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Career Progression
Aspiring pilots may wish to fly for fun or for a career. Seldom is it clear what the correct career path should be and how much time will be required to realize these goals. Our staff at Guardian Aerospace would like to describe the potential career paths for several different types of pilot jobs that are available. First of all let us explore what possible jobs are out there in aviation at any given time. Canadian Licences can be recognized in other countries and so it is possible to find careers outside of Canada, especially if you speak one than one language or you have roots in other countries.
Recreational Flying:
Powered Parachutes, Ultra-lights and Advanced Ultra-lights Permit Gyroplane Permit Recreational Pilot Permit (Home Build Kits, Sport Aircraft Kits & Manufactured Planes) Gliders Licence Balloon Licence Private Pilot Licence (Ultra-lights, Kit Planes and Manufactured Planes) Private Helicopter Licence
In Canada, licences that are issued may be recognized in whole or in part in other United Nation Countries. Permits are only for use in Canada and have no merit or are not recognized in other Countries. Each Individual entry noted above has its’ own course of study, ground school, flight training and a qualifying written exam and flight test to achieve the licence or permit.
Careers:
Bush pilot, Floatplane, Skiplane, Tail Draggers – Hunting, Fishing, Lodges, Tourism etc. Skydiving Pilot Day Air Charter Pilot – Sightseeing, Lodges, Tourism, Business, Aerial Photo Crop Dusting Missionary Pilot – Famine and Disaster Relief, Medical Assistance, Fellowship, Teaching Flight Instructor – Aerobatics, Floats, Commercial, Instrument, Airline Training Captain Pipeline Patrols, Fire Patrols, Powerline, Security, Forest Inventory Day/Night all weather Twin Engine Charter Pilot Corporate Pilot (Piston, Turbo-propeller or Jet) Telus, BC Hydro, Kal-Tire Etc. Military Reconnaissance, Search and Rescue, Transport, Fighter, Helicopter, Instructor Pilot Medical Air Evacuation, Organ Transfer, Transplant Patient, Mercy Flight Pilot Coast Guard, Fisheries, Drug Enforcement, Coastal and Arctic Patrols, Pollution Patrols RCMP – Prisoner Transport, Surveillance, Fugitive Search, Search and Rescue, Sovereignty and Border Patrolling Fisheries Inventory, Regulatory, Foreign Ships, Enforcement Transport Canada and Nav Canada – Government Business Water Bomber Local Small Air Carrier Scheduled Service – Northern Thunderbird, Central Mountain Air, Perimeter Airlines, Hawk Air Local, Inter-Provincial, National, International Courier – FedEx, DHL, UPS Regional and Inter-Provincial Scheduled Airline – West Jet, Air Canada Jazz, First Air, Air North Large Airline – National & International Airline Charter Major Major Airline – International Scheduled Service
Your Career Progression
No matter what path you take in the future, it begins with a private pilot licence and then the commercial pilot licence. These two licences can be achieved within one year if you are motivated and have adequate funding; HOWEVER, it is important to have some direction as to HOW you will begin your career before you start your commercial training. Your 4 main options are:
Become a Flight Instructor for 1-2 years and build experience, perhaps receive additional training at a reduced cost, learn how the aviation industry functions. Become a Bush Pilot for 2-3 years to build experience as a Pilot-in-Command. Become a Co-pilot for several years to learn the job of a Corporate Pilot. Join the Canadian Armed Forces or the Military of another Country if you qualify.
There are several assumptions we can make here, and they are:
You need to start at the bottom and gain experience of some kind. You need to know what career path to follow. Your employer will need additional skills like: Marketing, Advertising, Web Design, Excel Spreadsheets, Photoshop or PowerPoint skills, Emailing Clients, Writing Proposals etc. The aviation industry will always have up and down cycles….if you try to time the cycle…it probably will not work. Better yet choose a direction and be as good as you can be because there is always room to hire an employee who works efficiently, is decisive, professional and has a high degree of personal integrity. Each of the four choices above have pros and cons which we need to discuss. There will never be a good time to hire someone with the wrong attitude, no personal integrity and poor work ethic. Be prepared to sign a contract and pay a performance bond
The Pros and Cons
The Flight Instructor: During the Commercial Course you could fly a variety of planes to help you later, floatplane, tail dragger, aerobatics, etc.
Pros
Finding your first job may happen sooner than you think. You will be in a shirt and tie most of the time. You build time fairly quickly as the PIC, Pilot-In-Command. You learn where pilots typically make critical mistakes, which will be helpful later. Most likely to provide fulltime annual employment. Opportunity to advance within the year. Enjoyable if you like helping people, have good customer service and some past teaching experience or just a desire for it. May be able to upgrade license to fly multi-engine planes and with an instrument endorsement (In preparation for next job) at a reduced cost. You can strive to teach as many different types of flying to broaden your skills and be more valuable to your current and future employer.
