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So...I walk in the hangar and one of my bosses says...you up for flying the L4 to South America. Immediately I respond with a...are you f...ing nuts! Long story short 5 days later I am on my way from NB to Georgetown Guyana. I called up my Buddy in TO to see if he was on for a ferry flight and as usual he said...you bet! SO off we go on a Saturday morning right after a major snow storm had just passed through YSJ. WE head off to Bangor Maine to do customs. Oh yeah...we have one of the guys from South America in the back seat who is carrying a brief case with a very large amount of cash to pay for all the expenses and gas! So we land in the good old USA and Customs checks us over and says you guys are ok but your passenger is going to for a short interview with the boys in the office to check his...papers and other undisclosed things. He makes it back about 30 minutes later and we are told to get lost. They had asked me were we where going and when I said South America they could not believe me...all they said was good luck. We headed south and landed in Concord NH for fuel. Again being asked about where we were going and the usual...are you nuts! The wind was blowing a gale this morning from the south so we decide to head for Albany NY which was over a very good sized mountain range but shorter than going to NY city. WE land at the fbo in Albany and this place was awesome....very nice and very helpful. ATC in Albany was also great....We blast off out of there and are going to fly down the Hudson river until we got close to were they held the Woodstock rock concert which we flew right over....they have a large stone marker at the site. Continuing on we flew right over the Pocono race track in upstate NY and they had a race going on when we buzzed overhead. It was getting pretty late and dark when we landed that evening in Harrisburg PA. They had a guy marshaled us right in tight next to an F18 for overnight parking and we grabbed a cab and headed off to one of the finest hotels that I have ever stayed in in downtown Harrisburg. We had a great supper with a very expensive bar bill and then off to bed in the biggest and best bed I think I have ever slept in...Ok it might have been the 7 hrs of flying that made it better but the view of the river and the city lights from the 12 floor were awesome....more to follow tomorrow!

I'd like to know who Reaper works for? Must be an amazing company full of flawless super pilots. Pretty low to single out a company on an open forum, anonymously. So pipe up, who are you, and who do you work for? Maybe a little background will validate your accusations? I work for Delta. They treat me far better then most of the other operators ive been with. I get along with all my coworkers, there is little or no drama, i get paid appropriately and on time. Not much to complain about.

When they seem to hire more foreign pilots then Canadians that's not much of a surprise.

Ok...its day 2 and it is unbelievably cold for a day in November...-20C with a gale force south wind blowing. This is in PA not Manitoba! I am worried about getting the ship going as I would usually have plugged in the battery blanket at least. Anyways I struggle to pull my frozen helmet onto my frozen melon and hit the start button. She lights off and without too much trouble I get to idle speed. The engine oil pressure is pegged to the top which we know is normal for a no preheat start. A few minutes in and the pressure slowly drops into the green. Reminds me of a startup I did in Gilliam at -40C! We get the heater going and give ATC at Harrisburg a call. They give me clearance for a departure off the ramp and across the active runway which is parallel to the river that runs thru town. This river is quite wide....just what you want to do with a frozen stiff helicopter. We had just refuel on the wind chilled ramp and I can tell you it was friggin cold. The kid from South America thought he was gonna die! Well after flying in Manitoba for 20 years I thought we had ended up in Churchill. We are climbing out over the river which is steaming away trying to freeze when atc calls to warn us that that F18 was blasting off down the runway behind us and would be climbing in front of us very soon which he did and he gave us the wing waggle when he went past. Then we get a weather update...we are heading straight into a snow squall on our flight plan. How bad could a snow squall be....well 30 minutes later we are searching for an airport to park and wait for this SQUALL to blow through. I find an old strip on the gps and head on down and park at what looks like an old abandoned military base...a few old wooden hangars and a smaller building which looked like the local flying club. We are on the ground for about 10 minutes when a truck pulls up and a guy comes over. He runs the flying club here and opens up the building and cranks on the heat...thank god...we were almost frozen! Well a short 30 minute stop and we blast off along the edge of this snow storm and head south down the Shenandoah Valley heading to an airport called the Shenandoah Valley Park airport which is about an hour and a half down the road. The wind blowing in this valley was the worst ride I have ever flown in....it was brutal! We are getting pretty low on the go juice when we park on the ramp at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. This place is home to the state police helicopter unit. There was at least 6 ships parked next to the gas stop...407's and L's and an old Huey. This airport again was very helpful and we file our next flight plan and head south east going to Myrtle Beach. A word of warning. If you every fly this route plan on staying at least at 3000 ft agl There are some towers down there that are over 1000 ft tall...lots of them! Well we land in Myrtle beach in what looks like a beautiful day. Sun is shining...and the temps...-10C! Unbelievable!!!! The fbo there is absolutely beautiful...lots of great people and food was great. We were going to stay the night there but still had lots of daylight left so we all said lets head to Savannah an get into some warmer weather. So we blast off down the coast...lots of sand...grass and alligators! Heading past Charleston there is a huge military base there with C5's doing go arounds. We get clearance to pass through their zone and continue down the Atlantic coast and finally land in Savannah for the night. My buddy Dennis...another Canadore grad...books us in to the Hilton...very nice! We had a great meal at a steak place...a few more wobbly pops and off to the rack...another 7 hr day. Oh and the dam temps were still cold! Oh well we will be in Florida tomorrow!

