Episode 59: The Seeker: Fixed Wing Search and Rescue and flying the CC-115 Buffalo and CC-130H Hercules Part 2 - Dan Conway

What did it take to fly Search and Rescue in the venerable (but aging) CC-115 Buffalo? What does it feel like to return to 3CFFTS as a seasoned pilot, ready to learn about the world of instructing? What's it like to be taught by your former students as you learn to fly the CC-130H Hercules? Today we sit down for part 2 of our interview with Major Dan Conway, a fixed-wing SAR pilot with over 4000 hours of experience. We'll talk about all these topics as well as the future of fixed-wing SAR with the CC-295 Kingfisher.

Episode Transcript

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Intro/outro (00:30):
Fuel and ignition switches. On. RPM switches. Set.
PD switches.
Normal. Doors and hatches.Closed. Lay down. Stroblade.
On. Research check-in. Completewith your left. Engineer. Start
number two.
Starting to. Wing three one zeroten, pilot project podcast,

(00:50):
clear takeoff runway three oneleft.

Bryan (00:58):
Alright. We're ready for departure here at the pilot
project podcast, the best sourcefor stories and advice from RCAF
and Mission Aviation Pilotsbrought to you by Sky's
Magazine. I'm your host, BrianMorrison. With me once again
today is my good friend, majorDan Conway, a SAR pilot and
deputy commanding officer offour thirteen Transport and
Rescue Squadron in Greenwood,Nova Scotia. Listeners may
remember Dan from way back inepisode five on the phase three

(01:19):
multi engine course.
Dan, welcome back to the show.

Dan (01:22):
Thanks for having me.

Bryan (01:23):
So listeners continue into part one of our chat to
hear about Dan's early careerand time in flight training.
Today for part two of our chat,we are going to talk about his
time in the operational SARworld. We're also going to talk
a little bit about the new fixedwing SAR aircraft, the c two
nine five Kingfisher. So let'sdive into your operational
flying starting with your timeat four four two Squadron on the

(01:43):
CC one fifteen Buffalo. Afterphase three, you were posted to
four four two Transport andRescue Squadron in Comox BC to
fly the CC one fifteen Buffaloaffectionately known as the
BUFF.
What was it like to arrive in anoperational squadron as a newly
winged captain?

Dan (01:58):
It was pretty overwhelming at The statement where I was I
was told, you know, you're gonnahave to know 80 things but we're
only gonna teach you 20. Thatwas that was very true and
applicable. I spent some time inops at and that really got me
integrated with the unit and gotme prepared for my OTU.

Bryan (02:20):
So a bit intimidating though as you showed up.

Dan (02:23):
Yeah. Absolutely.

Bryan (02:25):
And that's kind of I assume that's fairly normal
amongst most fleets. Likethere's just so much to know and
they can only teach you so muchand you're gonna pick up a large
portion of it throughexperience. Right?

Dan (02:37):
Yep. Absolutely.

Bryan (02:39):
Yeah. How long did you have to wait before you went on
your operational training unitor OTU course?

Dan (02:45):
At April, it was done in house as an OTF, like an
operational training flight.

Bryan (02:50):
Okay.

Dan (02:51):
And it was only about six weeks. Six weeks wait?

Bryan (02:54):
Yeah. Okay. And how long was the OTU and can you briefly
describe what it consisted of?

Dan (02:59):
It was about three and a half months and it was done in
two phases. So we did the theground school and then the
flying for just basic handlingof the aircraft and becoming,
you know, proficient with thebuffalo, which was very unique
how we flew it, the short fieldaspects. It was kind of like a a
big cardboard box with lots ofpower and big wings. Mhmm. And

(03:22):
then the half was the actualsearch and rescue portion of it.
And it was yeah. We we hadreally good serviceability and
it was pretty seamless.

Bryan (03:32):
That's awesome. The serviceability piece especially
kind of surprises me because I'dalways heard that the buff was
very maintenance heavy.

Dan (03:38):
Yeah. It definitely set my expect expectations really high.
And then when I left the OTF andgot put on the schedule, they
came back to reality. So my yearafter the OTF, I only got about
a hundred hours and it was verylow and it was really hard to

(03:58):
maintain currency, let aloneproficiency.

Bryan (04:01):
Right. And then I guess for listeners who are maybe not
used to hearing those terms,currency being basically like
the legal minimum you can canmeet to maintain your flying
category whereas proficiencymeans like you're actually good
at your job.

