Scudrunners

Quickest way to get a US Pilots licence ?

Seeing lots of jobs posted down south paying huge coin in real money (greenbacks)! and some will commute you from Canada and take care of the visa.

I’ve got to change the oil in my plane so this got me seriously contemplating shopping the resume around down south.

But first I gotta have an FAA licence to get the job.

Being at ATPL big bars what the quickest way to get my FAA ticket ?

You want a self-standing FAA pilot certificate.

Since you are Canadian you can use the IPL between TC and the FAA.

You want to do an FAA class 1 medical and get the authorization from OKC which is just a verification letter.

Then there is the 20 minute FAA reg differences exam whuch I just memorized and got 90%. Wrote it in Montreal.

After that it was just a simple matter of filling out a form and visiting a FSDO in person with your logbooks but after 2015 you have to additionally do the course just like any American candidate. No big deal, just a few bucks.

https://atpflightschool.com/atp/ctp/

That gets you a paper FAA ATPL with comm-sel and atp-mel with instrument privileges. OKC mails out the plastic card.

Type ratings transfer both ways.

One gotcha: after you get the authorization letter do not change your Canadian license with say a float rating or an instructor rating renewal because then you need to get a new letter from OKC.

PS try to live in a state with no income tax.

If you like the heat and a red state, FL or TX.

If you like rain all the time and a blue state, live in the south of Washington state and pay no state income tax and dip south across the border to Oregon to shop - no state sales tax.

Health care is fast and superb. Book a specialist directly and no waiting. People say it’s expensive but that’s not my experience. I pay far more for my life insurance than for health insurance for my wife and I. 20x base, admittedly.

One of my dogs was sick and my wife got an MRI that day with an hour’s wait. Didn’t cost much. I think my dachshund has better health care than Canadians do, which makes me really sad.

Seven years in America this fall. It’s home now.

PS good timing. An instructor at my home airport just got right seat with Southwest. An old aerobatic pilot I know just got a right seat flying freight on a 767. Another son of a friend is flying 747 at Atlas.

If I was 30 with an ATP I would fly freight. Big bucks, no complaints from the boxes about the bumps but that’s just me. Skip Stewart has flown for Fedex for decades and no complaints. He does this for fun

You’re looking too, eh?

Lots of conflicting info around going to the US to fly but a fairly credible source told me that airline pilots now qualify for a National Interest Waiver on an EB-2 visa. If true that would significantly streamline the whole process and the visa itself looks to be more “American lite” than “Foreigner here with our grudging temporary permission.”

I really need to call the consulate and untangle this.

Do your research on how to obtain visa’s.

We’re hiring Aussies on whatever visa’s they get from their contribution to the war effort.

Not really sure about you maple-bacon, poutine eating folks up north.

I’ll say this: we’re hiring anyone with a pulse. United is trying to put us out of business by hiring all our pilots. It’s almost working.
Frontier, Sun country and maybe another non-regional airline is doing ATP-CTP courses for new hires. Otherwise all the regionals do it.

The hurdles is obtaining a Visa. The next is making it past me, I guess if you want to fly an Airbus.

Aussie’s are everywhere here. I think they have an E-3 work visa which looks a lot like a NAFTA TN.

Nark wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:18 pm

We’re hiring Aussies on whatever visa’s they get from their contribution to the war effort.

Not really sure about you maple-bacon, poutine eating folks up north.

It appears to have been historically tough for Canadian pilots to cross the border for some reason. With the ease the Aussies seem to do it with I almost suspect there’s some handshake deal in place to prevent us from trying.

Nark wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 04, 2022 1:18 pm

I’ll say this: we’re hiring anyone with a pulse.

How do you US pilots feel about foreigners coming to work? Seems like all the recent gains south of us were driven by scarcity and dopes with visas will jeopardize that.

I’m used to managers being cruel assholes but I don’t sit beside them for hours every day. I’d hate to sit beside a line pilot who hated my guts each and every day forever.

The Aussie deal stems from President Bush during the Iraq invasion. They sent their troops as a partner force, in kind he / executive branch made a new visa program for Aussie’s. (Hence my “war effort” comment).

Right now we are also hiring Aussies as a way to stem the demand for hiring. We are in a position where we can’t hire enough US pilots, therefor starting to look at the E3’s etc… as line pilots there’s no animosity to the Bruce’s, but there is towards management. Pay is comparably, and we won’t be in such a pinch for pilots/labor. We’ve hired about 800 this year alone; 400+ have left to the legacies. That hurts in many different areas. Which is also bargaining power for us.

The regionals aren’t that far behind us in terms of $/hour. That’s only part of the pay package. We’re currently in negotiations, and I expect a significant gain shortly. Well, I’m hoping for one at least.

For me I'm looking at Netjets and a few other Corporate gigs that will commute me from YYC.
The pay on the forums and FB pages is nuts, last one that blew me away was a Lear 60 skipper for 234K USD.
Netjets 3 year skippers north of 300K USD

I would be foolish to not consider my options especially the way Canada is heading towards complete ruin.

If you were under 25 and single I think I could adopt you?

I already have 4 kids, what’s one more?