So we are coming up on the edge of the Tamiami control zone and I am telling Dennis I can't wait to get out of this swampland when the tower tells us to vector southwest to let a 727 set up his approach. I am not a happy camper...we are heading back out into the everglades again! About 5 minutes and we are cleared into the airport. I am very glade to do a 180 turn...we land and the guys that have bought the L are putting on the wheels before the blades are even stopped. We hop out onto the boiling hot ramp and are told they have a hotel booked for us with a big pool ...can't wait...off we go to the hotel as they shove the ship into a hangar. 30 minutes later Dennis and I are in the pool with a cold brew in hand talking about the next leg of the trip...200 miles over water to Nassau!

Well its day 3. We get up and have a very long breakfast on a huge deck overlooking the Savannah river. It will be a short day as we will be stopping in Tamiami Florida for the night while we get some work done on the ship.Its a half hour drive back out to the airport so we finally check out of the Hilton . The fbo at the airport was again very helpful.The airport in Savannah is pretty dam big to say the least but atc is user friendly...just tell them you are new to the area.Oh yeah....when we arrived the night before it was fairly warm but this morning we are wearing coats again and there is a wind chill again. Our South American is not impressed! We hit the sky and head south along the coast. As we near the Florida border it is getting very hot outside and inside. Temps have gone from 10C to 28C in like 5 minutes. Also I thought that the windows up front were fogging up but when hit a small rain shower it washed off....it was salt building up on the windows! As we pass by Jacksonville we are probably down about 50 feet off the beach in some real nasty weather an atc informs us that they have lost us on their radar. We give them a call to let them know our situation and they let us know that we should be breaking out of the scud very shortly which we did almost as he said that so up we go to 300 feet and he lets us know he has us again and that we cannot go much further south along the beach as we will be nearing NASA airspace so we head inland and are tracking inbound to the Orlando International. I let Dennis know we are running low on juice so we head for Deland Airport for some fuel. This airport is fairly small but has more traffic than I have ever seen. It is home to the Florida State Police and a number of helicopter companies that do fire fighting for Florida. I land next to the fbo and the Police hangar is right next door. to be continued...got to go for a bit.

