Attitude + Work Ethic = Progress?

[Freefall]

I'd say if you get the lube you are lucky!

[Skidz]

Aw man, this thread is going on a "slippery" tangent...

 

[Elvis]

[lineworker]

OOps

[lineworker]

Hello Elliot86,

 

Don't worry about a thing, every opportunity you can wish for is yours if you want it.

 

Just work hard, water off a duck's back and all that. IF you get screwed somehow, as Whitestone and his alternate profiles believe you will, (sorry, couldn't help it), just move on, always forwards and keep working hard.

 

I used to be unhappy, almost left the industry, now it's a lot of fun and I'm still finding new challenges everyday. You'll #$%k up, forget the keys, break a table in the nicest hotel room anyone will ever reserve for you, blow the roof off of a garden shed, or something like that, but if you are lucky, you'll have the disc loaded and you'll not have to fill out bad paperwork or cost anyone any money.

 

The guys you want to steer away from, are those that say the industry is full of cretins, and that there is no hope. Of course there is. It's your dream job! If you have any talent, you'll find out. Your attitude will keep your helicopter seat warm, and your hard work will keep the helicopter clean, in turn, the engineer will keep you safe, and the guys who say that doesn't work haven't been consistent enough.

 

Cause it works.

 

Listen to your engineer. Don't leave him working by himself on a tough job late at night cause you're a pilot and you should be warm and comfortable. That will finish you, and well it should.

 

The industry will wring 99% of your life from you for a minimum of 7 years, much of which will be in a snowbank, and if you are lucky, you'll have some good figures that will remain constant. Get a line under you as soon as you can.

 

Always load the disc, and keep your sense of humor. But don't show it to everyone cause there are a lot of raw unhappy nervous people who will despise you for being young and enthusiastic. But don't be caustic, or every post you'll lay down here will be the same, all about the problems, the injustice. The conspiracy. WTF?

 

Good luck

 

http://forums.verticalmag.com/index.php?showtopic=6925

[pilot5]

Line worker wrote:

 

"Just work hard, water off a duck's back and all that. IF you get screwed somehow, as Whitestone and his alternate profiles believe you will, (sorry, couldn't help it), just move on, always forwards and keep working hard."

 

So just a little confused here? Are you suggesting that Whitestone has many profiles thereby limiting the amount of "complainers" or those that have been "screwed" and all complaints are only comming from one contributer vs many? If so, well there is a serious issue of willfull blindness blindness here on your part and disengenious thinking?? Maybe it's just a wording issue?? Then again we tend to percieve things based on what we "want" to believe vs the often unpleasent truth and fact.This inhibits change and improvement.

 

The rest of the post does have some merit on the positive side cotton candy, lollypops and all....Yes work hard!!

 

Blinders back on!

 

P5

[hybrid]

Line worker wrote:

 

"Just work hard, water off a duck's back and all that. IF you get screwed somehow, as Whitestone and his alternate profiles believe you will, (sorry, couldn't help it), just move on, always forwards and keep working hard."

 

If so, well there is a serious issue of willfull blindness blindness here on your part and disengenious thinking?? Maybe it's just a wording issue?? Then again we tend to percieve things based on what we "want" to believe vs the often unpleasent truth and fact.This inhibits change and improvement.

 

The rest of the post does have some merit on the positive side cotton candy, lollypops and all....Yes work hard!!

 

Blinders back on!

 

P5

Always nice to read your positive insightful point of view P5. Not sure why your aviation experience was so traumatic, but have a pretty good idea. By the way if you are going to try and impress us with your intellect and huge vocabulary, try spelling "disingenuous" correctly.

 

Not that the system is by any means perfect and couldn't use some improvement, but ultimately fate is in your own hands breaking into the industry. The point is that there will be a lot more sacrifices after dropping your 60K + for a license, it really is the easiest part of the journey. Expect to put a minimum of 1-5 years on the ground learning the operational aspect of the job and don't look at it as complete waste of your time. Its an opportunity to learn maintaining a helicopter, equipment and how the industry functions. If you truly feel that you are being taken advantage of, then leave. You always have that option!

 

If a person truly wants to be a commercial helicopter pilot, do your homework before spending your hard earned money. A highly experienced instructor once told me that you have a less than a 15% chance of finding a flying job, he later told me he actually thought it was less than 15%. With those odds, the competition is going to be fierce. It can be a long hard struggle to get there. If you are not prepared to put in the time and effort required, don't drop your hard earned cash. If you are still determined to do it, then chances are it will be a long hard road. There are exceptions, some pilots get lucky and everything falls into place, but it is rare.

[lineworker]

I was told the same thing about the chances of finding a job, in 2000 lots of pilots were getting ripe enough to come down off the tree into the basket, so there were a few openings in places I hope not to see again.

 

Black flies at -5, just when you thought it was a nice day and the wind stopped blowing!

 

Not to suggest Whitestone has many profiles, except to poke him. I did think that the wording in a couple of his posts were supported by the same wording from different posters, who were suddenly 'online and brand new' for the first time with like a total of 4 posts to their profile, coincidentally using the same grammatical style and punctuation, etc, as he was.

