Whitestone

http://www.911hardfacts.com/report_12.htm#

I DID answer your question, and I quote, "Manufacture a villain, one who incidentally has changed is appearance a few times in the ten years or so he has been paraded in front of us." I guess I should have spoken more plainly for your benefit... it's hard to show someone, dead or alive if they never existed. That isn't to say that a person with that name didn't exists, just not the person they made him out to be. Show a picture of a man with a beard and a turban hundreds if not thousands of times and tell the public he's the enemy (yes, a guy is waging a war on the most powerful and technologically advanced nation in the world from a cave in Afghanistan using a laptop). Those who are in power need to have an enemy to justify both the "enhanced security measures" and the military expenditures. You bully or bribe the oil producing countries to only trade oil in US $ and you deflect attention from what you are doing. Create a security incident that creates the need for military intervention so that you can justify going into a country that dares oppose you AND you can make lots of guns etc. using the taxpayers dime to further your own ends (make a profit) and the taxpayer pays you for it ! Sweet ! There are so many inconsistencies with the whole Sept. 11 incident, so much evidence that something other than the official story went on but the powers that be refuse to answer any questions. W.

The free thinkers among us will always question the government. I suspect that in pre-world war 2 Germany some questioned whether it was in fact Hitler's own Brown Shirts that attacked the parliament which gave Hitler the excuse to institute martial law to "protect" the people. Fast forward to today, we have a massive military industrial complex that is suckling off the taxpayers teat. With the end of the cold war there was the possibility of an end to hyper military expenditures but this is not in the interest of those who profit from it so what to do... Manufacture a villain, one who incidentally has changed is appearance a few times in the ten years or so he has been paraded in front of us. How many of you have that scene of the first plane crashing into the tower (yeah, you know the one i am talking about...) imprinted in your heads? You my friends have been brainwashed by this image. Of course the fact that a mostly aluminum aircraft crashed into a large steel and concrete structure and NONE of its components fell to the street but that it cut into the building like a hot knife through warm butter should not give anyone pause to think... Yes believe anything and everything you are told by the government because it's run by the people for the people, not by special interest groups and lobbyists and their large corporate masters. Those who do not look can not see. And speaking of rich, the only ones getting rich are the ones pulling the wool over your eyes. W.

Well if you want to believe that when you die you go to Heaven, or Elysium or where every it is your specific religion sends you as a reward for venerating some invisible all encompassing god then fine. From what I have seen so far, other than that somewhat questionable reward it doesn't offer much except the fuzzy warm feeling that things just don't end when you die. There are those of course who use it as a tool (usually on the uneducated though not less intelligent) to control and tax them. One other "minor" trait is that it is used to turn women into second class citizens in most cases. W.

AND a big thanks to our politicians and bureaucrats for screwing both the soldiers and the taxpayers. http://www.casr.ca/ft-selling-off-chinooks.htm Don't get me started on what B$ the whole democracy for Afghanistan, 9-11/Bin Laden thing was/is, no kidding they didn't show the body after he was "killed", many believe that he never even existed but was a contrivance of the Americans in order to justify giving tax money to defense contractors while at the same time taking away the civil liberties of its own citizens. Time will tell where this whole thing is going. Remember how Hitler came to power in Germany... Night of the Long Knives, but really it's a progression. History repeats its self. (shouldn't this be in the Military section?) W.

...and this is what "8 out of 10 found work" looks like in most cases. Sorry to hear that DirtyBH47. My experience was similar, the old "work hard on the ground and you will get your chance" carrot. I had two false starts for a total of three years of no flying but I could clean ANYTHING like nobody's business, LOL. Trucks, cars, hangar (or is it hanger?) floors, snow from parking lots, even wrench on rotary and fixed wing, build fences, haul gravel, and all sorts of other $#!% not related to flying helicopters in the least way. I was the same way, running out of money but managed to get a seat and start making some flight pay so i could pay for living expenses. I wonder how many newly minted pilots find themselves in this situation and have to throw in the towel? Thanks for sharing your experience but know that sadly it is not unique. Yes you need perseverance to get going in this business but you need deep pockets too to subsidize your bottom dwelling employer who doesn't even pay you enough to make ends meet. If you are going to do your license you better have a plan for where all that extra cash is going to come from. W.