Yeah no I was referring to the recent incidents actually. They can run their company how they like, just seems like they had a huge turnover in personnel last year and are still having the same problems doesn’t seem to be the staff I’m guessing. My opinion

Well there isn't much to see out over the ocean. We are cruising at 2000 ft...a few puffy clouds out in front of us and lots of water below. Half hour in and we see some land of to our 1000 oclock...this little spec of sand has a Hilton hotel on it and an airport....hard to believe...We pass by just to the south and the black water suddenly turns into a nice light blue....shallow water. We continue on and see a chunk of land to our 2 oclock...north end of Andros island.. Not to long and we will be in to Nassau. The water here was so clear you could see old ship wrecks on the bottom. We drop down to 1000 ft for a better look....oh yeah those are sharks! The water suddenly turns a very black colour again...deep water! We give Nassau tower a call and tell them we will be on their ramp in 20 minutes. Friendly voice says we will meet you and do customs .we see the airport just ahead and set up for the approach to the ramp. Skids on the ground...feels good! Its around 2 PM..and very hot...we can;t wait to get the life jackets off.

Okay...so lets get on to another short story...its 1979...March I believe. I am working for AeroTrades Heli...wrenching on a Jetbox when I get a tap on the shoulder. I turn around and am staring at a playboy centerfold. This young lady who is in front of me wants to know who to talk to about renting a helicopter to fly the band Cheap Trick into the Winnipeg Stadium for a concert on the weekend. Long story short we are sticking huge stickers on the side of the chopper that read Dream Police. Never heard of it...unfortunately I did not get the nod to do the trip...CP got that one...unreal! I had never heard of the band until that day!

Cadors is a joke. No one reports there any more. I have witnessed accidents and incidents that i have never seen a Cador. The only ones that file Cadors is Government employees.

Try being an operator...

Try this https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xjSjjXZVuRRo-4xDX-C_EUSxW2aDS_dd feel free to pass it around

Nah, the Chinese will copy it and I'll buy it through Princess Auto on sale in about 5 years.

We had bben watching the sun getting lower and lower way out to are right side. When it slipped under the waves we knew a call would be coming. The guy in the tower wants to know our eta and I tell him we are 60 miles back and will be on the ramp in 30 minutes. He is happy to hear this and also says there are 3 cruise ships leaving the island right now and says do not fly over them on the way in. These boats were lite up like a christmas tree...better than an ils....we continue in and call final for the ramp. It is pretty much black as I flip on the landing light and settle onto the ramp. We do Customs and get picked up by our hotel owners Audi suv... very nice! Its about a 20 minute drive to the hotel....pitch black. We get to the hotel and I tell buddy I am starving so we walk downtown to have supper.....to be continued

True but you can get a hangar with a toilet for a couple 100 grand that can house multiple machines and you don’t have to take a crap outside on the ramp or, if you’re civilized, at the local Tim Hortons! an indefinite small number. "he hoped she'd be better in a couple of days" synonyms: a few, two or three, a small number of; a couple "a couple of drinks" antonyms: several Thought I should bold the word then define it for you. Sure a couple may be an understatement, but if you wish for more accuracy I can hire an actuary to assess your area and get a more accurate number. I could also look in to funding with the bank and compare interest rates and property taxes. I can even go as fars as projecting utilities for the sake of your need for accurate postes on vertical. You must be fun at parties...

I wouldn't liken it to pilot/operators at all. I've never met a pilot/ engineer who was flying a R 44 make 6 figures a year doing anything ever! On a 2 and 2 rotation with a 14 hour duty day.

Great app and great calculator from Saifan Pilot. Downloaded both but was wondering if you could put more than the BA in the app, please?

Read my post carefully dude. Hope you do better at work...

We pass right over the runway on the Island of St Kitts. This was our original fuel stop for today. We continue south and I can see some nasty showers ahead.Things get pretty rough and we get to see lightning happening out over the ocean...not cool! It is a 3 hr ride from Saint Marteen to St.Luscia...over some very black and nasty looking ocean. We are also fighting daylight .We left at 3 PM and sundown is at 6. You are not aloud night vfr in the Caribbean. As the gps goes from daytime to nighttime mode we get a call from the St Luscia tower...to be continued.

I let the engine whined down and twist the throttle off and on a couple of time and give it another try...nothing. Well I think I have been stuck in worse places! I tell buddy to keep strapped in and open the front doors. I go and open the engine doors and grab the bung wrench and go do some gentle tapping on some of the vital parts...close up the engine doors and giver it another try...away she goes....we blast off the ramp and head south for St.Luscia!

