Icefield Helicopter Tours

[Guest sharky]

You can still be ONE of EIGHT there too.......along with nothing in the bank account.

[Puddle Jumper]

Autorotate

 

You bring up some good points, and with all due respect most heli companies should listen up....there are good guys out there who are willing and able to make great future pilots if we would only have the opportunity to prove ourselves. However telling me that I didn''t work for what I have in my logbook is a crock of #%&$. My fellow pilots who know me in this industry know what I am made of and that I will make it regardless..but telling me that I have volenteered is a insult! The major aspect that bugs me is the fact that if you get hurt at work...what then...nobody has addressed the consequences of these actions. Currently I am busting my *** at the OMNR making money and looking forward to sharpening my skills and breaking into the industry. And I do believe that so long that there are pilots who are willing to work for free the industry has nowhere to go but down....just think why would anyone hire you at 1000 hours if there is another idiot who is willing to do the work for free.

[canook pilot]

No one should ever take a job for free, it screws up the wages for everyone else. If I ever have someone offer to do that, he will be running with his tail between his legs.!!!!!!!

[Cobra]

Auotrotate,

here is your Quote: Now for the high time guys out there. I''m sure someone out there is a CP or Ops Manager. I''d like to know how many low timers you or your company has hired lately, and how much flying they get. Likely the answer is 0 and 0.

 

 

I think you have to give your head a shake

you obviously havent looked hard enough. Iam a higher time guy and I had met a low time pilot and liked his attitude and spirit so I pointed him in the right direction. To a company I will not mention

because I think your attitude needs rebalanced.

Yes he did spend 2 seasons on a ground crew

and was wondering if it would ever pay off

doing all the hard work he was doing.

He is now hitting his 1000hrs and the company is bringing him up the ranks. Before I know it I''ll beside him on a fire flying mediums.

Yes, he did get payed for his time on the ground crew and has told me he would never change the way he did it.

As he spent his time on the ground crew

he was taken out to jobs, working on longlines, buckets, fuel pumps. Now when he is out on his own he can fix and operate all his own equiptment.

I didnt like your comment about the 1 and 8 guys getting to fly. Guess what you could be that one guy. When I went through it took me 3 years to finally get into the cockpit and I was up against 20 guys and 6 of us got a mountain course from that.

The odds arent great but you gotta give it your best shot. I say to you readjust and good luck.

[4961]

Autorotate, I think that Cobra has a lot of good points. I also understand how hard it is to break into this game. That being said a guy has to do some low things sometimes to get his or her start, but working for free cheepens all of us. I don''t lay all the blame on the low timer who takes this kind of a job though, what it does do is say alot about the people offering it.

I am a CP of a small company, four helicopters and nine pilots on the books. One of whome was hired as a hundred hour wonder, who now has a thousand. We don''t see much turn over here, but would I bring on a new guy again, sure. This particular guy did all the right things though. Did his time on the ground, had more to offer than flying, the lot, and yes he was paid. Two types and a mountain course later everybodies happy.

I''ve said it before and I''ll say it agian, high time guys don''t grow on trees, they all got started somewhere. Competition is fearce but as for your question my answer is 1 and 1000.

ps an other one of our ground guys was hired by another company last month for a flying job.

[Firehawk]

I also agree with Cobra on the points he made. I guy must do his time and sometimes it is hard to do but with the right attitude and out look it can be done.

I did my time on the ground also. Wandering if it would ever pay off. It did in a big way.

The company I work for has hired many low-time guys.

Sure it may take 2 years to get into the seat.Patients will pay off. It is the supply and demand process.It give the company a chance to weed out the ones that they want and the ones that will suit the companies and look out for there best intrust.

There is nothing worse then a low-time guy that has got into the seat and thinks he''s king of the world and better then his other low-timers and has a bad attitude compalining about everything. While another good guy sits on the ground working his butt off and doing everything right with a smile on his face doing it asking for more s#^%* please. I have seen that before.

I, to this day will do what I can to help out a low-time guy when I can.If he meets my requirments for the right atttiude first.

I came into this industry not knowing a soul and no one to point me in the right direction and it took 4 years

of frustration and disappointments and people in the industry telling me I am wasting my time and will never get a job, Believe me I still remember a few of them people and Iam sure a few read this website to. Iam looking forward to the day Iam there boss.I even had the privledge this paste summer to come across one of them asking me about getting on with the company Iam now with. To say the least his name didnt go far.Remember this is a small industry and at one piont or another you may rely on someone to help you.I shouldnt forget the people that did help me out.

I owe my thanks to a man by the name of TOM BUGG great man and got me my first start and for that Iam forever greatfull.

I have come across some good low-time guys that I have told them I can talk to someone and point them in the right direction for a ground crew job to start off with. Believe it or not I was surprised to hear 3 low-timers tell me that they wont take anything unless it is in the cockpit.

To say the least Iam willing to bet they still havent flown and never will with that attitude.

well that was my speech. Think I ''ll go crack a cold one

on the deck and pray for a fire.

 

 

 

[CTD]

Don''t be so quick to crap all over companies because they won''t let you fly their JetRanger around with 5 SOB in bad weather. There are very few prima donnas in this industry, and most of these guys would hire you if they could, but they can''t.

 

When I was Project Manager at Voisey Bay, we had 18 helicopters, from 206Bs to 212s, flying everything from environmental work to drill moves and bird towing. In the second year, I approached the customer to see if he''d be willing to let a few low-timers get their start on the 206s doing environmental work. After several weeks, he finally agreed, and 5 one-hundred-hour-wonders got their start. None of them know the behind-the-scenes negotiations that went on to get them there, but that doesn''t matter.

 

The motivation to do this stemmed from my own experience. After 5 years of looking, and ready to give up, a short bald guy with a funny accent took a chance on me, and I always said I''d do the same for someone else if I could. Those 5 are still flying. 

[twitch]

CTD.... Hummm If I remember correctly that little guy with the funny accent had a full head of hair when I left??? He must have pulled it all out once you started!!!

 

twitch

[Biggles]

CTD, who was your start with, I remember you coming over to VHL, that would be the very beginning of our start!  Hehehehe, sorry, just got back from a wedding, somewhat half in the bag, poor souls, if they only knew !!!!!  Food was good though !

[downwash]

There must be some laws of physics that apply to Forum threads, e.g. after three pages, everything that can be said has been said AT LEAST TWICE.

 

For all of you that have never struggled to get a company going, know that it''s nowhere as easy as you think. Ask the guys who have. Damned few owners of struggling companies drive ''Vettes or Porsches and most of them would LOVE to pay their troops more if they could see a way. Yeah, there''s always a snake or two out there, but most of these guys are just drivers like you and I with enough moxie (or lunacy) to try to do their own thing.

 

I''ve heard disturbingly little about personal accountability here, either. No-one shanghaied ANY of ''Icefield''s'' pilots. They all CHOSE to take the work, whether for the actual experience or just to get flying.

 

As the old Indian said, "Don''t criticize another man until you''ve walked a mile in HIS moccasins."