Come on, you know you were thinking it too... ha ha ha

I'd be curious to know where all those graduates from big schools or any school are, I haven't seen a 100 hour pilot in years myself. What are they doing, driving trailers delivering fuel, sweeping, washing, answering the phone, carpentry, mowing the lawn, roofing (did i miss anything)? One thing for sure, they aren't flying, at least not within my eye site! The biggest joke in this industry is the same schools that take money from Canadians and painting them such a rosy picture (it's a good time to do your license, the [insert name of certain demographic] is about to retire...) are the same ones doing all the foreign license conversions. That's the biggest joke, THE FOREIGNERS are the ones coming out of those schools who are going to get those jobs. "Found work", talk about a misleading statement. Doesn't matter how keen you are and how much initiative you show, you are not going to fly with 100 hours and it is going to take you ten years (no kidding) of ferry and maintenance flights to get to a place where someone can use you for even the most basic jobs never mind 1500 hours. The only thing that matters is what you have written in you log book, skill seems not even to be a secondary consideration. The only guys I see coming up are Europeans via the wonderful American instructional pipeline or foreign conversions from down under. Good luck to any Canadians contemplating this line of work. If you are considering doing you license maybe do it in the States that way you might have a chance of getting a job in your own country... talk about irony! Let's hear from some actual 100 hour pilots, what's going on out there? Never mind this 8 out of 10 bla, bla, bla. Where's my shovel? LOL W.

Trucking, I have contemplated the similarities many times and the great differences. Know a few guys who have jumped ship and gone to work in the patch, good for the most part except for the night shift which studies show is quite literally killing people as we human mammals were not meant to be awake at night. The seasonal slowdowns are a drag for sure not to mention the cyclical (pardon the pun) ups and downs of the years, this makes it very stressful for the VFR pilot. At the end of the day you have to be able to pay your bills. W.

There are very few of us who did not at some point feel your pain but working for free is only going to bite you and it bites us in the butt right now. The simple truth is as someone on here long ago pointed out that there are certain jobs that have great perceived curb appeal or coolness factor and pilot, be it fixed (less cool) or helicopter is one of them. This caused more people than the industry needs to do the training and there you go, an oversupply of freshly minted pilots. Training isn't driven by a demand for pilots but by the idea of it and a slick sales pitch by the schools doesn't help. (a fool and his money are soon parted) Someone else likened becoming a helicopter pilot to becoming a Hollywood actor (or actress) in that many try, take theater in college and work around the fringes for years and years but few ever get over the hump. I wonder if schools posted a statistical sheet of how many helicopter pilots have been cranked out, how many worked for how many years and how many never even flew one commercial hour if it would give someone pause. I think not, we are a bunch of lemmings, ha ha. I know there has been a lot of advice to low hour guys over the years on the forum and i have always said you have to want it more than the other guy. In a way this is too bad because my experience starting out was filled with bad experiences from other desperate low hour guys cutting me off at the knees more than a few times, everything from verbal abuse to passive aggressive behavior to intimidation by the threat of physical abuse. Other than being a job where they don't pay you, I am of the opinion that anywhere you fly low and slow as a low hour pilot for the majority of your air time (not flight time, LOL) time is either going to kill you or make you a better pilot. Air time is good time. W.

I think that this is something in the back of everyones mind, more so when we park at an unsecure location: "did someone mess with my machine...?". W.

If I remember correctly, we could only charge the machine out at cost. Once in a while there might have been a little side trip for someone that got billed as excavator time... but I don't remember that well any more, it was a big company and I used to get a call to go somewhere and pick up someone or something... never asked anyone for ID. The nice thing was, no paperwork, just the log book. As Skidz pointed out, there is no anual training required and it sure showed when I got back in the mainstream... Even if it's just your pick-up truck, you should be going to a school and doing your emergencies etc. for your passengers and your safety. W.

This is just another example of the bar being lowered. It's like the box stores who don't give anyone full time so they don't have to pay benefits, it's like your favorite donut and coffee shop hiring all their staff from the Philippines, it's like all the security guards being hired from Nigeria or some place like that. It's about tour companies not paying their employees. It has nothing to do with giving someone an opportunity and everything to do with giving yourself an unfair competitive advantage and putting more money in your pocket. I think we all know how most "charities" work these days, give them a buck and 97% is spent on "administrative" expenditures which include meetings held in Mexico or the Bahamas and luxury car rentals, and part time staffing which turns out to be hookers, etc. (it's like the helicopter companies who hire foreign workers) all are shades of the same color. W.

Can't speak to how others do or did their maintenance but years back I worked for a non-aviation company that had a huge contract that required helicopter support. They crunched the numbers after using a commercial operator for a while and decided to get a machine of their own. It was privately registered and maintained to a commercial standard by an approved maintenance organization and other than not doing a PPC I conduced ops like a "regular" commercial operator. ...other than the fact that I hauled only people who worked for our company and their freight. Sure pissed off a couple of the local operators though. W.