Around midnight I am ready for the rack...I spend another hour getting the weather for our next couple of legs. Buddy wants to refuel in St Kitts tomorrow. I said we are only going to try that leg if we have a wind pushing us. It is 390 miles without stopping. I meet up for breakfast and we head to the airport. Buddy gets my papers again and goes in the back room with the Customs people. About 30 minutes he has all the paperwork straight and we head out to the ship. A good Di and we throw on the life jackets again and hit the sky. Its about 80 miles over to Puerto Rico and then a long haul to St Kitts. With our slow ground speed I tell buddy that we should land in San Juan and gets some fuel. This is when he lets me know that he cannot land in a US country as he doesn't have a visa....great to know now. We have climbed up to 5500 ft to get over a big mountain on Puerto Rico. Wind up there is right on the nose....90 miles an hour over the ground..water... aint going to work! I tell him to find another destination...we are heading for Saint Marteen!

We land at a very small airstrip which is used by US Coast Guard to do our customs work..this is the end of Caribbean airspace. Next stop will be Punta Cana Dominican Republic. Well buddy quickly jumped out when we landed to go do some washroom work and I got 2 minutes more to try not to wet my pants....engine off...i make a run for the bushes!!!

Only three hours? Sounds like he gave you the coles notes version...

So we see the customs folks coming over and in very short order we are finished. They never even opened a door on the ship.We go in side and give them our passport and grab a seat in the waiting room. There is a group of guys wearing military uniforms...turns out they are US Custom helicopter crews. I strike up a conversation and after telling them our destination we get some great info from these guys on flying in the Caribbean . Turns out the guy I am talking with has the same first name as me...he gives me his card and we have been in touch now for 7 years. His last posting was on Kodiak Island in Alaska. As I mention...that's a long way from Nassau! We finally get picked up by the buyers of the ship and head to the north east side of the island for drinks...rum...and later supper. We had a great view of the ocean on their patio...more rum...then we are heading to our hotel for the night.We drive back into town which by the way has no street lights. It is black as coal! WE show up at a hotel that is totally dark and meet a guy which I still down't know who he was...we go thru a darked out bar room into a long hallway which leads back to our rooms on the second floor...we are the only people staying here...very scary! In the morning I open the curtains on my room and see the pool which is in pretty bad shape...lots of stuff floating in the water...the roof across from the pool has most of the shingles missing. On the grounds are about 4-5 folks cutting the lawn with machettes! Nice! We are told our ride has arrived...also now I find out that Dennis will be flying back to TO from here and I will be riding the rest of the trip south with the new owner...I am pissed!

https://www.tc.gc.ca/en/services/aviation/reference-centre/advisory-circulars/ac-700-052.html

Here goes again...I will make this short as this site is a pain. WE go to the FSS which is a short walk from the hangar. This place is Ft Knots ...Lady invites us in...wearing SWAT gear and packing. We file out departure ...get the weather and get a short tour...walls are large screens with all kinds off radar stuff going on. WE get a good luck and head to the ramp were our ship is sitting in the heat ready to go...short DI before 200 miles over water. We strap in... life jackets on...hit the starter and get clearance to Nassau...5 minutes in we have dark black water under us and don't feel very happy!

Who flies the RCMP machines again...riiiiight...civilian pilots!

Much drone Very flight

may want to fact check bud.... the past few mishaps have all been Canadian drivers. We all have bad days unfortunately accidents happen, but to take a stab at foreign pilots being the cause to blame is just utter nonsense

Well, Delta is only using two of it's visas this year, and one is a multi year employee who has shown himself to be a excellent driver, im not sure where all the imported working stuff is comming from. The other funny talkers are all on their own deals, discuss that with Turdo I guess? A quick listen on the radio during a local large campaign fire will tell anyone that imported workers are far from just a Delta thing.

my guess is a former employee who couldnt cut the mustard and has an axe to grind. imagine not being able to excel higher than an imported worker with no skill. That would sure make me an angry former employee as well.