 

But I am inclined to believe I was wrong, as he has been on here stickin it to the man ever since with the same gusto. There is a lot of negativity, I'm not blind to the reasons why, I just think you have to decide. Some days are good, some are bad.

 

Last night there were three earthquakes and I slept in my boots and breakfast sucks, but ****! Life is exciting.

 

I think working hard is important, you have to be at least smart enough to work hard.

 

If you're REALLY smart, maybe you can play all these crazy mind games and figure everyone out at some big company, and keep a sharp eye on the pitfalls, and watch out for the guys who seem nice with white hair cause they'll screw you too and look out for .... blah blah blah.

 

It can't be done! Really, I can't imagine trying to get through the dues you have to pay with an attitude like that. It's poison.

 

Wear gloves Elliot! Or you'll have cancer and crooked fingers. Don't mess around with MEK! Don't get jetfuel in your eyes! Always push a floor squeegee, never pull, or you'll look a fool.

 

Ah **** no. You'll need to learn these things by experience, touching and sniffing and cleaning, (because management paper whipped HMSDS course).

 

Work hard, be ethical! Progress!!!!

[Harmonic_Vibe]

One thing I would like to add, that I don't think has really been mentioned yet, is the amount of work an Operator has to put in to get a new pilot up and running. In most companies that I am familiar with (and we all know there are exceptions to every rule and some Canadian Operators are exceptions to universally accepted rules of common courtesy, compassion and basic humaneness - but let's not tar all companies with the same brush just because of the Marquis du Sade school of HR that some have attended) that hire newly licensed pilots put a lot of thought into how to progress them to a level where they can go out and take on the jobs that really build your experience and make you a marquee player.

 

I can say from experience that it many cases it is much easier to hire a (these days often a foreign) pilot with the required hours for a job, give him/her the aircraft, and just deal with scheduled crew changes, then it is to have low time pilots on staff and try to make sure that every maintenance and ferry flight goes to them. I have seen airfares in the thousands of dollars for low time pilots to return to base after delivering a helicopter to a senior pilot on a project... And I mean extra airfare that need not be incurred if it weren't for the desire (and from a long term perspective the need) to bring up new pilots in our industry.

 

This dynamic is what creates the quid pro quo that has existed in this industry for a lot longer than I have been in it. The old adage that life is 15% what happens to you and 85% how you deal with it fits the industry perfectly. One pilot sees unfair labour practices, blacklists, old boy's clubs, favouritism, etc, etc, and another pilot sees challenges and adventures and puts in the time and effort to get the opportunity to see around the next corner and get to fly that machine that was his or her dream from way back.... both probably end up with the same number of hours and endorsements but Pilot B felt like they were part of what makes the industry in Canada great, while Pilot A feels like they achieved in spite of the industry and its challenges. Both may have valid perspectives but guess which one is happier generally?

 

I have told many pilots with 100 hrs that you will succeed (or not) based on your own merits and attitude. You need to demonstrate worthiness to your employer and (possibly more importantly) your peers so that they join in to help pull your wagon. You can't do it yourself and the best way to get help is to help others, don't get involved in company politics, work hard, be safe, show up on time, smile often and it will come....

 

HV

[pilot5]

Always nice to read your positive insightful point of view P5. Not sure why your aviation experience was so traumatic, but have a pretty good idea. By the way if you are going to try and impress us with your intellect and huge vocabulary, try spelling "disingenuous" correctly.

 

Not that the system is by any means perfect and couldn't use some improvement, but ultimately fate is in your own hands breaking into the industry. The point is that there will be a lot more sacrifices after dropping your 60K + for a license, it really is the easiest part of the journey. Expect to put a minimum of 1-5 years on the ground learning the operational aspect of the job and don't look at it as complete waste of your time. Its an opportunity to learn maintaining a helicopter, equipment and how the industry functions. If you truly feel that you are being taken advantage of, then leave. You always have that option!

 

If a person truly wants to be a commercial helicopter pilot, do your homework before spending your hard earned money. A highly experienced instructor once told me that you have a less than a 15% chance of finding a flying job, he later told me he actually thought it was less than 15%. With those odds, the competition is going to be fierce. It can be a long hard struggle to get there. If you are not prepared to put in the time and effort required, don't drop your hard earned cash. If you are still determined to do it, then chances are it will be a long hard road. There are exceptions, some pilots get lucky and everything falls into place, but it is rare.

Sorry for the SP error- just trying to say like it is without any fluff! Am I sorry, sometimes- but Im not going to throw my self out the window and roll in dog shiit! Do I regret getting into the industry - NO- because without the experience I wouldn't know how to detect the warning signs of the type of person or manager that I would never work for no matter how desperate or poor I was.

 

Like anything else the industry is changing and the most of the old crusty arsholes that hold or held positions of power are slowly fading into retirement- No names. My only hope is that they are not replaced by more of the same...and that the industry develops more along the lines of professional behaviour, and with a little more integrity- sure it will never be perfect but one can only hope...

 

P5