Kenn Borek, general Canadian Arctic flying.

[mghallen]

Hello,

First post here. I have been living and working in Arctic Alaska for the last ten or more years. Mostly flying "bush" work flying Cessnas and Pipers, some Beechcraft stuff and my personal flying in cubs. Awhile ago sitting in Dawson in the Yukon my copliot and I watched North Air Hawker 748 roll through. In Kansas I spoke with a kid who was checking out in C208 flying people and cargo/mail.

Anyways short what is the flying like? I was shotting the S^%$ with my mate in the crew house talking about DHC6s, always wanted to fly one unfortunately only did Flightsafety though in Toronto. Looked at the KBAL site and the pictures of Resolute, Iniuvik, and such, and reminds me of where I work kind of.

Figured I'd ask here. Really like to get the feel of what goes on to the east.

Thanks

[maDDtraPPer]

I am in the eastern arctic and work with and around the Ken Borek guys alot. Most of my mates have gone that route.
Right now the economy has everything slow with lots of lay offs and KBAL is no different. They also pay crap for the work they do, but because of the size of the company, and the amount of equipment they run you generally get a decent schedule from them as far as time off is concerned.
However if money isn't an issue KBAL is really the only company that operates all over the Arctic and high Arctic in particular (and Antarctica). I would love to work out of some of their northern bases at least long enough to see the scenery.
They do some amazing work with the Twin but are very inconsistant with their pilots, and a lot of their best drivers have moved on to greener pastures. I used to work near some of the operators in Ketchikan AL and they all paid very well (and USD) so I am not sure what you'd think of what we are getting here in the great white north.

[mghallen]

Good to see a response. The economy here is pretty stable, lots of gov't influences, and oil. The biggest thing is the consolidation of operators. When I arrived in Kotzebue there was 14 different operators on the field, all but 3 were single ship bases, a C207 or PA-32. Now their are 2 and one mom and pop. I guess this crushed options for a new guy building time. The lowest time pilot were I work is 5000hr guy, other than acouple of co-pilots in the CASA or B1900. www.beringair.inc (http://www.beringair.inc) is my employer. Pay is good for those of us left, @90k USD a year. Our rival not as good, but fair.

Work wise no off-airport any more. Village runs hauling Pax and cargo/mail. Some good pictures of Kotzebue city web site. I commute work 20 days then home for 10 days.

Seems like things are tight over your way, that is a bummer, at least these things run in cycles.

Good Luck

[maDDtraPPer]

I think that the junior Captains make $70-80 here and senior ones can make around $100 G if they work a lot. We're now down 20% on your dollar. I think most of the lay offs are a good excuse to cull some employees that perhaps were not up to snuff. Some guys love KBAL and some guys don't.
If your running a CASA 212 I would love to talk numbers on that plane. There are none in Canada and I am not sure why exactly. Fugro runs one under a special certification but thats all that I know of. The Arctic is primarily exploration based work, and the juniors have all but been wiped off the map right now, and only the bigger players have some money to do field work. But it will only be a matter of time before it comes back. The diamonds and Uranium have been there for millions of years and won't mind waiting a little while longer!
I would love to go and work up in Alaska particularly near the Aleutian islands. I have been in and out of Sitka a few times and it's such amazing country. Cheers.

[mghallen]

I do not fly the CASA, but my understanding is it performs very similiar to a Cessna Caravan in most areas. Typicially the carry around 5000LBS and a 2-3 hour fuel load with crew. Because of it's max t/o weight it is regulated to the books performance charts for T/O performance. In the States anything over 12500LBS requires the adherence of the book, and anything less is pilot judgement.

I have flown a little on "The Chain". The terrian is well I don't know, we only went when the WX was bad or in the middle of the night. Medivac stuff in B200s, and we always were sweating fuel and alternates. The weather changes quick and usually for the worst. kind of like southeast Alaska without the trees and horrific weather. I guess par for the bush.

Bummer on the flying scene over your way. Where in Canada are you? My father is from Halifax, although we have not been back in years.

Mike

[maDDtraPPer]

Been living in BC for a few years now because I don't like snow although that didn't go so well this year. I still fly out of the north coast occasionally and I love it up there but ya the winters are miserable to fly in.
I work out of central Nunavut. I talked with some of the Borek guys here a few days ago and they are getting $17 a day per deim, which in this town will buy you a loaf of expired bread and a few brown bananas. Bend over this is going to hurt!!! Poor bastards. No internet either. I smell a mutiny, but then again there's a long line of pilots who would jump to take their place. Sad.