Sea King Pilots

[AirCon]

Hi folks!

Just wondering about the Sea King pilots/crew. Are you assigned to a certain ship eg HMCS Toronto and are part of that ship's company or are you a separate Sqn and rotated often from ships to stone frigates?...The reason I ask is I've never really heard about where the new pilots/crews train....how they're selected etc. If you join the CF to be a pilot, you hear that you could fly jet, multi or helo....so, jet = airforce, multi = airforce, helo = army (griff).....but you never hear anything about "naval" aviation as small as it is I guess?

Cheers

A

 

[ASL]

hmmm, A , nobody replied here so I'll make a go at it. Student pilots in the CF are asked for their preference, ie Jets, transport or helos but bottom line the school's management will decide based on operational requirements, which means many who do not want helos get it. historically more pilots asked for fixed-wing slots than there are available. Usually the TOP student get his/her first choice but this may not be so so true anymore. All who ask for helos get them, but not necessarily the type they want, so yes, if you ask for Griffon, you may end-up Sea Kings.

Now the Sea King OTU is in Shearwater, near Halifax. Real nice place to live actually, that is if you're actually in town... Sea King pilots spend a lot of time at sea these days, playing cards in the wardroom (little officer's club on a ship) because the old bird is sick in the hangar...New grads from Portage can expect yet another OJT between Jet Rangers and Sea King OTU. I was lucky back in my time, went straight thru the system like knife in butter, only a 6 month OJT in the Jaw between BOTC and PFT, and then no more OJT. Most student CF pilots today can expect multiple OJT's between courses and anywhere from 3 to 5 years (5 being the norm...) before becoming operational. I went from BOTC to line flying in 2 and a half years bewteen Oct 81 and April 84. A buddy of mine had NO OJT at all and went from BOTC to Auroras in less than 2 years - impossible today.

Once you are finally trained and ready for a Sea King Squadron, you will either stay in Shearwater or go to the west Coast, and you will likely be affected to what is called a HELAIRDET, Helicopter Air Detachment, as a co-jo. The Helairdet is assigned to a ship's company, and when the ship sails, usually they take the helo and you go as well. Ship's officers are nicknamed "fishheads" and Helairdet pilots and navs are called "zoomies". once on the ship, remember the golden rule and post it on your cabin door : Pilots need 8 hours of sleep a day- what they get at night is bonus. Fish-heads HATE it!

Funny (read sad) thing now, officers wait for so long nowadays that some have become Captains (in rank)from Lieutenants just from OJT and courses! A big downer is that some students wait 3 years to go to Moose Jaw and then flunk, which leaves them with the sucky choice of either staying in the CF in a trade they wanted nothing to do with in the first place, or go back to ciivy street and just wasted 3 or 4 years doing photocopies on OJT... so they have no choice and stay to become navigators, army officers or fishheads... and then they resent pilots even more.

Anyway, once on a Helairdet you can expect to be part of a dedicated crew for a while and then go at sea on her Majesty's Orders... Great if you're single... sucks otherwise if you have loved ones to leave behind.

Advice : stay single until your Sea King days are over.

 

[donnybrook]

ASL,

Everything still sounds right concerning the training system except no one is getting above 2Lt until after wings (which equals 4-5 years as an OCdt/2Lt, although the pay is quite a bit better nowadays). The people getting in right now are following a timeline somewhat like yours so things are looking up!

AirCon,

All CF pilots are "Airforce", but are, for the lack of better wording, "on loan" to the respective services.

 

[Vortex Ring]

You can expect to be assigned to a Helairdet once you are completely checked out at your squadron. You will however be posted to your squadron before you take your Sea King course so you will already know if you are left or right coast.

As for Dets, you could spend three years with one Det or just one sea deployment, just depends on where bodies are needed to cover the demands placed on the squadron.

Currently there an operational pause in the system for us to regroup and train folks a bit so there are not as many ships deployed as other times but this varies by the demands on us placed by commitments Canada makes overseas.

You time at sea in a year can be as little a six weeks or as high as six months. There is no straight cookie cutter answer. One thing for sure though it will be the best hands and feet flying you'll ever do. As for the old girls they are hanging in there but the systems are old and sometimes the machine breaks. I personally can't complain, spent 7 and half months at sea on Operation Apollo and our machine flew 650 hours during our deployment, rarely breaking down for more than a day or two.

Flying off frigates was just really cool and I loved it. Now I'm trying to keep my little jet box from going outside of the boundary of Grabber Green. Anyone who's ever been or will come to Portage will know what I mean. Good luck to you and maybe I'll see you here at BHS.