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Issues Affecting Canadian Industry?


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:lol::lol: Blackmac says...

 

"Big Duke: You have the advantage of knowing who I am and with all due respect, I lived through Canadian Transportation Commission and was the one at Viking responsible for filing tariff's."

 

Ahh no doubt from the comfortable corporate board room located at the "Twin Oaks" Ya..Those were the days!!!!!! :rolleyes::rolleyes: With Larry, Earl and John supplying all the liquid support! :up: :up:

 

twitch ;););)

 

By the way cyclic monkey I also was quite suprised by the..... Lets say "touchy" response.... to your humorous post :unsure:

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Blackmac, I'm not trying to de-rail your hardwork, I do agree with the tremendous efforts all of you have done to create HEPAC. I agree HAC has not addressed any issues regarding engineer and pilot concerns, hopefully thats where HEPAC and HAC will address these topics together and present them to Operators and Transport Canada. As for re-regulating, Again I'm only trying to play the devil's advocate in my response. Shouldn't the" minimum reserve bid", be your DOC's. The operators bid should reflect DOC's and whatever value they view as return on there investment. This should include resonable salaries for there crews and yes, if the operator wants to encourage a low timer he can pay the higher premium. However at the end of the day the operator needs to make a "buck" or they won't last very long. Thus the whole free enterprize issue and riding the industry of operators that drive tarrifs into the perverbial toilet. We do however, need quality operations to provide all of us with the tools to go to work do we not? Personally, I think we need to better educate our customers on our needs and reqiurments as most of them do realize the benefit of a quality end product. I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm simply trying to bring your cause to the fore-front buy trying to encourage and envoke further discussion on this, and many other topics which desperatly need to be addressed. Looking at the current industry trend, barring another stellar fire year. We may be poised for another "down-turn".

 

Blackmac, hats off to you and all the others who have spent a lot of there own spare time seeing HEPAC take form. Kudos, that includes Kyle for providing a place for "minds to meet". Keep up the good work. :up:

 

Hopefully, Mike (Vertical Mag) and Ned (Heli-Ops) will take the hint. As the forum suggest's these are issue's affecting our industry. ;)

 

Again, this only my humble opinion.

Cheers.

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Blackmac, thanks for your efforts in getting HEPAC started. I am sure you are still working hard, along with Kyle and maybe others, to get it all formalised. For this work we are very grateful.

 

However, your posts are titled to be from Blackmac, and yet they are signed to be from HELICOPTER ENGINEERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION, CANADA.

 

I understand that at this time, you ALONE are HEPAC, so this may be splitting hairs...........but could you please adopt two Titles so that we know who the post is from.

 

As you have been reminded on several occasions, some of your personal opinions are quite volcanic.

You are entitled to express these opinions, and they are as welcome as anyone elses, but it would be better for us to know if this is the Official position of the young HEPAC, or the personal opinion of the very experienced Blackmac.

 

Sincere thanks, OT

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O.K. Talk to much, I get your message. I tried to register as one of my other names, HEPAC or DonMcDougall but we all have the same E-Mail, the system will not let me do dat.

 

So in future and up until we have a members only web site I have been signing posts as personal or HEPAC on items that I think the assoc. should be persuing.

 

If you are confused, what about me????

 

Cheers, Don

 

PS: My signature at the bottom also says TIMEX.

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Blackmac, you are correct in that CAaviation will only allow one Title per e-mail address, so here are a couple of suggestions so that HEPAC can get it's own Title.

 

1) Ask Kyle for an e-mail address such as HEPAC@CAaviation.com. (you may already have one). Use this as the e-mail address that you register HEPAC from on these forums.

 

2) Go to hotmail.com and set up an e-mail address such as HEPAC (@hotmail.com). This is quite easy, free, and only takes a few minutes. Use this as the e-mail address that you register HEPAC from on these forums.

 

Either one of these will be useful as I suspect that HEPAC will want to have its own e-mail address very soon anyway, if it doesn't have one already.

 

P.S. the hint was not that you talk too much (your wife may disagree), it's just that we need to know exactly WHO we are listening too !!

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OT, in about three weeks there will be no requirement to e-mail any thing to me as all members will be able to talk freely on our own members only thread.

 

So in the meantime I will refrain from making any comments on behalf of HEPAC, allthough they are my thoughts. Anything expressed by me is items I believe in and will be persued if so approved by the board of directors. I will not persue anything that is not in the best interest of all members.

 

What more can I say, cheers Don.

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Blackmac, that sounds great. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Now back to the topic..............what should Vertical Mag write about ??

Hmmmmmmm...............how about a story on HEPAC.

It would be useful to help spread the word to those of our brethren that don't spend their spare time loitering around at the CAaviation Heli forum.

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Our biggest problem in this indusrty is that we have too many helicopters for the amount of work that is available. This also means there are too many helicopter pilots and engineers. It's a question of supply and demand. We have too many helicopters trying to get the same work and the customers can pick and choose whomever they want. It's all dollars and cents, the lowest bidder gets the work. This is the same for heli crews. The grass is greener on the other side mentality is rampant and when times are tough we will do anything to keep or get a job. As for the junior pilots and apprentices coming out of school and hoping to get jobs, good luck. I think they should of done their home work before making the investment in time and money. I also don't understand where this pilot and engineer association is going to be of any help to our industry. We are the industry and it is currently every man/women/company for themselves. How do you stop that? I have no answers, just an opinion. What do you think? :(

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Sorry Cyclic Monkey. I didn’t sense the humor at the time. That’s the thing with forums and emails, things can be taken the wrong way.

 

Definitely some good points made to be brought up in the various interviews that are planned.

 

Rates will always be at the top of the list – higher rates should have a domino effect on higher wages, newer equipment, etc. But, unfortunately you will only get four out of five companies to raise their rates while the fifth company moves in to scoop up the work at a lower rate. Remember when Northern Mountain went under? There seemed to be a small increase in rates from companies like VIH, CHL, Alpine, but that only lasted a little while before one operator expanded into western Canada. :angry:

 

This is where I show my ignorance…by self-insuring your hauls, can you really afford to let an AS 250B2 go for $1,000 an hour? What’s surprising about this operator is that all the equipment that they operate is top-notch (from what I’ve been told anyway). I was at Eagle a month ago and saw a 205 being readied for the operator that is taking over the heli-ski contract that Campbell had – there was no expense being spared, and I’ve heard from other shops the same thing. So, if this is the case how can you afford to let aircraft go at these rates? :blink:

 

As far as HAC and what it has done or not done for the people that work for the operators…has anyone approached the Association to address pilot and engineer concerns?

 

Amodoa…I’m surprised to hear you say that there are too many pilots and engineers in the industry. Everyone else seems to be talking about a shortage of people that could severely impact the industry in the next 5 to 10 years.

 

I do agree with you that the market is oversaturated with helicopters, but what do you do? I know of only two companies that have been responsible when it came to consolidating their fleets by selling their a/c out of the country – they would not sell to a Canadian operator. But every year after a half-decent fire season what do operators do? Buy more equipment. Although, I have noticed that at one time the thing to do was buy an intermediate because not everyone had one – it would set you apart from the competition. Now everyone has one, so now operators are buying mediums. Anyone ever notice how many mediums have been added to the registry over the past 18 months? Seems like everyone want s a 205 now! :wacko:

 

One issue I’m surprised that wasn’t brought up is regional disparity within Transport Canada (sorry CTD :shock: ). Could this be because this is an issue only for those running the companies and not so much an issue for the drivers and fixers?

 

Anyway, thanks for the feedback. :D

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