Okay...continuing on from yesterday. I had met a few Florida State Police pilots while attending many HAI's especially the ones in Orlando so I thought I would head over and chat up the boys. Unfortunately non of the guys at this base had met me but they were interested in my destination. They all said what??? when I said South America. Followed by ...you must be nuts!!! Well I say so long and get a bunch of hand shakes and good lucks and we blast off heading for South Florida. We have enough fuel on now to not have to stop at Orlando. That airport is just crazy with traffic...try getting in touch with atc at that place....crazy!!! So as we head south I tell our passenger to get ready for some picture taking as we are going right over Disneyland! This guy was just picture nuts. He couldn't stop taking pics of everything especially of fast food joints! I will find out later why! So we buzz over Disney and he is flipping out. I mention to Dennis that we are going right over the convention center which we had attended the HAI the year before...cool! We are heading for the west side of Oppachokie Lake and will do about 50 miles though the everglade before arriving at Tamiami aiport which is the general aviation airport for Miami...it is extremely busy!....to be continued...got to go again! The pic is in Orlando at the HAI with myself and Dennis.

Just had a military 412 doing tight circles over top of my deck about 2 minutes ago...somebody must know where I live...very good...enjoyed the show!

We used 4d or 8d truck batteries. They have a higher amphr rating and can handle multiple crankings. The bigger, the better but you want to keep it portable.

Iceman, If I zoom in on Norm's pictures it appears that he used AC delco DC24 batteries. They are a 12 Volt 75 Amp Hour battery. If you are working in a shop, I would recommend the Bus or Large truck (tractor trailer) batteries as Heliian suggested. I worked in a shop with the bus batteries GPU setup and we rarely had any problems motoring engine for compressor wash on 206L3 and 407. Remember starter limits. I believe from a starter limit perspective, Bell Helicopter consider this a "Battery" motoring. Good luck.

Well seems like delta’s back at it again this year.

I got very frustrated with the company while on a job up north one time. I was pleading with them to send a battery and constantly fighting with the machine to start. No battery arrived so I made my own GPU. Little unit worked some wicked, loved it!! Hope the pics help.

We had one that was 2 large truck batteries, standard maintenance type that worked great. Nice thing is that you can still charge the batteries with a 12v charger.(more convenient with 24v charger) NOTE: use good heavy cables, keep them short and ensure really good connections on the batteries. Use solid wire to connect the 2 batts in series( or parallel if using 24v batteries). Charge after every use once they've cooled and weekly if not used. Cheers

I thought you would never asks....Ok...so... the next day I get told that I would be taking some guys out to a telephone tower so they could do some work at the tower site. I would be taking the same ship that I had flown the sky divers the day before.So I show up at the hangar in the morning to get the ship ready for a 2-3 day job up north and it is -40 that morning. I start doing a DI on the old jetbox and as I am checking the engine oil level I see that the oil which should be a nice honey colour has turned a very dark brown colour which is definitely not what I have seen ever before. I get the chief engineer over to have a look and we both agree that something is not right. I ask if there is another ship to take and of course there isn't. So I tell him that I will dump out the engine oil and fill it up with fresh oil and fly the guys an hour north to where we are going to stay and I would check the oil again and call him back. The guys show up and off we go. I land at the resort where we would be staying at and get checked in. I then have a look at the engine oil. Not good. The oil has already turned brown. I call the hangar and we decide that I should take the guys out to the tower and then fly the ship back to the hangar and then change ships as one would be available by the time I had gotten there and then I could fly back to the tower. Well I was not feeling really comfortable with that as the temps outside were still very cold and the trip out to the tower would be about 30 minutes and then an hour and a half back to the hangar. Well the guys really wanted to get to work so push comes to shove and off we go to the tower. All seems to be going well...the tower comes into sight and I set up for an approach. This tower is about 300 ft tall and as usual has 3 guide wires holding it up. I will land next to the building at the base of the tower. As i start slowing and not quit into a hover there is a huge white cloud of smoke swirling around the machine. As I come into a hover about 20 ft above my landing spot the back door on my side opens and the smoke fills the cabin. I am have a he## of a time seeing were I am going to land but I managed to get it on the ground and without a cool down I shut the engine off. It appears that my rear seat passenger had decided to jump out of the ship as he somehow figured that it would be better to bail out then wait for an explosion . I asked him where that had been in the safety briefing. Well we called the hanger and told them what had happened and they dispatched another ship to haul us all back to civilization . The 6-7 oil seal had blown out due to blockage in the oil return line. I checked the engine oil and it was pretty much all gone. So the next day I got to fly back into the site and change a turbine at -40C.....not a happy camper. I was off to a new job with new employer in a week. Didn't fly a jetbox again for a very long time. Good machines though...I have 4000 hrs on them and that was the closest call I had in them...do a good oil flow check on them and make sure that return line is clean as well. Fly safe!

