Salary: Salaries vary among provinces based on the demand for air tanker pilots, as well as the structure of the industry. It's not normal to start out as a captain on an air tanker that's something you build up to." "Often in this business, people start out as co-pilots, sometimes they start out as bird-dog pilots. "Typically a person would have flown commercially for eight to 10 years prior," Mr. When you pass, you get an endorsement on your licence."Ĭonair typically requires pilots to have 4,000 to 5,000 hours of flight experience as well as the necessary licences and designations before starting a month-long, on-the-job training program. "Once the candidate is ready for their flight test, we have designated examiners within the company that are authorized within Transport Canada to do the check rides. Just because you can fly a commuter jet does not mean you can pilot a water bomber, for instance. Wilson, explaining that endorsements are airplane-specific pilot certifications provided by Transport Canada. "You are also required to have to have a 'type endorsement,'" said Mr.
Fighter pilot salary professional#
There are a variety of institutions across Canada that offer aviation training, including Mount Royal University in Calgary, Seneca College in Toronto, and the Professional Flight Centre in Vancouver. "If I understand the run, I'll go ahead and do just what they did, dropping the retardant at the starting point."įollowing the drop, the command-and-control officer assesses its accuracy and instructs the pilot whether to reload or remain on base.Įducation: In order to become an air tanker pilot, one must obtain an Airline Transport Pilot Licence through Transport Canada. "They'll demonstrate the run while looking for hazards, unusual things like wind drift," Mr. Upon arriving at the scene, the bird-dog aircraft explains the manoeuvre that is required and flies the path first. "We always work with a bird-dog aircraft – he's the command-and-control aircraft – and we will contact him five minutes from the fire." "Based on what we received on our smartphone, we will plug the latitude longitude into the GPS, and choose an altitude that's appropriate to fly to that fire," Mr. Wilson receives an e-mail with all the necessary information, makes his way to the runway and begins the preflight checklist procedure with his co-pilot as the ground crew loads the aircraft with a fire-retardant solution. Wilson said he spends about 200 hours in the air, and between 1,200 and 1,300 hours on standby. "For example, today I'm on a one-hour response time beginning at 9, and at noon they move that up to a 30-minute response time," he said.ĭuring the four-month wildfire season in British Columbia, Mr. Other days, he is assigned a response time, indicating how quickly he would need to return to base if a wildfire were to break out. Wilson and his team are required to remain on standby at a base in Kamloops.
Wilson, 59, explains that each day, the BC Wildfire Service sends out an alert indicating the probability of wildfire occurrence. Some on the forum suggest that the barrier to entry has much to do with timing, however.Mr. From this point, based on your performance/skills you’ll be assigned a category of airframe (for example, Fighters, Cargo/Tankers, UAVs, etc) and will then continue on to an Advanced Training course unique to that platform.” You’ll continue through Introductory Flight Training (teaching basic flight concepts common amongst all aviation), you’ll then attend Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training for a year to learn military aviation concepts. “First, all pilots in the US Air Force are officers, this means you’ll need a college degree and you’ll need to complete Officer Training School (OTS - essentially the equivalent of enlisted personnel’s basic training) between the ages of 18 and 29,” he wrote, adding, “if you pass that you might get one of roughly 1,400 pilot trainee slots available each year. “…heck, somebody has to fly those F-22′s! The only way to know if you’re one of those somebodies is to throw your hat in the ring!” he added.Īnother pilot, Michael Wales, described the pilot requirements in a lengthy post on the forum.
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