Cons
If teaching does not interest you…please don’t become one for the sake of building time. It will show in your attitude and aptitude. The salary is low to begin with, typically 20/hr about $120.00/day. $28,000.00/yr. Serving and helping clients learn is rewarding but requires a lot of personal effort and energy. Not everyone is suited to serving clients all day long. Work days tend to be long, irregular schedules and definitely not 9-5. There may be many secondary duties like marketing, cleaning classrooms and airplanes and other duties to maintain the premises. The job becomes repetitive after several hundred hours.
The Bush Pilot: During your Commercial Training incorporate a 25-50 hr floatplane course and also learn to fly a tail dragger, as these are the planes you will most likely fly.
Pros
The flying will very be challenging and you will learn to land in very tight areas, rough or mountainous terrain and in all kinds of weather. Your skills as a pilot will be tested and you will be very proficient in flying accurately into a variety of conditions…always leaving yourself 1 or 2 safe ways out of any situation. You won’t be wearing a shirt and tie…and you will wear a good knife/multi-purpose tool on your belt. You will learn lots about the mechanics of an airplane and may be asked to pitch in and help fix too. This is good for the present and future. You are building time as PIC, and you will be making critical decisions frequently. You will learn to adapt and overcome problems, learn to anticipate by thinking ahead and extremely important, you will learn where to draw the line and say “NO”. This is a difficult thing to learn as a pilot….most of us are always willing to help the boss or the client out….and “NO” becomes the most difficult thing to learn. Usually there is career progression to a larger plane within the company in the second year, once you have proven yourself. If you have good interpersonal skills, marketing and computer skills, and you don’t mind maintaining the premises, you could turn a seasonal job into year round employment. The Salary should be $35-40,000.00 for the first year.
Cons
Finding the first job is difficult and you may have to travel further North or into other Provinces. The 50 hour floatplane rating will help you now because it allows the employer to hire you without a huge increase in his insurance policy. Insurance companies may not even allow a new pilot to fly. It is customary to help on the dock for one season to earn the privilege to fly. The boss is checking out your work ethic and will use that time to teach you the company procedures during the season, which reduces direct training costs. This is seasonal work and you will most likely need to find winter work. The hours are long and often the trips are short and require constant loading and unloading of the aircraft. You may be operating in remote areas frequently and for several days. There is very little support from weather specialists and you are relying on your knowledge of the local area, weather and what theory you learned in ground school. The clients will always push to see if you are willing to carry more for less cost…this can get old quickly, especially if it involves exceeding the weight limitations of the aircraft, pushes you beyond your abilities, goes against your better judgment or pushes the capability of the aircraft too far.
The Co-Pilot: During the Commercial Course you will begin the Multi-Engine Rating and Instrument Endorsement required to be a Co-pilot. This training can be done after the Commercial Course, or you may save some time and money doing the training during the Commercial Course.
Pros
You fly a twin engine plane in a variety of charter or scheduled services. Your days tend to be scheduled, you are required to be in uniform and you are working from populated airports and usually home for dinner. The aircraft is advanced, your hands don’t get dirty, the job carries some prestige and you will learn advanced aircraft systems quickly, which is good for the future. It is exciting and tense at times, flying into larger airports in poor weather and flying using flight instrumentation to within a few hundred feet from the ground. Learn very quickly to anticipate weather at destination, make critical decisions based on weather, aircraft capability, passenger load, fuel burn and equipment serviceability. Excellent knowledge of human performance, pilot decision making, aviation physiology, technicalities of instrument flight and aircraft systems. Like all types of flying, once in awhile mother nature makes life interesting and you switch to plan B….which you always plan in advance. Learn how to work very efficiently with 2 flight crew using standardized verbal commands and responses in all types of conditions whether in a simulated training emergency scenario or normal procedure.
Cons
Your first employment can be very difficult to find since most pilots who wish to work in the airlines are following this career progression. Your skills as an instrument rated pilot degrade quickly if not used…they expire after 2 years and the training has to be renewed. Co-pilots tend to be paid 24-30,000.00 for the first few years of employment, despite flying some pretty nice and sophisticated aircraft. Co-pilots do not build time as the Pilot-in-Command very quickly and therefore progressing to the Left seat or the Captain’s Chair may take many years. Often you must take a second job as a single-engine charter pilot or flight instructor to build PIC time in order to advance. If flying in a scheduled service to the same airport 20 times per week….it loses its appeal at some point.