Dan (04:17):
Yeah. Exactly. So all of the search and rescue patterns
for an FO, we had to do themminimum twice a year, and then
you have to do a takeoff andlanding approach every 30 days.
And that's pretty consistentstill to this day with with most
fleets. Mhmm.
And then as you upgrade to AC,all of the operational things
become yearly for the most part.That's not enough to make you

(04:39):
actually good at it. No. It'senough just so that you're not
lost when you're being tasked todo it. Yeah.
But you need you need to dothings especially at the
beginning of your career, quiteoften in order to be comfortable
and and proficient.

Bryan (04:53):
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. So by that time, the BUF was
already a classic aircraft,we'll call it. Can you describe
what it was like flying the BUFand what unique capabilities it
had for SAR?

Dan (05:05):
Flying the BUF was like flying something completely
analog. It's the most connectedI've ever felt to an aircraft.
So you turned it and it turned.And it was super super reactive
to everything that you did withit. And it was really easy to

(05:25):
fly.
It was difficult to flyaccurately. But you could fly
really slow, which is anadvantage in search and rescue
and especially in the mountains.You can buy yourself time to
turn around or do assess weatheror to assess, you know, am I in
the right valley? And find theHerk in the in the mountains is
a lot different than that. Youcan't you can't slow down the

(05:47):
same way.
But it was a very, like, pureflying experience. You you were
connected with that aircraft.And some of the coolest things
that we did in the plane werethe short field landings and
short field takeoffs. So I did acouple landings at a place
called Maple Lake on basically adriving range there, which is

(06:09):
which is pretty cool. WhiteSaddle Ranch is technically a
heliport.
We landed in there. Wow. Youknow, it it had a it had a
strip, but it was unregistered.But just a very cool aircraft,
But because it was so old atthat at that point, we struggled
with maintenance. And asairplanes get older, they they

(06:33):
fail more.
Right? Mhmm. So we definitelythe biggest struggle was just
keeping the plane serviceable.

Bryan (06:39):
Yeah. The buff also had Was the throttle not up top?

Dan (06:44):
Yeah. It was above your head. My flight on the OTU, I
remember my instructor was like,watch your head as I slammed my
head into the power levers andstarted to bleed.

Bryan (06:55):
No. Really? Yep. That was awesome. Oh, no.

Dan (06:59):
It's like, okay. I guess we'll do this flight tomorrow.

Bryan (07:01):
For real? Yep. Oh, my gosh. That

Intro/outro (07:05):
was awesome. Does it take

Bryan (07:07):
a while to get used to the power levers being above
your head or does it becomepretty intuitive?

Dan (07:11):
It becomes really normal. And it was pretty humorous when
I swapped from the Buffalo backto the King Air. I would often
do this awkward, like, reach tothe top of the plane to grab the
power and then turn turn it intoa smooth motion as my hands go
down to the power levers.

Bryan (07:28):
Did anybody ever notice that? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Dan (07:30):
People made fun of me.

Bryan (07:32):
What challenges did flying an older aircraft bring?
One

Dan (07:36):
of the bigger challenges with flying an aircraft that old
is that things have changed somuch and it's really really hard
to source parts for an oldaircraft like that. But there
were things that had beenlearned and forgotten about the
aircraft that you never knew andnever were taught until you took

(07:59):
the plane away and thensomething broke and you reached
back home and they talked to acontractor in KF Arrow and
they're like, oh, yeah. Thathappened before. Like twenty
five years ago. And it was itwas really hard to scratch the
surface on the corporateknowledge that you didn't have.
But you always felt foolishbecause there were no new snags,

(08:22):
there were no new emergencies onthat plane, but they were all
new to you. Yeah. The otherthing for me, one of the biggest
challenges that I had there wasthere was no simulator. So there
was no way to go up and practiceand become efficient with the
more critical emergencies likean engine failure or a fire. So

(08:44):
we would chair fly and we wouldsimulate things in the plane as
best we could, but it's it's notthe same.
So the couple times where we hadreal emergencies, we handled it
well as a crew, but I alwaysappreciated in my next two
fleets having that simulator tojust go and become super

(09:04):
proficient with those thingsthat are gonna save your life.

Bryan (09:07):
Yeah. Make them muscle memory.

Intro/outro (09:09):
Yeah.

Bryan (09:10):
Do you guys have a cockpit procedure trainer or
anything like that or justabsolutely no mock ups, no
nothing?

Dan (09:16):
There was a mock up, but there's no technology or
anything to it. So you you cango in there and chair fly.

