains externally or only from internal upgrades? And if they hire externally what kind of experience do they want?

ALMOST exclusively from internally, as it is one of 2 planes guys can move through to get multi-pic in order to meet contrails as a captain. However stranger things have happened.

Could some describe how the "performance-based salary" works and give some examples of rates if applicable?
Thanks

Partytime226 wrote:If you're looking to get as much time as fast as you can, Sunwest isn't the best place for that. but on the other hand, you get to live in Calgary, have a monday to friday schedule, go hit on some ladies downtown on weekends and you'll still get about 600+ hours/year when you're a ramp/navajo FO. I started on the ramp a Sunwest about 3 1/2 years ago. In that time I went from full time ramp to Navajo FO/ramp - turboprop FO - Navajo Captain. It's a great place to start your career. they have a lot of variety and some awesome employees too. I know if I would of gone up north I would have double the flight time but then again, being down south, I don't have to use the northern scale when I go to the bar. for me, that's a good trade off

Nothing wrong with the Northern Scale Jer!

Hey does Sunwest fly for any Ski operators?

Why as a matter of fact they do..

After reviewing the search function - has anyone in the recent job postings been through the HR interview? If so would you be willing to PM me.


Cheers

O

Hi everyone,

I'm interested too.

regards

wg9 wrote

Just wondering does anyone have any info on what the sched and pay would be like for the dash position they are advertising

From what I hear it pays really well and is m-f. More Dash8's on the way. All second hand info btw.

What kind of experience are turboprop FOs usually hired with? Is there an absolute minimum number of hours or is there some flexibility if the applicant has a few hundred hours of multi-turbine, multi-crew IFR experience?

Turboprop F/O experience varies depending if they are needed in cargo or pax aircraft. Mr. Contrail requires that turboprop F/O's have a minimum of 200 hours PIC. So if you are coming from a CMA or something that didn't get you additional PIC beyond your typical commercial it can be a problem. All the time on type can not help you in that case.

They make sure that anybody hired as an F/O will have a clear route to getting an upgrade in the future. Usually 2-3 years to be Captain on a turboprop unless you have a lot of time and experience that meet the basic requirements. Not mention the right attitude.

Diadem wrote:What kind of experience are turboprop FOs usually hired with? Is there an absolute minimum number of hours or is there some flexibility if the applicant has a few hundred hours of multi-turbine, multi-crew IFR experience?

A PPC.