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It’s simple - bills. We’re trapped. imagine if you will, making an $80,000 salary. This is hypothetical mind you. People will argue that it’s too high or too low but here’s the point: could you start over? Not me. I have a mortgage, kids and tons of other things that rely on this wage. Sure you could say that I could cut back and start over. Have a drive down to the grocery store and see if you could cut back. The long and the short of it is that we ruined this industry just as surly as operators did. I know a pair of operators in Fort Mac that started just fine. Treated th

Don’t spend the $40-$60k to get into this garbage industry. If you wanna take owners and managers cr@p and clean toilets for a few years, go work as a janitor at a high school, you’ll probably even make more money. Students have this magic number of 1000 hours that I think the instructors in flight school drill into their heads, but it means nothing cuz you look at requirements now and they are all north of 3000 hours. Getting to 1000 hours just means you’ve got a bunch more years to scrub toilets and be the bit(h in the hangar. You aren’t really “productive” to a company until your are co

After many months of avoiding this forum I finally had a few beer and decided to take a peek mainly out of pure boredom. I sit here sipping away trying to put into words my feelings towards my career in this industry. I honestly would have a hard time telling a young keen individual to actually pursue a career in helicopters at this current time...and even worse this terrible state of the industry. For one its a young persons game if you are going to get in.... do it as soon as you can, because as most people have already said you're going to have to put in time and years to get to a place t

End of an ERA is an understatement, 61 years in operation, and yes Highland did set a standard in this industry. Highland had employees that would go above and beyond, to a point you would swear they had part ownership in the company, but they did not. People who stayed loyal and worked their ***** off for over 30 years with the same company! People who risked their lives daily operating in general, and especially operating throughout this pandemic. Highland took 2020 like a champ and made honey out of dogshit the entire year strictly due to the good hard working, loyal people with

Out of curiosity, from all the comments in this thread about how awful the industry is and how anything other than helicopters would be a better career choice, what are you guys doing hanging around a helicopter forum?? Why don't you take your own advice and put this career behind you and never think of it again??

As a now former employee of HHL, thanks for the kind words. I only lasted 7.5 years at Highland, but there were some of the best of my career. Very good, professional coworkers. Friends. It’s sad to see it all go, but as one door shuts, 5 more open. Here’s to Onward and upward. 🍺

It’s not economically viable to do business in Canada for the last 4.5 years. Don’t know why that is? I think it’s in the water out East.

Yeah you’re right. Bad burrito the industry is great, good tours, over the top pay, tons of opportunities for new pilots. Pm Vortex he probably has that left seat position ready for you. No cleaning hangars for you, you should have all your hours in the first six months For all the clients demands. No sacrifice and home every night. Is that better bud?

https://www.prairiecoastequipment.com/news/blog/it-starts-heere-how-to-make-a-sandwich-/ Sad to watch this....

Enough shite displayed... topic is closed..

This Spitfire is a rare two seater, and it came to Canada after it came off the production line towards the end of the war for high altitude cold weather testing. I believe It was specifically designed to be a reconnaissance aircraft as it has a camera mount in the floor in front of the rear seat. It eventually ended up in the US which is where I believe Bob bought it from. A few months after it showed up in the Penta hangar in YVR I watched it being towed onto the ramp. 10 minutes later Bob walks out and gets into the cockpit. I figured he might just sit there and make spitfire nois

I make the parallel to being in a abusive relationship, it sounds easy to leave but in reality its not that easy. I actually enjoy my career but I couldn't imagine starting over with the way the industry is now. Client requirements have become insane, 2000hr minimum is common place now. I've even seen a job that required dual crew and both needed 4000+ to move a drill in an astar. Most (not all) operators will chew you up and spit you out, pull a resume off the mountain and keep on keeping on... At the pace Mountain View, Chinook etc.. mint new CPL's there are far more mouths to feed tha

I have been in the industry for close to 20 years and I still enjoy it.... most of the time. But it is near impossible to get a start today as a low time guy due to client requirements and the ease of just hiring an experienced guy.

Heard from buddies that it was a great place to work after their new management team took over. (Ops mngr and CP) been hearing stories that the owners are screwing over the employees now and are just telling people to bring machines back to the bases then lock the doors. I find it funny how the second generation of the family who contributed absolutely nothing and got rich decided the fate of over 70 employees all because they can’t put aside their own personal squabbles. Useless people!

Hopefully those two war planes go to a good home, instead of dark hanger locked away.

Took me 10sec in this industry to learn everyone has a side deal and if they don't, they lie about it.

I love the client requirements... it just means they get a pilot who has flown circles around house fires in a R44 for 2900 hours. I will take a 1000 hour pilot who earned their time in the bush over the the guy who spent 2000+ hours flying the same hour over and over again. The minimum hour requirements are arbitrary and do not directly reflect competence. Good luck convincing the insurers though, they are the real overlords. I agree with what TheReaper2.0 says though. If I could do it over again I would have invested the money I spent at the puppy mill and stuck with a trade. Don't bot

Lol, everyone is going to get exceptions with their stellar fatigue risk management systems.

This is not the most charitable industry I’ve found so the likelihood of that scenario happening is really slim. Besides the fact most of the time we don’t need the extra weight, Who will be cleaning the toilets or listening to the engineers bad mouth us overpaid underworked meat sticks if you’re not in the hangar?

Couldn’t have said it better myself. This industry is finished for the foreseeable future. There’s nothing left but emergency services.

Well come on, ya gotta give more than that...

Aerosmith Heli’s booth is still open for business. This beauty just rolled out before Christmas.