We should start a new sub forum called ‘Storytime with DGP’

Bite Me

I disagree. Now you can’t even have a single beer with dinner and there is nothing more satisfying than a cold beer after a 8-10 hour day sweating your bag off in the cockpit.

That does it, for sure. Layman's take is if your primary attention has to be on the aircraft, it's flight time. If you're ground idling and able to update your instagram, it's not. At a certain point it becomes superfluous, and generally you'll find more respect reporting air time, as that's the only time you're improving as a pilot. I personally have three columns in my excel logbook; air time, bill time, engine time. Billing time coincides with the TC definition of "Flight", it requires more than my peripheral attention as a pilot to prevent something untoward occurring.

Take responsibility for what? His opinion? I think he did... I'll throw my two cents in. Delta has been around a long time and many people have started/worked there. Delta is challenged the same as all companies in regards to schedule, money and work. Retaining and attracting staff is always going to be difficult especially with a movement towards lifestyle being a priority. Bottom line is if it works for you great and if not find something that does. Delta or any other company doesn't owe it to anyone to change their business plan for employees. It obviously works for them. If they can attract and retain quality people with the way they have it set up then all the power to them I think. But I guess that is really what's being questioned here... Not anyone's business but there's.

I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't ask, does Delta develop pilots to 1000 hours or primarily try to recruit them? If any operator takes the easy way out and hires non-Canadian pilots they're kind of fueling a self-fulfilling prophecy of a shortage of Canucks with enough hours. I'm the sort who commits to the guy who develops me as long as they treat me fairly. Too many guys chasing an extra few bucks rather than sticking with an operator who treats them well beyond the pay cheque.

Wow...... Boy, you are way off....

I've been a helicopter pilot for 14 yrs. I had a slow start and thought many times that I'll never make it in the industry. Finally caught a break, got my foot in the door and held on. Started a family with kids which made things tight at 135hrs, but held on. I'm finally sitting comfortable at around 4000hrs at a reputable company adding allot to my resume. I'm actually still paying off my loan for my license at this time. But not once did I ever regret my helicopter license or ever think I should have gone the fixed wing way. Just never appealed to me to make a career going from airport to airport. I've said it when I got my license and I still say it to this day, that I didn't get into this for the money. I just enjoy being out there doing this as a job(career). I had gone to Great Slaves school back in that day and would have recommended that to anyone, They had a great experienced pilots that worked in the north during the summer and instructed during the winter. Their program where they used to hire 4 of their students every season, so it was like a 6 month interview. Today I would recommend MountainView because I find they have allot to offer, great experienced Instructors and also connections to some companies out there who get low time pilots going. I've gotten endorsements, PPCs, Mountain training there and would go back for any other additional training.

I suspect they are in the business of flying helicopters … just a hunch.

It's very much work in progress, but if you can bear with it, I have a quesstion database that's free to use that may be useful to anyone studying for exams. You can find it at www.rtfq.org. Phil