Bryan (09:21):
Yeah. But that's a But nothing happens. Yeah. Okay.
Yeah.
That's challenging. What skillsthat were unique to flying West
Coast SAR did you learn at thattime?

Dan (09:31):
All of all of the basic mountain flying skills that we
learned on the Buffalo, youknow, how to check for weather,
how to make sure you're in theright valley, the different
weather phenomenon that occur,especially in the Sunshine
Mountains. But depending on howmuch moisture there is in the
air, how strong the wind is,what direction it's from, it can

(09:52):
all do different things. That isstill applicable every time I go
and fly in the mountains. On theEast Coast, the mountains are
smaller, but they still do thesame things.

Bryan (10:06):
What is an average week like for a line fixed wing SAR
pilot? And let's say let's sayon the current fleets more than
on the buff because the buff waspretty unique and and doesn't
really apply anymore.

Dan (10:17):
The day to day job was basically the same. Okay. So for
a line pilot, your number onepriority is to stay proficient
and stay in the books. Andyou're never gonna get as much
flying as you want to get untilall of a sudden your task
saturated and you're getting somuch flying that you don't have
any time to do any of your basictasks. And that's kind of how it

(10:40):
happens.
It's when it rains it pours. Soour standard line pilot, they
might be scheduled to fly twicein a week and they might get 75%
success in those trainingevents. And half of those
training events might beassessed by an instructor. So
there's a lot of studying andthen there's day to day admin.

(11:02):
And then usually, becauseeveryone's a captain at that
level, they're probably taskedto organize some sort of you
know, maybe they have a trip inthree weeks that they're
responsible for organizing allof it and getting the claims and
the rentals and the hotels andthat kind of stuff.
So they need to stay on allthat. And that's generally what

(11:22):
what fills their week.

Bryan (11:23):
Okay. So half

Dan (11:25):
holding the SAR posture and half preparing and studying and
admin.

Bryan (11:31):
Can you tell us about like the different types of
postures you maintain as a SARpilot?

Dan (11:36):
Yeah. For sure. So the the general posture ordered by CJOC
right now is called readinessposture two. And what that means
is that when the aircraftcommander receives the call from
the rescue center, they have twohours to be airborne. So there's
a lot of things that go intothat because the the crew have

(11:58):
to go in and they have topreflight the plane.
They have to check whether theyhave to flight plan. They have
to touch base with the Sartex,make sure the right gear is
loaded on the plane for themission that they're doing. And
then they actually have to getin the plane, get it started, do
the ground checks, get airborne.So there's a process. That's the
basic readiness posture.

(12:19):
During the week, we try to do RP30 as well, which is readiness
posture of thirty minutes. Soyou get in early, you do all of
those basic tasks, and then whenyou get a call, you should be
airborne within thirty minutes.So it's like an accelerated
version. RP two is the bareminimum and RP 30 is what we

(12:42):
will switch to in times ofhigher risk.

Bryan (12:46):
Okay. What what would that be like a time of higher
risk?

Dan (12:49):
So out east we have a lot of crab fisheries and lobster
fisheries that open. Some of thebigger lobster fisheries are are
very high risk because there'sthousands of boats and the
window is only open for maybetwo days. So they will start at
six in the morning and they willall leave harbor, go into the
fishery area and drop as manytraps as they can within three

(13:13):
or four hours. So you havethousands of boats dropping
thousands and thousands of trapsand things happen. Boats run
aground or run into each otheror ingest lines and the engine
dies or or whatever.
So for those, we generally willbe at the unit on RP 30 ready to

(13:37):
go in case something happens.And then the even higher more
populous ones will actually tryto be overhead when they open.

Bryan (13:45):
Oh, wow.

Dan (13:46):
So we'll be airborne around five in the morning and then get
on scene at six. And then it'slike watching the start of a
race. It's actually really cool.And the sun's usually just kind
of peeking up so you can see allthe boats and they all start
moving at the same time and it'spretty cool. So I've I've done
four or five of them over thelast couple of years and we
haven't had any incidents.

Bryan (14:06):
Oh, nice.

Dan (14:07):
Which is it is nice. So you get to see them do the business
and it's a huge part of theeconomy out there. Mhmm. But
there is there is risk to whatthey're doing.

Bryan (14:16):
For sure. So you guys are actually pre positioned for some
of these like higher riskevents?

