Northern Air Arusha Tanzania, bad news man

[titan2]

Wow, I am at a loss. I heard Northern Air in Arusha "retrenched" their last remaining real bush pilot and kept on some seriously inexperienced punks!? WTF!? I lived there for decades and for the past decade used them for my hunting trips. The quality of pilots remaining are very inexperienced and low class! Looks like my biz is going else where. My sources tell me it has become a s. african homeboy club. They even rewrote the company's rules to allow pilots with less than 2500 hours? I wont feel safe there again! I guess for any of you young guns out there looking for a job, unless your bud's with the kaburu's, dont bother to apply..........
Any one have a good charter I can use instead?:ugh:

[VarigMD11]

With experience comes better contract demands. Maybe thats why? Keeping costs down at the expense of experience and safety.

Happy landings

[Pro1966]

Got to say, no surprise, thats the way east African aviation is heading.

Through my brief experience of flying in Tanzania the training is also going in the same direction, if not there already! It was shocking at times.

Pro1966

[titan2]

How true you guys are. Sad to say that this is the way it is heading. Sacrifice safety and experience for the "homeboy" network and to save a buck perhaps.

Sad part is the guy they let go is an American as are most of us clients of the hunting safari biz. Its great to see a guy we can relate to. The best part of him too is that he is also born and raised there in TZ and Kenya! He is both a local and can relate to us clients. He spent his life flying there and knows the place and is cut for some no name newbie friends of management.

I knew him on several flights he did for myself, my friends and my family.

:confused:

[DHC6to8]

That doesn't surprise me one bit.... the guys from SA have it just as hard as anybody on the block with low time so it is understandable that an old boy's club has started up.... I experienced this once before in east Africa: we comprised of 1 Aussie, 1 Canadian, 1 American, 1 South African, 1 New Zealander and 1 Kenyan... we were all Captains and had locals riding shotgun in the right seat.... when the Aussie decided it was time to pack and go home, the bloke from SA offered to get a mate up from the Cape which was okay... everybody really got along and the bloke from SA was a wonder at the BBQ! the problems started when the new guy from SA showed up.... and then the Chief Pilot (CP) who was a white Ugandan started to get a lot of pressure from the two blokes from SA... they wanted to get their buddies in.. even if they didn't meet the hours requirements etc etc.... and then we started to feel the pressure when a group of them showed up to camp out with us all and scope the operation out... I mean nice guys and all, but you could see the desperation to get in and you could feel it too! The CP then brought the hammer down and cleaned house... the last bloke from SA had until the end of the month to clear out. The CP later told me that when he grew up on the family farm... his father used to have hired help in the house and on the land... and not one single worker came from the same tribe as another because he had made the experience that they begin to form bonds outside of the total unit and this has the tendancy to cause disruptions to the whole operations... including rebelious behaviour.... so he would keep the staus quo and have only one driver from each country... that way he kept things tidy and tight... and the pilot group tended to remain a close group... we could always recommend a mate to replace us when we left, but not to work at the same time... and he was damn right about the need to keep our minds concentrated on the job and not on wondering if we would have to pull knives out of our backs...
I am still in touch with the first guy from SA.... he is now a 777 Captain at EK and a very nice guy...and I do miss the other guy's BBQ's skills though! All in all, we all had a great time together, and the building of an old boy's club could happen with any group... it is just a natural tendancy of human behaviour! Give these new guys a chance, if they survive a year in the bush, then they are worthy of your charter!
fly safe
6to8

[Vialengai]

I am not here to discuss the merits or otherwise about the retrenchment of the recently departed American pilot, as I have already done that with him in person. What I don't see is how you can have a S. African Homeboys club with only one South African. The rest of their crew are one Dutch, one Mauritian and two Tanzanians. ...ooooh and by the way the one S A man has a full ATPL and a bucket load of experience. You may not agree with what has happened at Northern Air, and I don't, but they very still a very safe and reliable company with whom I would happily entrust the lives of my wife and unborn child any day!

