A rude, grouchy Canadian???

[YYCADM]

Yup, that’d be me I guess. Sorry (since it’s expected from us Canucks)
Name’s Wayne, from western Canada (Calgary, Alberta). Retired from 40 years in the airplane business about a decade ago. Went from big commercial flying to small commercial flying, unmanned aircraft, fixed wing and multi-rotor, mostly fire-line mapping on wildfires with IR

Lifetime shooter, hunter, Collecter of things that go bang & sharp stuff. Married, 3 grown kids, four granddaughters & one little dog. I love tech, love firearms and the application of the former to the latter. Looking forward to getting to know some of you, learning, maybe showing some new things too

 

[Stevo3556]

Welcome Wayne.

I thought I already met the token rude Canadian.. A are there two??

I have a bunch of Canadian friends I met at Sun N Fun many years ago. Sometimes we go just to camp together and visit. Hope to see them at OSH this year.

Also a flyer. Commercial Helo and MEL. I'm in the hangar reloading as I type.

I really enjoy this site and have learned a lot.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Steve

 

[101stinfantry]

Welcome, the only thing I know about aviation is exiting while still flying. That, and it kept me from walking (some of the time anyway).

 

[YYCADM]

Welcome Wayne.

I thought I already met the token rude Canadian.. A are there two??

I have a bunch of Canadian friends I met at Sun N Fun many years ago. Sometimes we go just to camp together and visit. Hope to see them at OSH this year.

Also a flyer. Commercial Helo and MEL. I'm in the hangar reloading as I type.

I really enjoy this site and have learned a lot.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Steve

Steve,
There is now! Remember the grouchy old SOB when you were a kid, yelling at you to get off his G*ddamn lawn? We’re genetically identical....i’m Pretty sure, anyway.
What are you flying today?

 

[Stevo3556]

I am becoming THAT guy.... I'll be the U.S. representative..

Had some King Air and small jet jobs. Flew a 76C++ a few times. Started out flying helos and still prefer them.
Mainly fly my C55 Baron.

Were you flying for an airline? Whatcha fly'n now??

 

[YYCADM]

I’m only flying commercial UAVks now. Started my career in ATC for a few years, went airline (DC-9, B737, A320) for a few years, got a management gig in an international airport ‘s airport authority, retired as the general manager in 2010. Consulting and commercial UAV Pilot to keep me out of my wife’s hair ever since

 

[Stevo3556]

Great career! Very exciting and challenging. Had I known then what I know know, I would have taken a different career path.

I remember you now! You are the grumpy guy I met, ATC!!! Actually I have flown out of the US several times but never to Canada. I do plan to soon. Will visit my flying Canadian friends that I met at Sun N Fun.

Do you do any GA flying?

 

[YYCADM]

Haha! Could be! It was a good run...40 years start to finish. No flying anymore for me; eyes were getting bad, half deaf from jet engines, then cancer in 2006 sealed the deal. Don’t need a flight medical for remote flying, and mapping active fires in the dark from above the burn on a mountaintop via FLIR has just as much pucker factor as a 25kt crosswind landing in a DC-9

 

[Stevo3556]

Outstanding! Bet you have some great stories! Sorry to hear about the cancer. Sounds like you are doing well.

I can mentally remove myself from the aircraft when it is a sim or a UAV. I worked for Flight Safety for a short time and had no issues with flying under bridges and through hangars ect. I had a couple guys waiting on their check ride from the FAA and their instructor asked me to join them for a flight. He had me fly a Embraer through a hangar at KIAH. My co pilot was reading the RA and he was getting very nervous at 10'... He was a real pilot and had never flown anything that required "flying." He was a systems manager. Started out in jets. I started out in helos.

Do you have any interest in going to OSH this year?

 

[YYCADM]

Yeah, one or two good tales through the years. I started out when you had to actually fly the plane too, not be an IT expert.
I’ve actually enjoyed working with UAV’s. It’s amazing how quickly the industry and the level of sophistication has developed. They’re highly complex aircraft, and some of the applications for them really demand a high skill level. It keeps you on your toes mentally

 

[Stevo3556]

Yes I can see that, wasn't try to diminish the skills to fly a UAV. I can also see the stress when you are responsible for a very expensive aircraft vs. a very expensive sim with a reset button!

I spent a lot of time using a FLIR in a helo, that has a learning curve as well and is great fun. I was amazed how it could be used and what you could find with one with a little practice.

I see you have some Scarebus time. One of my best friends went to France, learned the program, brought it and a plane back to the US for Continental and helped start the program here. I like the joke about the two pilots in the Scarebus and one says to the other, " So what's it doing now?"

 

[YYCADM]

No, no....I didn’t take it that way....no one was more surprised than I was with UAV’s. Funny gear; ANYONE can fly them...adequately. To go from adequate to “competent” is a leap, and another leap to “good”. I donkt stress to much about turning one into a lawn dart...that’s what insurance is for. i’d Done some work with FLIR and decided a couple years ago to get training, so I’m now level one certified thermographer. The big problem is still the price of admission with that stuff. High end gear is freaking amazing, but it spoils you for the cheaper stuff.
Yeah, the Airbus was...”interesting “. It was tougher for guys with time on older aircraft like me. It’s evolved into a great system though

 

[Stevo3556]

We started out with a cheaper FLIR. It took a long time to cool down and the refrigeration unit went out a few times. Old technology. We finally got a few of the FLIR Systems FLIRs and they were a huge step up.

I found a pistol thrown out of a car with the FLIR unit. That was probably the best "find I made. Lots of bad guys and sometimes good guys that were lost. One hiding in a metal building on a cool night, he was leaning on the metal. He was hot from running and I could see most of the outline of a person on the building. Lots of stories from others as well. It was a fun tool.

What are you doing with the FLIR? Looking for forest fires?

 

[YYCADM]

I was flying an RTK system, and the company is a wildfire suppression outfit. They would be working the fire, setting deluge lines, pumps etc. That were heli transportable. They were flying me, my observer and gear onto the mountain above the fire line at sunset. I’d then fly & map the fireline, run the data and generate a 3D model of the fireline, slope, fuel loads, types of fuel, terrain hazards etc. Using FLIR, LIDAR, and visible light systems each night. By morning when we’d pick up, we could show the command group exactly what it had done in terms of movement over the previous day.
It’s a very new application, and the few outfits doing it are feeling their way around, communicating with each other a lot, to come up with the best approach to handle different fires. We passed info to the CalFire people last summer, and they did the same back, so if someone found something that really worked well, or something that didn’t, we weren’t re-inventing the wheel.
Everyone learned a lot, changed processes a lot, did a bunch of outside the box stuff, and hopefully next years fire season we’ll all have better results

 

[Stevo3556]

Outstanding. Great use of technology to fight fires.

I'm glad everyone is sharing informations and helping each other. Sounds like a great job.