Dan (14:22):
And and they're negotiated ahead of time because what
they're trying to do is get theact get the economical reward
without depleting all of thepopulation of of Lobster. Yep.
So it's a it's a balance forthem. So they need to make sure
the weather is appropriate andand they'll kind of move that

(14:42):
target date. And we just whenthey open, we we just try to be
responsive.

Bryan (14:47):
Okay. What was your most rewarding or challenging rescue
flight you conducted during yourtime at four four two Squadron?

Dan (14:56):
We had a mission near the end of my time where there was
an elderly gentleman in asailboat in strong seas, and he
couldn't control the sailboat.He couldn't get his sails down,
so he was broadside to the waveskinda getting getting rocked in
the waves. And he couldn't getcontrol. He was doing Maydays.
And we went out and we foundhim.

(15:18):
And it was pretty bad weatherbut within our limits. And Coast
Guard and the Cormorant werethree hours away. So we actually
did a jump, got the Sartex intothe water, they got onto the
boat, secured the sails, securedthe elderly gentleman who had
actually fallen in his galleyand broken his hip at that time.

Bryan (15:37):
Oh, jeez.

Dan (15:39):
And then we made contact with the coast guard and we
homed them into the into theboat and got them alongside and
and got the that guy out ofthere. So who knows what would
happen, but that was know, we Idid quite a few star missions
out there. It was a really busyfour years. And sometimes we
were successful and sometimes weweren't, but that one was a
really cool mission.

Bryan (15:59):
Mhmm. Do you find it hard when a mission is not successful
or is that something that sortof the same as when you're at
the rescue center, you just sort

Dan (16:07):
of learn to maintain some professional detachment? It it
is key to not become emotionallyvested in the outcome of a
search, specifically withsearches because and and
especially out east, the thewater is cold. Mhmm. So if if
you're not in an immersion suitand you go into the water and

(16:29):
we're looking for you, thesurvival time is actually really
low.

Bryan (16:33):
Yeah. It's like what twenty minutes or something.
Right?

Dan (16:35):
It can be a couple hours.

Bryan (16:37):
Okay.

Dan (16:37):
It depends on what they have. But if we're searching for
days, it it is hard to maintainyour your detachment there.
Yeah. Because the chance ofsuccess are pretty low. For me,
the hardest has always beenunsuccessful medevacs.
So there's been a couple timesin my career where, you know,
we've been medevac ing apatient. You know, I had an

(16:58):
elderly lady in Comox who hadfallen off of a cliff and we
were trying to take her toVancouver and it wasn't
successful. And those ones I Ido struggle with. But once
again, you have to just givethem the absolute best and most
professional service that youcan. At the end of the day,

(17:21):
you're flying a militaryaircraft not where they are.
You have to find them, you haveto you have to go, you have to
provide the best service andsometimes it's successful and
sometimes it's not. So I'm it'sprobably very similar to like an
ER doctor. Like, you know, theygive the absolute best service
that they can, but not everyonethat comes into the ER

(17:42):
successfully goes out of the ER.

Bryan (17:45):
Right.

Dan (17:46):
Yeah. You just do the best job as you can and trust in the
science behind how we operateand what we do. And our Sartex
are very highly trained. So ifyou can successfully get your
Sartex on scene, your chance ofsuccess in survival goes way up.

(18:07):
So that's what we're trying todo.

Bryan (18:08):
Yeah. Our Sartechs are amazing. Yeah. They're just
amazing people.

Dan (18:11):
Yep. They are. They're highly trained and highly
motivated.

Bryan (18:14):
Yeah. So the Buffalo is no longer flying. What was it
like to watch the plane you hadflown on your tour get
decommissioned?

Dan (18:23):
It's a little bit surreal. And I still we spread them out
over the air museums acrossCanada. And so I often will fly
into an airport and I'll flyover a museum and see a buffalo.
Like Somerside is a primeexample.

Bryan (18:39):
There's one here in Winnipeg.

Dan (18:40):
There's one in Trenton, there's one in Winnipeg. And
it's weird because every buffalothat you can find in Canada in a
museum, I have flown.

Bryan (18:50):
Yeah.

Dan (18:51):
And so it's a pretty weird thing because I don't feel like
I'm I'm old. But yeah, I don'tknow. It's I make the joke that
every time I go to a fleet andfly, they retire the plane right
afterwards and that's what'shappening with the h model in a
couple years. So maybe it'strue, maybe it's me. I'm not
sure.

(19:11):
But it is cool. It feels likeyou were a piece of history.