The Military Pilot: If your are serious you will do all your training with a Civilian Flight school and then apply for Military Service. There several reason for this:
Military standards are very high and flight training progresses 4-8 times more rapidly than in a civilian environment and on aircraft flying twice as fast. You only get one shot…and every single flight that is not to standard, will count against you. It is a competition…and those who do well have had past training before joining. Besides all the standard flight training, you also learn low altitude & high speed tactical navigation to extremely precise standards. You learn to fly in formation. You learn aerobatics. You learn basic weapon systems, manoeuvring to gain tactical advantage and electronic counter measures. If you have the multi-engine and instrument training already, it provides you with a competitive confidence, you have experience on complex aircraft systems and instrument procedures….this allows you to focus on learning the military style of flying. Additionally past flight training maybe re-imbursed, OR allows you to enter the military as a commissioned officer (2nd Lieutenant) instead of an Officer Cadet, which affords you a better salary immediately; and the time in rank allows faster promotion to the next rank of Lieutenant. It also reduces your contract time to the Military since they are not paying for your university education or flight training. Lastly, if you don’t make the final cut….the experience helps in your next job. If you didn’t have a civilian pilot licence….your military flying does not count towards any civilian rating (Unless the Military Flight Instructors hold Civil Ratings) and you have to go back to school anyways.
Pros
A Career as a Military Pilot will be an extremely rewarding experience. The flight training is exciting, fast paced and the equipment can be amazing too. The skill level is exact and the flight training aggressive and tactical in nature. Some of the missions you will fly are challenging in every way. There is a degree of Prestige in the uniform and the chance to serve Canada in whatever capacity the Military requires. The salary is comparable to a first year captain with West Jet, once your training is complete, approximately $60,000.00 first year Military Captain and $80,000.00 as a fourth year Captain. Your are working as a member of a closely knit team….an experience you may never experience again on that level in a civil environment. International travel is also quite possible, as are exchange postings with other countries. Hey you get to learn how to iron uniforms, sew stuff and polish shoes…well! The extended family networks are fun, great friendships are made and there is a great support system in place. Serving 20 years with the Military provides you with a pension at a young age.
Cons PAY ATTENTION NOW
The Canadian Forces Recruiting Office does not care about you or your career as a pilot. Their mandate is to sign up good qualified people and train them where the Military needs them. If they are not hiring pilots this particular month…they may offer you a different career and a chance to change once enrolled. The world does not work this way! This is a rare and difficult event called “Re-mustering” and could take many years. The best advice given to me is as follows: Your are under contract to lay your life down in Service to your Country as the Military may require….The absolute very least you should receive in return is a chance to do what you wish to do….which is fly! Don’t settle for less. The Military Pilot does not fly often enough 200-400 hours/year. Fighter Pilots are very lucky to get 200hrs a year. Transport, Flight Instructors and Search and Rescue Pilots may get 400-600hours. The Military is strapped for cash and equipment and you may find there is not as much flying as you would like. Typically a Military Pilot will get 2 flying tours (6-7years) and then a ground tour of 3 years. Not always the case but typical. The Military does not think out of the box…this is frustrating…because sometimes it is logical to put a round peg in a square hole….that will get you in hot water because you are failing to follow a Standard Operating Procedure. Just be prepared for that mentality. You don’t get to decide!! The Military decides where you will be stationed and what aircraft you will be flying…sometimes you are happy, sometimes you are not…too bad! Your spouse and children….they are always number 2….you don’t get to decide. Sometimes you will be posted on tours…and your family stays behind. The Military system is “Hurry, Hurry, Hurry” then you spend a lot of time waiting. Be prepared for a long drawn out process to achieve wings standard.
Career Progression Part Two
A flight Instructor can become a top qualified Class 1 Flight Instructor over the course of 3 years. This enables the instructor to manage a flight school, train other instructors, teach multi-engine and instrument ratings or progress to a small airline. It seems once 1500 hours of flight experience is achieved the opportunities come much more quickly.
Flying for a small airline requires 1500-2500 hours of flight time…obliviously with experience on twin-engine aircraft. You will start in the Co-pilot’s chair until you learn the operation well, and then, if you have sufficient PIC experience, you will move to the Captain’s Chair.
Flying for Air Canada Jazz or West Jet requires 2500 hours of experience and with 1000hrs of flight experience on heavier twin engine turbine aircraft. Again you start as a Co-pilot and progress to the Captain’s Chair. Hiring requirements may go up substantially when jobs are hard to find and can increase. Air Canada….if they don’t go bankrupt….will hire at 2500-5000hrs flight experience and there may be no progression into the Captains Chair for many years since this is based on seniority.
Corporate Jobs can start at 1000-1500 hours experience. Water Bombing 2500-5000hrs. Pilots who are water bombers usually have quite a varied history…starting as a bush pilot and progressing into heavy twins and eventually as a water bomber.
RCMP, Coast Guard and Medevac Pilots are hired through an application process where they best candidate receives the position. Typically these pilots have 2500 hours of experience with at least 1000 hrs in a multi-engine instrument environment, with 1 and 2 crew.
More information will be added in the future…call us if there is something you would like to know more about, or to book a flight.
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