G.A.M.

[Stormynights]

G.A.M. ?
Does anyone have any good or bad things to say about then ?

[Torres]

Yes ... and no. :E

[ForkTailedDrKiller]

Maybe .......... maybe not! :E

Dr :8

[cogwheel]

You could do a lot worse, if you are job hunting.....

[Captincrow]

Only good to say. Unless u listen to a bunch of whinging pilots which tend to find faults with ever GA carrier.

[Torres]

To elaborate:

"Does anyone have any good..." Yes

"...or bad things to say about then (sic) ?" and no

What cogwheel and Captincrow said! :ok:

[Mr. Hat]

pretty good from what i was told.

never managed to get a gig there.

it was another one of the rare companies that seemed to be paying well when virtually noone else was.

[Trojan1981]

A mate is flying for them at the moment. He is getting approx 100 hours multi IFR per month so thats pretty good:ok:. He seems to think they are pretty good and provide good oportunities for transfers etc. Min I think is about 1000TT. I have no personal experience with them, just what I have been told. :ok:

[Brian Abraham]

He is getting approx 110 hours multi IFR per month
??????????

[tail wheel]

That is some CAO48 exemption - or he doesn't log it! :}

[Dookie on Drums]

F.M.S - not the first time I have heard of guys doing over 100hrs a month.

[PLovett]

F.M.S - not the first time I have heard of guys doing over 100hrs a month.

Which rather tells you all you need to know. It is just another GA company. They all have their good and their bad points only some have more of one than the other.:sad:

[Capt Wally]

................Which rather tells you all you need to know. It is just another GA company................well said 'Plovett'

I've heard that if you want hrs then there's none better than GAM. Not sure what they are like these days but many years ago those early pilots where the 'yardsticks' as to what the 'real ' wx was like first thing in the morning at country strips, meaning if they couldn't get in via the 'twin windmill app' then nobody was!

Turbines now so a step in the right direction for the young.


CW

[f1yboy]

Does GAM have a website? And if so, what is it?

Thanks in advance.

[Stormynights]

reefwatch.com.au
is the only one i could find

[Wing Root]

Your experience in GAM depends on the base. Melbourne and Cairns are sought after but at the moment Adelaide or Weipa would be the likely starting places. GAM operates under the ubiquitous CAO48 exemption so while 110 hours per month could be possible it would be very much the exception. There's no website.

[Roger Copy Ta]

I can confirm the 110 multi-IFR hrs/month rumor as I did it myself. GAM operate under the Fatigue Management System (FMS) which has it's own flight and duty limits (exempt from CAO 48). In terms of flight limits, their pilots are only restricted to a maximum of 1080/year.

If you are lucky enough to get in with GAM, take the Weipa base. Best flying you'll ever do, especially in the wet. I did 430 hrs in 4.5 months which is an average of 95 hrs/month. All multi, all IFR. Beat that.

[Capt Wally]

.........................I did 430 hrs in 4.5 months which is an average of 95 hrs/month. All multi, all IFR. Beat that..........so that's what fatigue management is all about, 'beating' that hey?:bored:
So much for CAO 48 & it's insidious allowances to fly 'till you F:mad:k up!:bored:



CW

[Stationair8]

Under CAO 48 you can do 100 hours flying in 30 days, so I suppose if a month has 31 days it would be perfectly legal to do 109 hours for the month and log it.

Plenty of exemptions to CAO48, but the RFDS used to have an exemption that put you standby for 24 hours and that could be done for 10 days straight, if you got called out you could then do a tour of duty of up to 14 hours and 9 hours flying, then have a 14 hour break. Likewise they could work you for 14 days and only require you to have 2 days off in 14 days if you actually flew.

First RPT job logged a 100 hours a month for the first 8 months due to the pilots dispute. Over the 3 years averaged 900 hours a year.

Next RPT job was with a NSW operator with a CAO48 exemption, straight forward run but you did a morning flight out and back, knocked off for six hours, and then repeated that in the late afternoon Monday thru to Friday, that was a lot more tiring and fatigue inducing than compared to night freight or air ambulance.

[SHAGGS]

How's GAM going without Notty now days ? Is the company still as big and strong as it was before Steve passed away.

