Thanks, Strike - have you been studying which buttons to push and how? I'll try to do this safely...
Helicop has been a flop. It came about because a certain person with certain ideas in a position to do great harm didn't want to "waste money training people when I can hire experienced ones" - thus died the reserve pilot training programme where we put two pairs through the whole Chilliwack-to-Portage system each year. Thirteen years later, we still have two of those guys in my Squadron and they have more than paid back the public's investment in them. Another one subsequently went Reg F. The rest drifted away over the years following our restructure/re-equipment/re-location but every single one of them justified their training costs. Losing that programme was perhaps the worst single thing to happen to us post-1975, and reinstating it would be tremendous.
Helicop was supposed to replace that. We have not had enough applicants and some have had problems due to their lack of overall experience and/or instrument time. It was supposed to save money, which it did by cutting out Moose Jaw - but that should be cut out anyway for Tac Hel pilots.
We have none here anymore, although one guy did last (and contribute for) about a decade until he had to move back to Saskatchewan (spelled out in full for the practice). The only other one that I personally know and who is still around went Reg F several years ago too.
You are unlikely to get better info here than you can by contacting the nearest Squadron, volition, because too few have done it and probably not very recently.
Feel free to PM me, but don't even THINK about coming here until I'm finally done my refresher - I've been waiting too bloody long for that.
Helicop has been a flop. It came about because a certain person with certain ideas in a position to do great harm didn't want to "waste money training people when I can hire experienced ones" - thus died the reserve pilot training programme where we put two pairs through the whole Chilliwack-to-Portage system each year. Thirteen years later, we still have two of those guys in my Squadron and they have more than paid back the public's investment in them. Another one subsequently went Reg F. The rest drifted away over the years following our restructure/re-equipment/re-location but every single one of them justified their training costs. Losing that programme was perhaps the worst single thing to happen to us post-1975, and reinstating it would be tremendous.
Helicop was supposed to replace that. We have not had enough applicants and some have had problems due to their lack of overall experience and/or instrument time. It was supposed to save money, which it did by cutting out Moose Jaw - but that should be cut out anyway for Tac Hel pilots.
We have none here anymore, although one guy did last (and contribute for) about a decade until he had to move back to Saskatchewan (spelled out in full for the practice). The only other one that I personally know and who is still around went Reg F several years ago too.
You are unlikely to get better info here than you can by contacting the nearest Squadron, volition, because too few have done it and probably not very recently.
Feel free to PM me, but don't even THINK about coming here until I'm finally done my refresher - I've been waiting too bloody long for that.