Bryan (19:15):
Yeah. So let's talk about your time as a QFI or qualified
flight instructor here inPortage La Prairie. You were
next posted to fly as aninstructor on phase three multi
at three CFFTS in Porto De SaoPrairie. We're gonna just
briefly touch on this becausewe've done a full episode on
this with you. And if listenerswanna learn more about this,
they can check out episode five.

(19:35):
What was the biggest challengeyou faced while learning to be
an instructor?

Dan (19:39):
I definitely had to balance my home life. I had young kids
and we we kept on producingyoung kids during that posting.
But there's so manypersonalities. Every student
comes in with their own storyand struggles with a different
thing. And, you know, we we justtalked about SARA where you

(19:59):
don't wanna be emotionallyinvested.
You do wanna be invested, butnot emotionally invested with
the outcome. I think withinstruction, it's different. You
I I was emotionally invested inevery student that I had. And
there's there's nothing morenerve racking than a student
that you've trained going up ontheir final test. And you're
sitting on the ground justwaiting.

Bryan (20:19):
Did it

Intro/outro (20:19):
go well? Did it not go well?

Dan (20:22):
So yeah, it was was always a balance between because it's
not your success, it's not yourfailure, but you really do want
everyone to succeed. But youwant them to succeed with the
right skills that they're gonnabe safe. All of those people are
going to go on and fly in muchmore challenging and dangerous

(20:44):
conditions. Bigger aircraft,maybe hostile environments,
maybe bad weather, maybemountains, whatever. So you just
hope are hoping that you'regiving them the skills to be
successful.

Bryan (20:57):
Yeah. And to stay

Dan (20:57):
safe. Yeah.

Bryan (21:00):
What would you say your biggest goals were as an
instructor at three CFFDS?

Dan (21:04):
I wanted to be a good example. I wanted to lead with
positivity and give people thebest opportunity to succeed. And
I also viewed everyone that wentout of there as my resume. So I
knew that because I had flownthe Buffalo and it was retiring
that after that tour, I wasgoing to a new fleet. And I

(21:27):
wanted to make sure that if theysaw my name again, that they
would be happy to see my nameand not like, Oh no, that guy's

Bryan (21:36):
coming here.

Dan (21:36):
I think I was pretty successful with that. And I
definitely made a lot ofconnections with a lot of people
and furnished them with a lot ofknowledge and experience that
they then have to take and andwrap into their own philosophies
and professionalism.

Bryan (21:54):
Is it cool to go to a unit now and run into those
students that you've taught tofly doing their real job?

Dan (22:01):
So when I got to four thirteen squadron, I looked at
the at the board because westill do it old school and so
all of the pilots names are onthis board. And I looked at it
and I saw eight pilots that Ihad trained and put wings on out
of the 14 pilots that we have.And the other six I had

(22:21):
interacted with some way or not.

Bryan (22:23):
So

Dan (22:24):
the thing I did was go and look at my logbook and see if I
had failed any of them. But no,it was really cool. And then to
to fly with them and they're allprofessionals. It was very
rewarding to be you know, flyingwith someone where they were an

(22:45):
AC and I was their that I hadtrained them in Portage, that
was really cool.

Bryan (22:50):
Yeah. Yeah. I imagine that would be. You taught for
over five years and helpednearly 150 students earn their
wings. What were the most commonissues you saw students struggle
with?

Dan (23:02):
So when COVID hit, it really hurt our ability to study
together as as groups. And I saywe, but I mean the students. And
we noticed as students stoppedstudying together as a group and
doing those chair flying andpeppering each other with
questions and just interactingafter every flight, that the

(23:25):
general proficiency of coursesstarted to kind of go down. So
we really tried to encouragethem as much as possible to do
that in a safe way. When I left,were still kind of in the era of
COVID, But that it was a reallybig struggle for students.
That was a very hard time forthem to go through flight
training. But it all comes downto just still persevering and

(23:50):
keeping in the books and keepingmotivated to study. Because
there there's time periods ifyou're a new student on course
and the other course is likethree weeks away from grad and
they have four weeks of flyingto do, you're not a priority.
Right? So you might only flyonce in those three weeks.
So finding the motivation tostay in the books and stay on

(24:11):
top of everything and stay readyfor every single flight, it's
key to success.

Bryan (24:18):
Yeah. And that's gonna be where the chair flying and those
hopefully those healthy studyhabits that you've built along
the way will help you. Yeah.Like if you've been pretty
disciplined through your time inphase two, phase one and phase
two, then hopefully by the timeyou hit phase three, like a
couple delays here and there,you'll know what to do with your

(24:38):
time.