[Jockey Straddler]

Just what has happened at Northern Air? You see , I was a very good friend of the former CP, The late Chris ( May God rest his soul in eternal piece)
Then it was an excellent company.But now..?????

[flyingmasai]

I used to fly in Tanzania, but same here in the Uk, They make 1000 hours piilot captain on the cj just to lower the salaries. To keep it sake they increase the limits on the sop to a ridiculous level. To sum up, nobody need skill pilots any more. That's what my CP made me understand.

[Jockey Straddler]

This thread is about Northern air..

Question is, What happened?

[titan2]

Hey Jockey, check out the initial thread. Retrenched a guy with 10 years experience for a couple guys new to the area with less than 2 years at the company. N/. Air used to be a dream job but now....this guys dream has beeen ruined for friends of management types.....

[Jockey Straddler]

I know Steve, the "retrenched" guy... one of late Chris's products... Why so? Cost cutting at expanse of people's lives?

[helldog]

You ask who else you can use. Go for Air Excel. If your really in need of an experienced pilot to make you feel safe, ask that the Chief Pilot fly you. I should imagine now he must have 20 000 hours plus bush flying in Tanzania, and as a bonus I believe he once worked for Northern.

[wildlife1]

A couple of facts about Northern Air that your sources(I would be scheptical of trusting your sources in the future if I were you, they dont make you look very good) forgot to tell you titan2:=

1. NA is the only charter company in Arusha that mandates a 2 crew operation in their SOP. Your "inexperienced punks" only sit right seat. There has never been a 2500 hour company rule.
2. NA is the only charter company that sends it's crew for regular simulator training. Seems like they take safety seriously to me!!
3. NA organised ,for not only their crew but all Arusha crew who could attend, CRM and DG training in 2009. Looks like they are interested in helping to improve the safety of the Arusha operation.
4. NA has certified Safety and QA officers. Seems like they do things correctly to me.
5. NA is owned by an American Company and my guess is that they endorsed the retrenchment of "the American". I guess your S.African or "Kaburu's" comment is just a fear of efficiency and good work ethic anyway.

And so on and so on...........

This is just what I have heard from the NA pilots themselves in Arusha. Nobody agrees with people losing their jobs, I hear that the CP did not agree with this retrenchment either. If you want to know whats going on their why dont you ask him.

One last point. I read from your thread that you have a hunting company. I bet you 90% of the pilots in NA can fire a rifle, however,none of them will profess to knowing anything about hunting. Likewise, sitting in the back of an aeroplane does not give anyone insight into what it takes to be a professional pilot. My point, if hunting is your expertise then stick to hunting. If aviation is your expertise then stick to aviation.

[Pro1966]

I would like to add though.

From what I heard on the ground and through some of my own research while in Tanzania, Northern Air is really the one operator that came out tops and everyone said "thats the one to go for". For me at the time (Aug/Oct 09), pilots had been laid off?

Pro1966

[wildlife1]

Keep in mind that no CP,honestly, will support crew retrenchment because it negatively effects safety. Look back in history and you will inevitably find financial departments responsible for retrenchments. In my humble opinion, no financial department should be involved in operational decisions. Wishful thinking, I know:{

In my limited experience you cannot reduce aviation direct operating expenses, long term, by cutting crew. You cover direct operating cost by increasing revenue, which means more flying. In the long run more flying results in needing more crew, therefore cutting crew is counter productive.

I may be wrong:confused:

[Jockey Straddler]

May be I have been out of East Africa far too long...excuse me.

But do I detect "hate campaign" here?:confused:

It happens though. It is natural for dissatisfied people. But does it work? :ugh:

[Deon]

More bad news..Northern Air is no more. COVID-19 sealed it's fate!

[MikeSierraKilo]

Is this for real? Their website is unavailable.