Scudrunners

Reading the paper it seems that my old company is having financial problems. I hope they hang around for a while. I don't want to loose my travel benefits.

I can remember when I started there as a 748 captain. It was the go to, get'er done carrier in the North and Nordair was a joke. Why was that? We did what was needed to get the trips done and let down over the ocean to get in on Baffin while Nordair stuck to CAP minimums. Example - Broughton Island (Qikiqtaaluk) had minimums around 2600' and we used less than 500'. There was also numerous examples of poor business choices and resistance to change. One would think that failure to move freight because of poor equipment choices would hammer the point home but no they are still stuck in the combi mind set - fuck some people are so against change they would rather hold a gun to their head than get with the times. It's disappointing to see the decay but if history shows us anything First Air and even Canadian North will evaporate after being forced out by a "go getter" competitor and the cycle will start all over again.

Change takes hard work. Extra often uncompensated work.


A serious accident can be pretty hard to bounce back from for many reasons besides the obvious.

I was directly involved in that tragic event and yes it certainly had an impact. Having said all that being on the inside at the time and now looking in from the outside the whole culture of reaction to change, especially competition has been their failing point of their ideology.

They enjoyed many years of being the only game in town. I remember an incident just after I started. I told one of the managers that they needed to "lighten" up the 748's, telling him that I had come from a company who were able to carry almost a ton more and get rid of the hat racks. His reply, "what would the passengers do with their parkas. We also did medevacs with the hawkers for years. They refused to spend money on getting a proper aircraft and that disappeared. They got rid of their 703/704 ops and decided to sacrifice payloads and go combi in the present day. That meant they don't have the capacity to haul freight and get pissed when external help is forced on them by one of their major customers. They have pissed millions up against the wall in this world of combi aircraft. That has included a boeing 727-200 a one of and millions right up to the present day and the ATR - they could have had a fleet of pure freighters and pax a/c for that cash. They are in deep shit and most of that has been on the shoulders of management. 

Oh ya the Hercs What a fiasco along with the sorest point of all, the bonus system almost destroyed the company. 

Sorry to hear they're in trouble.


I think that companies need to find ways to pay managers based on how they have impacted company performance. Without a constant drive for improvement, others will find a way to do it better and you'll fall by the wayside.


The accident could continue to cost in every aspect of the operation as "safety measures" are implemented regardless of their effectiveness. Not saying that's the case here, as I'm an outside observer only, but that's what I was getting at with my hidden costs comment.