Dan (24:39):
And you have to, like, you you have to kind of understand
the system you work within. It'snot commercial aviation, so
there's not a plane for you tofly every day. Mhmm. So it's
going you're gonna run intothose delays in every single
step of your career. Yep.
And so you have to havesustainable study habits, and
you have to find internalmotivation to keep it going.

Bryan (25:01):
Mhmm. When you left three CFFTS, what did you feel was
your biggest accomplishmentduring your time there?

Dan (25:10):
When I left, I was acting as the flight commander. And I
thought that I had done a prettygood job of improving the
quality of life for instructorswhile maintaining the quality of
instruction for students andbalancing their quality of life
as well. And I think that we hadcreated a really fantastic

(25:32):
culture here at the school, andnot just my doing, like many
many people with the same focuson balancing quality of life and
professionalism and the outputof quality pilots. But I do
think that I contributed to thatby by really trying to. Mhmm.
I definitely have a lot ofrespect for the institution

(25:53):
there. And and I'm, yeah, I'mexcited to go back. Don't know
if that's if that's somethingthat we can talk about or not,

Bryan (26:00):
but Yeah. For sure.

Dan (26:01):
Well Yeah.

Bryan (26:02):
Yeah. Because you are posted to come back as the
deputy commanding officer thissummer. Right?

Dan (26:06):
Yeah. That's So I I think it's a great institution with a
really great culture. And it'shard it's hard to maintain a
positive and professionalculture and it's even harder to
build one.

Bryan (26:19):
Yeah. Especially while you are making that dedicated
effort to balance it withpersonal lives. Like you can
build a very professionalorganization that's very
efficient and has great output,but you can also do that by
burning people's personal livesto the ground. It's a real
challenge to have an effectiveflying unit with all the

(26:40):
busyness and complicatedschedules that that can entail
and still respect people'spersonal lives.

Dan (26:44):
Yeah. But it's my belief that you have to make the
military right for the membertoo because we need their
service. That's that's just afact. So you have to create a
place that is good for them tohave their families, that gives
them the opportunities to moveforward in their careers and

(27:07):
gives their spouses opportunityto move forward in their lives
as well. So if you're not Ifthat's not one of your
priorities, you are gonna losepeople to attrition just because
they need to move on with theirlives.
You still will lose people toattrition, but the more focus
you put on it, the betteroutcome you're gonna have.

(27:28):
People who are happy andmotivated are always gonna be
willing to come in on theweekend and work for you. And
they're not gonna complain aboutit in general. They might
jokingly complain. They're gonnacome in and they're gonna do the
job and you treat them withrespect and they're gonna
they're gonna appreciate you.

Bryan (27:44):
Mhmm. Yeah. So after your time at three CFFDS, you were
posted to one Canadian AirDivision as an instrument check
pilot. As part of this, you werestill flying the King Air, but
also conducting check rides onalmost every fleet in the RCAF
on behalf of Air Forcestandards. What was your coolest
experience flying with all thesedifferent fleets?

Dan (28:05):
Yeah. It was really neat seeing how the different
communities attack instrumentflying because it's all
different aircraft, alldifferent kits, but the
philosophies are the same andthe rules are actually the same
governing all of them for themost part. And it was neat to
see that every community wasable to is at that same

(28:31):
professional standard, but theyall do it in different ways. So
they all do it in ways that areapplicable to the operations
that they're trying to fly. Andit was it was pretty interesting
to see how capable everyone was.

Bryan (28:46):
Yeah. It sounds really cool. Did you have a favorite
fleet to fly with?

Dan (28:52):
Probably the fit my favorite checkride that I did
was going to the the Herc simand and I did the checkride for
the Herc set ICP before evergoing to the Herc. And I got a
look in at their sim and at thehow they use a crew when they do
an IRT. They have the fullfriend and crew there doing the

(29:13):
mission in the sim. And it wasreally cool to see how they they
brought it all together and howit was very similar to what I
had known on the buff. And thena couple months after that, I
went and actually like did thecourse and was assessed there
and I had already kind of seenit.
It was kind of neat.

Bryan (29:32):
Yeah. Did you find there was like a big diversity in
terms of like, always say, youknow, there's different ways to
skin a cat. Like, did you findthat there was a big diversity
in the ways people approachedwhat they were doing?

