So you want to be a bush pilot. I think most pilots would agree that in order to be a true bush pilot you also have to be a floatplane pilot. I know a few detractors in Kenya or Botswana might argue different, but there is no comparison to the freedom of floatplane flying to the constricts of bush strips no matter how remote they are. There is something wild and free about landing into an area that has never been landed on before, and departing again without so much as leaving a tire track or a ripple. The floatplane comes and goes like a ghost.
     To be a bush pilot then your goal first would be to become a Commercial floatplane pilot. Experienced commercial floatplane pilots, however, don’t just come from flying schools like fingerlings out of the hatchery, all wet and ready to swim. Let me explain how the system works in Canada.

Experienced floatplane pilots don't just come from flying schools like fingerlings out of the hatchery, all wet and ready to swim.

     All pilots, any pilots at all, start off the same way. A right-minded wholesome individual makes up their mind they want to fly. Most of them will want to eventually fly the glamorous life of an airline captain working for some major airline. These idealists will want to fly “big iron”, like 747s or A340s. Other individuals just want to fly. To “reach up and touch the sky,” or some other similar poetic notion. These fatalists will often want to become bush pilots and dream of flying a Norseman or a Beaver for a living. But, all sky pilots start off the same way. They have to go to a flight school and get their private pilot licence.
     There are variations of this theme in that an individual may get their “recreational” licence first, but eventually he will have to complete the private licence in order to continue up to a commercial pilot licence. The recreational licence is not a short cut, but it does allow a pilot to start building pilot-in-command (PIC) time sooner if he has access to an aircraft. If the pilot has to pay for the use of an aircraft then the money would be better spent toward finishing the private licence first.
     I often get asked these questions. “How do I become a bush pilot and what school do I go to?” To become either a bush pilot or an airline pilot starts off along the same route. Flying school to private pilot licence, and then start building time. Building time means that, once you have a licence to fly, you can rent, hire, borrow, buy, or beg an aircraft, any old aircraft, and get airborne. All the hours that you fly gets recorded into your lifetime personal logbook that keeps track of who you are in the flying world.
     It really does not matter where you fly, when you are building time but that you are flying. I would not recommend that you fly around the airport in circles for the next 100 hours, but rather I would recommend that you fly somewhere. Get an aircraft for a month and fly across the continent. Build your time and get a hell of an adventure out of it.
     The idea of “building time” is broken down into three parts. One, to log enough flying hours to qualify for the minimum hours needed to start your commercial pilot licence training; two, to log enough hours, once you get your commercial, to qualify to get a job; and finally three, to log enough hours, once you have a job, to be able to get a good job. Although any airplane will do, a tail dragger is considered to be a bush plane, so that time might prove to be valuable. Building time in a floatplane, however, would help you eventually get a better floatplane job quicker, because your logbook would look better than a similar candidate with no floatplane time, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

"I get paid for what I do and that means I am a commercial pilot."

     The reason you need your commercial licence is to get a job in order to get paid. That’s what “commercial” means. It means that you have the minimum qualifications required by the “people” i.e., government, to put your services up for hire or reward. Period. It does not mean that you can fly for an airline, and it does not mean that you cannot fly for an airline. It only means that you can get paid for flying. After being a bush pilot for 25 years, I often get asked, “have you ever wanted to be a commercial pilot and fly for an airline?” My answer is that, “I get paid for what I do and that means I am a commercial pilot.”
     At the point of choosing a commercial flying school, the pilot can make some career choices in that there are schools that specialize in training pilots for airlines and schools that specialize in training pilots for bush flying. But, there is no necessity to make any choice. It does not matter what type of school you go to, as the end result is much the same. The pilot will come out with a commercial licence.
     You can go to a flying school that specializes in training airline captains for American Airlines and you could still go out and become a bush pilot, and vice versa. What counts is what you do after you get your commercial, and those are the add-ons that make getting a burger at McDonalds expensive. The burger is cheap at maybe 99c, but add the mega-coke, extra large fries, and chocolate sundae and you walk out broke and wondering what happened to your allowance.
     What the training schools that specialize in airlines do is add in the fries and mega-coke, and you end up in debt for the rest of your life, unless of course a major airline does actually hire you. What the bush flying schools do is add on a floatplane rating and maybe some ski plane time. But, either way you can do this all without the curriculum. You can go to any school and get your commercial and then go anywhere else to get your ratings. So the question is “If I want to become a bush pilot what do I need?”
     All you really need is a commercial and a floatplane rating and a car. The car is to drive all over hell and rural Canada looking for your first floatplane job. The rest can wait until the day you can afford it or need it. Definitely a bush pilot needs the floatplane rating, but the rest is luxury items. If you have the extra money and time here is my order of preference for getting those extras put on your bare licence.