The mosquito is worth way more. Apparently 30 are left and only 4 are airworthy. Bobs is airworthy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_de_Havilland_Mosquitos

Well I would probably agree with you If I never had to rely on my own ability to make a good career out of this . But a lot of people were never given a helicopter pilot / engineer job or a helicopter company for that matter. That is a lot of the problem with this industry including Highland Helicopters to name ONE. sadly some hard working people still have hopes and dreams .

I was on a drill job in Ontario...mid winter....-40 most of the time...these drillers knew how to build an outhouse...it was totally lined with blue styrofoam...had one car heater in it and lights...you would sweat in that place...HAH!

Only if it's not in the generator shack where it's warm!

"crapping in a plastic bucket at -40 in the Arctic sucks too." this task alone should get you another $20 per hour for that tour.

I went to a specialist who put me on 2 different meds...both ok by TC...they are common high bp pills...fixed it right up in an hour. One is for signal for the electrical and the other one is for high bp. Take note...I had this done and then went for the ecg and medical....it would be harder to get your licence back if it is suspended.

I think several have, (Canada’s) at the very least. It’s a huge financial and life time investment towards a dangling carrot that for a large part never even existed to begin with. Anyone getting into aviation to make a living and aren’t part of the silver spoon club which many are, should know how things are. The comments I think you’re referring to are more accurate than not. Not everyone here can be wrong or full of hyperbole, there is a common theme.

Not sure if you have had this procedure but they do have drugs to remedy electronic signs to make your heart run normal...I know this first hand and it is ok with TC.

That app on tv these days looks more reliable than the junk they have in hospitals!

I would get a couple of opinions from experts too. I had phone call and letter from Transport after ecg showed I had a brundle branch blockage in my heart. Reminded me of someone I knew years ago that nearly gave up his career after an ecg. Turned out the machine was faulty. So I said to Transport, before it goes any further can I get other ecg's. They agreed. Turned out first ecg was faulty...

You should contact a CAME for this question. Dr Adams at Springbank airport, in Calgary is an excellent reference. He is a Dr, pilot, and CAME. Look him up, contact him for advise. Good luck!

I worked for several outfits that I thought were the gold standard...lots of guys busting there buttt giving their all...turns out years later I find out that they had side deals and had part ownership in aircraft...happens all the time. Some of us just good scr##ed over.

Not very classy what he had going on last year

such a shame but what do you do... wish we all had a crystal ball to see what the future will bring... i personally have been unemployed for 9 months now... hope everyone stays strong.... ☹️👍

Funny. Worth leaving it here.

I remember an old saying... Buying QUALITY is like buying hay. If you want nice, clean, fresh hay, you must pay a fair price. However if you can be satisfied with hay that has already been through the cow...well now THAT COMES A LITTLE CHEAPER.

Sad beyond words... 😢

Blackmac: I’d like to thank you for bringing to light the elephant in the room....the mental health of the contributors to this thread. I was urged to commit suicide by no less than two posters (one said I should die twice!) after just two painfully sarcastic comments on an open opinion forum. Unfortunately this is characteristic of the bully culture all too prevalent in this industry. I fear for the mental health of these individuals, and hope there is a silver lining in bringing their inadvertent cries for help to the light. Thankfully you have come around to see thin

And this is why pilots die! because some j3rk off tries to impress the clients flying in cr4p weather, not to mention -2 and wet coastal snow so let’s put the icing factor aside. Then another pilot comes in and doesn’t wanna fly cuz it’s below weather minimums and some dumb4ss logger tells you “well Jack did it and it was worse, and I’ve probably got more time in this than you!” Welcome to aviation full of professionalism and backstabbing clowns who will take pay cuts to keep working rather than stand their ground and ask for more money cuz the junk we all put up with. So if anyone knows wh

He was legal the whole time. He had 1/8 of a mile to the front 1/8 to the back 1/8 to the left and an 1/8 to the right. Even us pilots know that equals a half mile. He better of had 500 hrs and all that special training they give ya though or to the moon Alice!

Highland got the emergency wage subsidy, just not enough I suppose? https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/cews/srch/pub/bscSrch?q.srchNm=highland+helicopters&q.bnNine=&q.accountType=RP&q.accountNumber=&p=1

Greed is what it took to shut down this company! Greed from ownership! Lots of good people lost their jobs because the owners own greed and untrustworthy petty family issues. I know a few people at this company and they flew their bu1ts off this year and told me that the company was in good shape, and had a pretty reasonable year. Employees aren’t even getting severance from what I hear and are being told to hire their own lawyers to try and fight them to get it. Pretty disgusting in my opinion. Some people spent 20 years at this company, some spent 1 and now they are all getting a big m

It's more of a pain in the *** folding them than it is just taking them off. Once you get the technique down, it takes 10 minutes with 3 people.

this kit has the option tailboom folding hardware as well.

Obviously you’ve been in this industry for about 7 minutes if you haven’t had a client pressure or try to pressure you into doing something that you shouldn’t, like telling you “well the other pilot got us into that spot so you should be able to”

I will take a wild guess here on what we do know...buddy is by himself heading to Manhattan....somebody there probably owned the ship and said I need to be picked up...so our hero says he will give it a try...when he first contacts JFK he is around 400 ft and varying up to 700 ft so ceilings were not too bad but vis was probably not very nice. He is an IFR pilot but flying around in a VFR jetbox he probably wasn't doing regular ifr trips...he finally decides to throw in the towel and turn around...looks like the fog trapped him and I am surprised how calm this guy stays as you watch him flyin

I would leave out the "check it 150hrs later" part.