Dan (29:44):
There is, especially out of necessity. You know, some
cockpits only have one pilot. Soan f 18 ticket ride where that's
a single pilot in the sim andI'm actually sitting in their
simulator control room, it's awhole different experience. But
they still follow all the rulesand and check all the boxes.

(30:08):
Whereas, all the multi crewcockpits, they interact between
fo, pilot flying, pilot nonflying in a very similar manner,
but just through nature of whataltitudes they're at or what
airspeeds they're at or whattheir kit can accomplish because
some fleets have fully capableflight management systems that

(30:30):
can couple up with theirautopilot and some fleets don't
even have an autopilot nor anFMS.
It changes how they how theyoperate and how they think
actually.

Bryan (30:40):
Mhmm. So next year posted into four thirteen transport and
rescue squadron as the Hercflight commander and eventually
became the deputy commandingofficer or DCO. Can you tell us
about what those jobs entail?

Dan (30:53):
Yeah. So my job as Herc flight commander was basically
to manage all of the air crewfor all of the different
positions except for the Sartex.So to manage them
administratively, career wise,and basically produce
serviceable crews for the starschedule. And you do that by

(31:18):
connecting with the crewsindividually, by flying with
them is a big part of that, butalso just having conversations,
learning each person's life. Andthen also by connecting with the
CO, making sure you understandthe CO's intent and how they
want the squadron managed, andbringing that down to each
member in a way that they canunderstand and and kinda get

(31:40):
behind.
Mhmm. At four thirteen, that wasreally easy because it's a very
East Coast institution. There'svery few people that are there
that don't absolutely wanna bethere. Most people that work for
me love what they're doing andjust wanted to find out how they
could stay for longer. Andthat's a pretty cool place to

(32:02):
work because everyone is happyto come into work.
We struggle with a lot ofstaffing shortages, and it is
hard to get people to want to goto a place like Greenwood if
they don't know about it and ifthey're not from there. Mhmm. So

(32:22):
we we definitely throughout mytwo years as the flight
commander, at one point oranother, we were always
critically short on either loadmasters, flight engineers,
aircraft commanders, ornavigators. Like that, it it
would just kind of cycledbetween the different sections.
But it was my job just to keepeverybody healthy and trained.

(32:44):
Mhmm.

Bryan (32:46):
So it sounds like a lot of your previous experiences
would have prepared you forthat, especially your position
as the acting flight commanderin Portage.

Dan (32:57):
Yeah. I felt really well prepared for the job. It's the
job that I wanted to do at theunit when I got there. And, of
course, I was trying to enter anew fleet as an outsider, but
still a SAR professional andbring that outside opinion in to
try and, you know, create goodchange. And I was trying to
upgrade at the same time, whichwas a lot of time and a lot of

(33:19):
challenges.
But yeah, I definitely feltprepared and suited for the
role.

Bryan (33:27):
Yeah. And then what about your role as DCO?

Dan (33:30):
So DCO is definitely a different job. It's the time in
my career that I've had tounderstand fiscal authorities
responsibilities from a higherlevel, business planning at a
squadron level, the entireadministrative and logistical
process at the unit falls underme. But the other thing that's

(33:51):
really interesting about the jobis I'm also the Sartech officer.
So Sartechs fall, they don'thave an officer, but they don't
really need one. They're veryself managing, highly capable
people.
But the person, the Sartechleader is is a master warrant
officer and they have the sameseat at the table as all the
other majors. And your job asthe Sartech officer is basically

(34:13):
to advocate and give them theweight that their voice really
should have.

Bryan (34:18):
Because they don't have officers in their trade.

Dan (34:20):
Exactly. But they're smart and they know what they need and
they know what they want. Sothey make the job extremely easy
from that perspective. But it isreally it's nice to have that
connection and understand whattheir problems are. But It it
was definitely a learning curveat the beginning to understand
the business planning processand how to manage a fairly large

(34:46):
budget.

Bryan (34:47):
Yeah. I don't envy you that part of the job for sure.
Like I remember doing my variousfinancial courses as a first
officer and as a crew commanderand even at that level finding
it at times very confusing, liketo the point that I needed to
call people within the wingcontroller to try to get certain
things explained to me or andthey were super helpful people.

(35:08):
I don't know if do you ever needto reach out for help on that
stuff?