The idea of getting multi-time is to be able to eventually fly an ultra cool Beech 18 on floats, or a totally awesome Twin Otter floatplane. Ok, maybe you are dreaming now.

     I believe to get your commercial you must have a night endorsement? Either way you should start building your nighttime as soon as possible. You will eventually need 100 hours to qualify for an ATPL. And if you wait until the last moment you will have to spend night after night flying between airports at very odd times to make up those needed hours. After 25 years of bush flying, I have 102 hours of night flying and most of those were logged flying between St. Andrews, Gimli, Lac du Bonnet, Red Lake, Kenora, and Winnipeg to end up back in St. Andrews at 3am after running my race circuit. I did that for a week until the controllers starting calling me “night hawk.” Then the last night I did the whole circuit backwards just to mess up the heads of the controllers who kept directing me in their sleep.
     Secondly, I would say get your multi-engine rating. You do not have to do this along with the IFR. That is not necessary. Just get your multi in case the Chief Pilot breaks his leg and he needs someone to quickly fill in on the bag run with the Navajo. The idea of getting multi-time is to be able to eventually fly an ultra cool Beech 18 on floats, or a totally awesome Twin Otter floatplane. Ok, maybe you are dreaming now, but when the time comes and you will have built up some multi-time. Get your multi-time anyway you can, except the C337 in-line, but don’t make flying a multi your priority. Building up your PIC is the priority, and getting multi secondary. Look at the multi-time as insurance in case the day comes that you might have to fly for a living and pay for a mortgage.
     That’s it. Now you have your commercial licence and some nighttime and a multi-engine rating tucked under your belt for future considerations, you can go out and get a floatplane job. No one in his or her right mind goes out to get a ski-flying job. Either you get a floatplane job and fill in the winter flying skis until summer comes again, or you get the ski plane job because the boss promised you the floatplane version after breakup. The third reason for flying skis is so that if somewhere down the proverbial airways someone crazy offers you a job flying a Twin Otter in the Arctic you will at least know what all that white stuff is.

Once a pilot gets their commercial licence, he or she will go on to build up flying hours by working as a floatplane pilot during the summers in the lake regions.

      Once a pilot gets their commercial licence, he or she will go on to build up flying hours by working as a floatplane pilot during the summers in the lake regions. The work is often for sport fishing resorts, but they may also work for commercial operators flying supplies into the northern communities. Canada has hundreds of thousands of lakes, and hundreds of small time fly-in fishing camps and floatplane air services. The younger less experienced individuals will usually spend the first summer working as a "dock hand," catching incoming floatplanes, fueling, loading, washing, and doing minor maintenance for all the company floatplanes. If they get to fly at all, it will be to fly non-revenue flights in the smallest and least expensive aircraft the company owns. One example is to fly bait, ice, beer, and other supplies to the fly-out camps.
     Most small airlines in Canada will own a two-seater Piper Cub (or if you are really lucky a SuperCub) to fly odd jobs around the local area and to support the operation. These aircraft are not worth more than a 2 figure multiple of a thousand dollar, and can safely be used for the junior floatplane pilots to learn on. I say learn on, because any licence or rating is basically a licence to learn. In other words, if the pilot has shown his worth as a Dudley-do-right he enters a sort of apprenticeship, where he can learn from the older more experienced pilots. The director of civil aviation in Nigeria told me that he learned more practical knowledge in the coffee shop listening to the older pilots than what he learned from his instructor. Later these apprentices practice on aircraft and non-revenue flights that are at little risk to the company. The idea that any pilot, no matter how many hours he has on wheels, could be allowed to learn to fly floats on a half million dollar plus aircraft is (almost) unheard of.

What about those of us who really wanted to fly and see the world from above? That was my reason for becoming a bush pilot. What was your reason?

       Lets pause here for a minute to discuss the term “building hours.” Like I defined earlier, building time is a proactive attempt to better your future. But, what ever happened to the philosophy of c'est-la-vie, or let’s live for the moment. What is stopping low time pilots from having as much fun as high time pilots? Why the obsession to build time? I will answer this question more thoroughly later, but off the top of my head, I would say that it must be a mindset instilled into the students by disgruntled flight instructors.
       Flight instructors are always building time to get to the airlines. That is their goal. And, yes there are many pilots who use the bush-flying route to build time to get to the airlines. But, what about those of us who really wanted to fly and see the world from above? That was my reason for becoming a bush pilot. What was your reason?

Continue with Part Two Enter Here

Last modified on March 05, 2006 .
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