Why I left CH#

[deuce bigalow]

Ah what the heck......lets go for it. Rumours inuendo scanal and whatever. If you haven''t got anything nice to say...sit next to me. No names though.
I was working for International on the 6/6 rotation in the fall of 96 when I was informed
that as I had accumulated over 300 negative days off I would be expected to do double tours for awhile. They carried this days off owed number through a six month layoff believe or not. Also I was informed that the tours were now going to be 6/4. So I quit and then asked the ops manager of the day how many days off I owed him now. He didn''t appreciate my sense of humour I think. Having said all that for the most part they were OK. Gave me an IFR rating and sent me all over the world for some great adventures. But I just didn,t want to do double tours for the rest of my life.

 

[412driver]

i was hired on 6/6 rotation as well. 1st tour was 9 weeks, then 8 then 7 ect ect until the last which was 10 weeks!! oh sure, they said i could say no BUT they had no one to replace me blah blah blah......

so i just moved on. no hard feelings........

 

[MagSeal]

essentially I left because my base was closed. No equivalent bases were available, even one of them offered to me was miraculously already taken only 24 hours later by an engineer who didn't even know he had become the new base engineer. Now, I could have taken a nice northern base, and move my family into some decrepit town and start a new life, or I could re-enter the shark tank in edmonton known as the pool, but I chose to move on.
What led up to the closure is what really steamed me. There was no noticeable marketing support except for a few apprearances by [edited] as he was passing thru to another base to blow away another contract that the guys there worked hard to get. My whole tenure at this base saw numerous base managers come and go, so obviously the number of hours flown where going to be understandably lower than normal. At one point I was without a dedicated base manager for 4 months solid. When I did have a base manager, you could rarely find him at my base because another much busier base needed him, or the seismic was hopping and that left me all alone. even calls for pool pilots fell on deaf ears as there were none available either. Essentially they screwed my base revenue by not allowing the hours that could be flown get flown. Funny how after the base closed the competition added aircraft to their fleets to take up the excess. The hours were there, the marketing wizards didn't care.
I also hated the fact that the marketing kings "ol' stomping grounds" base was allowed to stay open when the base did even less hours than my base.
I think the marketing guys had their eyes set on mega bucks with that seismic push in Inuvik that seemed to never materialise. They needed crews and they needed aircraft, what better way to get them than to close some of the less productive bases and force them to go north.
I regret having to leave the crews I worked with from both the maintenance and operations end, and the pilots were some of the best in the industry, but I didn't fit in the plans they had for me, and it was time to go.

 

[407 Driver]

I had my response written, but my Lawyer requested it not me posted

Basically, it came down to...........

-No support for BC or BC bases.****
-Manditory Uniforms, those Canadian Tire polyester specials.
-That incredibly stupid but manditory "U of A" business course that BM's were threatened with.
-Old tired high-time equipment.
-Terrible treatment of crew.



**** BC Bases closed and who has the work and/or ex-employees now..

Campbell River - Long Beach and WestCoast
Pt MacNeill - WestCoast
Vancouver -Talon and Vancouver
Cranbrook - Bighorn
Fernie - Bighorn
Nelson -Kokanee
Revelstoke - Kokanee
Williams Lk -Arduini
Chetwynd -
Prince George - VIH
Sandspit - VIH
Dawson Creek -
Invermere - Bighorn
Salmon Arm - Kokanee