North Wright Air Norman Wells

[axc884]

Hi,
Im sort of new to this site, seems very helpful and the insight from people on this site has helped me and Im sure will help others.
I have searched North Wright air and there isnt any recent posts on the company. Wondering if anyone has some insight to whether they are hiring and they type of job a low time 250 hour pilot would have. I also have an aviation diploma. What other good options are there for low timers in calgary other than instructing?
It seems that CMA and sunwest have a considerably long wait(2-3 years) on the ramp, thats if you can get a position on the ramp.

As a low timer i know I have to pay my dues in the industry and work up north, which I am willing and content with. If anyone has any current information that would be greatly appreicated!
- I know pilots are based in norman wells, but how often would one be able to return home(CYYC) during a yearif at all possible
- How long do pilots normally stay on the ramp?
- Any info on Salary?
- Overall how are the living conditions up in norman wells?

Thanks again!

[Just Because]

- New hires can expect to do 6-8 months doing office work (dispatch, cargo or check-ins). Timing and performance play a huge factor as well, might be as low as 4 months or as high as 12 months.

- Pilots are based in Norman Wells initially, then get eventually posted in Inuvik, Fort Good Hope and Deline, depending on the machine you're flying.

- After being there 6 months, pilots get 4 weeks vacation a year, 2 weeks every 5-6 months (before summer and then after summer).

- Pilots start out at $1,000 p/month after tax.

- You live at a crew camp in Norman Wells initially. Eventually you'll get put in a house with 2 other guys. In Fort Good Hope and Deline you're the only pilot and get your own house.

Any more questions just PM.

[CPLMike89]

- Pilots start out at $1,000 p/month after tax.

Really? I hope this is a typo, Come on people we can do better than this.

[Batman]

And $12 for 2liters of milk.

[Redneck_pilot86]

Yet pilots continue to apply, saying "I have to do this to pay my dues"

Guess what. You don't. Smarten up, don't take the job that doesn't pay you enough to live in the backwater town you have to live in, and wait for a better offer. Every one of you. Its the only way wages will ever go up in this country.

[esp803]

Guess what. You don't.

+1

I live north of 60 because I love the lifestyle it affords me. If you go up there to "pay your dues" you will hate it...

E

[Cough Syrup]

If you need and want the job then go for it.

You don't pay rent, heat, hydro, cable, phone, TV, etc at North-Wright.

So you bring home 1000 bucks and don't pay any expenses - what would your pay have to be to compare that to living anywhere else? You'd have to bring in about $1700/month and your gross would be about $2500/month...meaning your yearly salary would be about 30 grand. Thats not bad for a 200 hr pilot working in the office for a year...what do you think you're worth, you're not even flying! Once you're actually flying on the line you'll be making more.

[CPLMike89]

This is exactly the attitude that is continuously driving the race to the bottom. Willing to accept poverty wages just because everyone else is doing it doesnt make it right. The company I currently fly for starts our 200 hour pilots at 36k with free housing and we are only two hours from civilization it is amazing what can happen when pilots actually stand together instead of walking on each other.

[Redneck_pilot86]

How much of that take home pay goes towards food? How much is a plane ticket home? I just looked it up on Canadian North, and you would have to work 24 days without eating just to pay for a ticket to leave again...does that make sense?

[Cough Syrup]

Dont they get ID90`s and isnt there still foodmail?

But yeah the $12 milk does cut into the beer money...

[con24]

Hello just wondering if any1 has any other info about northwright ?? I got a job as a rampee nd they wud pay 1740 nd I wud hav 2 pay 177 for living in their camp I'm not sure about the food cost and how the camp is like is it a nice place to live ?? Any info wud be really helpful thank u all

[Lurch]

Any info wud be really helpful thank u all

It's spelt "Would"

We're not your buddies from high school, and you're not sending us a text. How about a little professionalism and at least try to spell words properly.

Lurch

[xsbank]

Me too. Lurn te spel or don pots.


You will have to "pay your dues" because Canadian aviation sucks that way.

However.

Don't give anybody ANY money to work.
Don't accept a ramp job unless you are being actively checked out - that means empty legs, freight hauls, whatever you are qualified for. You should be logging regularly.
Working in the office is ok ONLY if the above conditions apply.
Don't work for nothing. You have a commodity to sell (your labour) and you don't owe any employer anything so your contract with your employer should be mutually beneficial. He will hire you because he needs you to make money. You will work for him because you need to be paid and you are applying to be a pilot. Don't f*ck this part up. The employer can make a lot of money off of you but keep it firmly in your mind, you are applying for the position of pilot. If you want to be a rampie, fair enough, but get paid to be a rampie, work the hours of a rampie and get benefits; don't think that you should be paid less because he is going to "give you something."
If you are going to the ends of the earth (Norman Wells - wait til you've been there a few months and you'll agree - take lots of bug dope) get some help from your employer to get you there. If he values your contribution he will help out.
$1000/month to spend on food and beer and clothes and grooming and your cell phone and trips to Calgary and drums of bug dope? That's a joke, son, good luck with that.