RIP Steve.

[flightidleflat]

Van Gough,

GAM are mainly a freight operation, with a bit of charter work out of Cairns and Weipa. Most of the work is 'split shifts', flying a leg out in the morning, spending the day at an outer port, and then back in the evening. Most flying is Mon-Fri, with the odd weekend flight if you get a major city posting. And as discussed earlier is a great way to log your IFR time.

The machinery is really good for 'GA' aircraft, although they do have the cleanest MR's in Aus which is something to be weary of. It seems 'new' turbine aircraft are arriving every second week so it would be a great time to get in.

I'm not sure how things have changed since the Bossman passed away, but by all accounts they were a great bunch to work for back then. As long as you do the right thing by them, they'll do the right thing by you.

[Trojan1981]

It was a typo, I meant 100. My PC was offline for a few days so I couldn't correct it.:\

[A37575]

The machinery is really good for 'GA' aircraft, although they do have the cleanest MR's in Aus which is something to be weary of

I may be dumb, but isn't a clean no defects maintenance release something an operator should be proud of as it indictates excellent serviceability?:ok:

[j3pipercub]

A37575

Think about that statement VERY VERY CAREFULLY AND THEN COME BACK...

[Capt Wally]

'j3', now that was well put !:D


CW

[404 Titan]

A37575

In the ten years I spent in GA before moving onto the airlines I never flew an aircraft that had a clean maintenance release except after it came out of the hanger from a 100 hourly with a new one. Every aircraft has snaggs, no matter how small, even in the airlines. If I saw a aircraft with a clean mainteance release especially just before a 100 hourly, I would be asking questions.

[flightidleflat]

As for 'clean MR's', i must emphasise that i was in no way suggesting the aircraft are in poor shape or that maintenance issues are not attended too, just the way in which they are reported may be somewhat questionable!

All in all, for the age of the majority of the fleet, those AC are in great shape, and the refurb's the ginger beers do there are something else. I'm sure those AC come out of the hangar better than they did new. Well, i'm not sure because i wasn't around in the 60's, but either way, i always felt confident in the machinery.

[LexAir]

GAM has a new CP recently appointed. The CP is Greg Veasy, an ex long term CASA FOI from the airline office in Melbourne. He is a meticulous operator and a stickler for high standards; in my view a good operator. Under Greg's watch, I doubt that there will be anything but appropriate entries on the MRs.

[turbantime]

So where has PB moved onto then?

[LexAir]

No idea. Greener pastures perhaps?

[sms777]

That is about it.
Flying max IFR multi in a month is all good until you find that rock in the clouds an it is all over! :(

[Wing Root]

What are you talking about? FAID is used by many operators and is approved by CASA. How could CASA approve something that is unsafe? ... Oh... wait.........

[PLovett]

Wing Root, I realise you are being ironic but to put substance to your comment in 2005 or 6 I attended a CASA information seminar at which one of the topics was fatigue management. Some of the information was fascinating but what got my attention was the lack of knowledge about fatigue.:eek:

IIRC the presenter told the attendees that CASA had granted 43 exemptions from CAO 48 to be replaced by a fatigue management program but only 3 met any realistic test of being in accord with the principles of fatigue management. This included some very notable organisations that one would not have thought would knowingly subject their employees to excessive fatigue. The presenters comments was that the people putting together the programs did not know what they were doing.:sad:

But perhaps they did.:mad:

[Capt Wally]

Very interesting 'Plovett' yr right knowledge of Fatigue is far from well known that coupled with fatigue isn't an exact science we have a lot of grey areas here.
What one pilot will feel or consider as fatigue could be totally dif to another pilot. I know we have it in place & at times we simply say no to a tasks due to fatigue, that can be from flying 6 or 8 sectors with most containing inst appr's single pilot at night.

I believe that the CAO48 is almost unworkable as in too complex and would be rarely used to the letter. Fatigue Risk Management is a good start to making sure pilots are fit for flight but it boils down to the individual pilot and the operator, both can & sometimes do abuse any system in place. You can put in place all the safety buffers you like but we are dealing with humans here, the machines are fine, WE are the unknown!:)


CW