CPL in Canada
 

Hi everyone. I'm planning to go to Canada to get my cCPL. Could someone give me an honest opinion on the quality of training and potential job opportunities? I'm considering four academies: Chinook and BC in British Columbia, and LR and Mountain View in Calgary. I'd also appreciate any feedback on the academies themselves.

Thanks ,

A

I'd always recommend Mountain View or LR from personal knowledge but Chinook is good as well. The training will be second to none.

Chinook ….fly the Bell 47 and 206 if you are able to.
Totally biased opinion.

Glad you mentioned it. What's the benefit of learning to fly a helicopter that isn't used for anything in industry?

Better learning experience. IMO . I am not advocating doing your entire course on 47 and 206 but in the initial stages you may like it.

Agreed, flying the 47 is a real pleasure. Insurance companies don't care, they just see hours. Nobody uses the Schweizer or the Cabri either.

Bear in mind that you will not only need a CPL but also a mountain course or longlining, preferably both. Or an IR if you're headed that way.

I very highly disagree that you need a mountain course unless you have a job offer post-school that requires it. Longlining could be done if you have extra hours to burn, but I wouldn't pay any more than required to get your CPL.

Any operator worth working for will give you the proper operational training. Don't get suckered in to a bunch of extra endorsements, ratings, etc. unless you're planning to use them.

The Forestry govern things in BC/Alberta and mountain time is one of their requirements. Some schools have a syllabus that gets them through the licence in shorter hours and lets them gain some longline time (Hi Rob!), so this would be one thing to ask when evaluating. I take your point about operators, but some also will let you sit as a hangar rat for years without any flying at all, and this is what the OP wants to avoid. In any busy company there are enough dead hours to give a lowtimer up to 400 hours a year in positioning, etc - I did a lot of stuff that could easily be done by one without affecting the job at all. My Northern Mountain "longline course" was "there's a helicopter, there's a longline, I'm sure you will enjoy it!" I'm hoping it's a lot different now.

The problem is that you can't tell until you get hired. You need to make yourself as employable as possible, and those little extras will help, while not being absolutely essential.

Change the word "will" to "may".

Why Canada?

why not??

It doesn't sound like they're Canadian. It's always quite useful to get a qualification you can actually use.

unless you have right to work in canada you are wasting your money

Quality of training is top notch. I trained with Rotorworks Inc in Whitecourt, Alberta. It's ran by three very experienced instructors, highly recommended. There is also three Helicopter Companies situated at the same airport that gets low time pilots going.

Regarding the job prospects you just need to get out there and chat with all the different operators. Most of them are getting new pilots started on the ground for a year, then transitioning them into a flying roll. I personally know two low time pilots who worked the ground for six months with a well established company in Alberta after their training. Both guys are now flying the Astar. I know a few other guys flying in BC and other parts of Canada on the 206 / Astar, they all got flying pretty quick. Just to add none of them paid for any additional training after completing the basic Commercial License!

Don't forget you can get an FAA licence on the back of the Canadian one with just a law exam.

"Just to add none of them paid for any additional training after completing the basic Commercial License!"

Noce to hear the old ways are going.......

It is exactly the same now still sink or swim. Good fun tho

You can train on them, though as you stated there isn't any being used commercially. BC Helicopters have a few G2s, and JoinAir in Chilliwack have a Schweizer 300 I believe!

Yeah that's what I meant, but they are great to train on. Better than a Robbie IMHO