Forgot to add, you need a Canada Goose parka, some steel-toed boots and a great set of work gloves. You need a survival sleeping bag to fly with. Will your employer help out with that? Don't fly anything noisy without the best headset you can buy (another couple of weeks "salary"), my ears have warned you.

[trey kule]

To those who think they have to pay your dues...

Get a job at macdonalds. Work 40 hours a week and make more money.
Keep sending out the resumes, and I expect you will get a real flying job that pays what it should and be in a plane sooner.
Let one of the 50 guys behind you take a ramp jobin Norman wells for 1000 net a month, and lose 6 months of his life living there and being a gopher.

I never cease to be amazed at what some pilots will accept, and what some operators are willing to take advantage of. The two types deserve each other. For those with a bit more self respect who want to work for operators who hire pilots to fly, not just standby because they have revolving door of disgruntled pilots leaving, there really are good companies out there who treat pilots well and pay a living wage

Btw, I know little about the company in question, but I have flown in and out of the wells many, many times. Unless you have been there you have no idea what you are getting into. It is not an adventure.

[Cat Driver]

Hello just wondering if any1 has any other info about northwright ?? I got a job as a rampee nd they wud pay 1740 nd I wud hav 2 pay 177 for living in their camp I'm not sure about the food cost and how the camp is like is it a nice place to live ?? Any info wud be really helpful thank u all

Wow, I had no idea communication had regressed to the cave man days.

Maybe aviation can set up CRM based mainly on grunting to communicate with these new age pilots.

[Beefitarian]

Yes, one doth feel most vexed at the youth with their strange ways. Wherefore must they speaketh so? Avoiding the plough, listening to Beathoven and Mozart. A pox on their parents for sparing the rod.

[DanWEC]

The bond, if I can recall, was 4 (possibly 3) years. Enough for me to decline unfortunately.

[iflyforpie]

The bond, if I can recall, was 4 (possibly 3) years. Enough for me to decline unfortunately.

OMG! They must really have trouble getting people to stick around!

Fisher is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with the earliest known use of the phrase "OMG" as an abbreviation for "Oh my God".

'Fisher' was none other than Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, who was First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy from 1904-1910 and again in WWI. If he can use it, surely a lowly CPL can use text speak on a web bulletin board.

[F150]

Possibly one of the if not the worst aviation employers in Canada. Rumour has it you are bonded on a 4 year fee, and also required to sign a bond for each ppc you receive. Terrible location, no rotation and little vacation... passes yes but they are useless if youre never allowed to leave. Unsure of what typical ground wait time is but believe you are required to work ramp all day mon-fri even when online, even though you are on a mileage pay program.... Personally I passed on their offer for these reasons and took what I assumed was a longer ramp wait time to have better working conditions.

[xsbank]

I spent 10 years of my life in Norman Wells during 6 weeks one summer. We had fires to work and we'd bomb until 22:00 at night, go to "the bar" (Normal Wells "hotel" (Atco hotel) until it closed and sit on the ramp in a plywood shack (to get away from the bulldogs), ate white bread/ham/yellow mustard sandwiches and warm Coke in a brown bag EVERY DAY and usually started flying at 3 or 4 o'clock. The bunkhouse had 3 screens for 10 windows so if you were lucky enough to have one, you might get woken up by rustling noises as some bug-bitten fellow pilot stole your screen in the middle of the night (it wasn't ever dark). Having weekends off? Kill me now. That would be better than a slow death by alcohol poisoning. I thought it was petty bad until I got to spend a week in Inuvik sitting in the DND hangar waiting for something to burn. The undisputed best thing about Inuvik was the Mad Trapper, where I had my first Caribou steak and Arctic Char (for about $40 for each, in the 80's, as I recall) sadly, I think is closed now? The only advantage of being in Fort Simpson instead of Norman was it was closer to Yellowknife (which I love, at least in the summer!).

[Cat Driver]

We used to go to the riding academy in Inuvik for our entertainment and pleasure, after fueling up in the Mackenzie hotel of course.

It also helped to have a good supply of penicillin to take with you if you had to spend any time further north.

[con24]

Danwec ... Yes it is a 4 year contract. And they will be deducting $250 every month for 4 years for my training. And I am really sorry everyone I should have paid attention to my typing ... I text a lot : ( and it just happened out of habit . But , please accept my apology and thanks for teaching me. I would really appreciate if anyone has any experience about living in the camp of northwright air, I was just wondering like how worse it can be or if I am just preparing for the worst. And if the groceries are close by or their experience in working at the ramp or leaving before the bond ends.
Thanks a lot

[200Above]

4 years!! *face palm*

[GUMPS]

I would really appreciate if anyone has any experience about living in the camp of northwright air, I was just wondering like how worse it can be or if I am just preparing for the worst.

You shouldn't have to go into a job "prepared for the worst"

[con24]

Heheheh... Yes Mr. Gumps you are soo right but with 240 hrs there is no flying job soo I have to work in the ramp... Plus I'm preparing for the worst as in ... The accommodation will be the worst like crappy washroom and bedroom kinda thing ... Though I hope it's just me over thinking and it turns out better than I am expecting : )