Originally Posted by PT6A
it is not sensible from a buisness point of view to employee these pilots year round.
But it is sensible for the Canadian government to pay un-employment insurance to HUNDREDS of waterbomber pilots evey winter ?
There are in Canada 60 CL-214 and CL-415, 2 PBY Cansos, 12 Gruman Turbo Firecats, others with pistons, 2 Martin Mars and 3 Lockheed Electras, about a dozen CV-580s, a couple DC-4s, (close to 100 large aircraft in all), all full time water bombers, most of whose pilots have seasonal summer-only jobs.
From a purely business point of view, does it make sense for Canada to keep all these pilots on UI every winter and hire foreigners who pay no taxes in Canada instead ?
These past years I have flown as captain in Airbus 310 and 330 aircraft with young first officers who had just arrived from a Beech 1900, a Metroliner, or even a King Air and they all did fine.
Are you claiming that a high time guy who was flying captain on a Lockheed Electra, a 4 engine turbine aircraft of 51 tonnes, cannot fly right-seat in a 79 tonne B-737-800 ?
At Air Transat, we used to Dry-Lease B737 and Airbus 320 from Europe for the winter. Every fall, we would draw crews from our B-757s, our A-330s and our L-1011s to put them on the A320 or B-737, and in the spring they would be sent back to their regular aircraft. These pilots went back and forth between two aircraft twice a year. No problems, no incidents......