Dan (35:11):
A 100%. So I have a really professional cadre of people
that support me to do the job.And I'm not reinventing the
wheel in any way. So it'sbasically my role to integrate
with the wing and all of thosedifferent organizations. So the
wing controller, OSS and MSS,and the wing commander to make

(35:33):
sure that we're following therules but still able to operate.
And our budget is prettyconstrictive. We always have to
be aware of how much money wehave to operate, especially to
accomplish the training thatwe're trying to accomplish. So a
lot of my role is aboutcreatively finding money in the
right ways so that we can stilloperate and train. And a lot of

(35:56):
that, we we work with OneCAD andthe senior staff officer for
search and rescue who isincredibly supportive and has
has helped us get augmentationout when we're short staffed by
paying for it because we can'tcover that at the unit level.
But no, it's been reallysatisfying.

(36:17):
And if you do a good job withit, then the operators can
operate and train and everyoneis happy. So it's easy to
motivate yourself to do a goodjob.

Bryan (36:25):
Okay. So the Hercules was a fair bit larger than anything
you had flown before. How didyou find that change?

Dan (36:32):
So what I found in this might not be true for all
people, but I think that thebigger the plane is, the easier
it is to fly. That's what Ifound. Now the knowledge behind
it and how proactive you need tobe while you're flying it, it is
more challenging because abigger plane, you can't just

(36:53):
decide, hey, I wanna go overthere and then point the nose of
the plane that way. It doesn'tit doesn't work that way.
There's so much momentum and onthe Herc, the most jarring thing
that I found is when you turnthe wheel and it may have been
the same on the Aurora, there'sa solid like one second pause
before the aircraft doesanything.
And I'd never felt that before.So it was kind of cool.

Bryan (37:12):
The Aurora is pretty responsive. Is it?

Dan (37:15):
Yeah. Okay.

Bryan (37:15):
Yeah. From from what I recall, it's been almost six
years, but, I seem to recall itbeing a pretty responsive
aircraft.

Dan (37:22):
The Herk is incredibly stable.

Bryan (37:24):
Yeah. That's what it's made for.

Dan (37:26):
It is very easy to fly. Yeah. But to get that Herc
exactly where you want it, toget it down to a 150 feet to
throw something out of the backto the people on the ground that
need the thing you're trying tothrow to them, that's where the
skill is. It requires backingthat process up through all of
the steps so that you're exactlywhere you need to be every step

(37:46):
of the way. Because ten secondsback, it's too late to fix it if
you've messed

Intro/outro (37:51):
it up. You've got to go around and do it again.

Dan (37:55):
So yeah, there was a learning curve for sure. And the
complexity of the systems on theplane, it's much more complex
and I just studied more andlearned the systems. The biggest
challenge that I faced whencoming to the fleet was I felt
like there was a barrier ofentry because the Herc was such
an established platform. There'sa lot of people who have flown

(38:18):
the Herc for a lot of years.

Bryan (38:19):
Well, it's legendary. It's been around for how long?
It's been since the sixties?

Dan (38:23):
Exactly. Yeah. So all of the all the simulator operators
and trainers, were all liketwenty year Herc pilots with
four thousand hours plus on theHerc and Oh, easily. Exactly. So
when I got to the to the Herc, Igot pulled aside by someone and
told, hey, Dan, you're nevergonna upgrade on this plane.

(38:45):
You don't have enough time to doyour job as a major and to
upgrade. There's too much toknow, you can't do it. And this
was like four days before myOTU. I had just gone into like,
you know, put put faces to namesand say hi to everybody. And I
was like, you've never flownwith me.
He's like, well, I'm justtelling you, you're not going to

(39:07):
be able to upgrade. So youshould try just settle on
passing the OTU and be a firstofficer.

Bryan (39:13):
So did that put a fire in your belly?

Dan (39:15):
Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because I did feel like I had
something to offer specificallywith instruction and with modern
rules when it comes to RNAV andGNSS things. I'm very familiar
with all that stuff havingcoming come from the division
instrument check pilot section.

Bryan (39:36):
Which is basically like GPS navigation and approaches
and things.

Dan (39:40):
Aviation as a whole is modernizing and is moving
forward. But the Herc reallystruggles because it's an older
platform with a lot of inertiaMhmm. That people are willing to
accept change, but you have tohave to lead the change. And it
and it needs to be for apurpose. Being more effective
and safer is is the purpose inthis case.

(40:02):
But, yeah, I I left I left theOTU. I done I did really well at
the OTU and and I came back andI upgraded in pretty record time
and was an IP shortly after thatand then a standing IP shortly
after that. And the whole time Ijust was highly motivated to
make myself available to fly asmuch as possible and I just

(40:23):
studied the whole time. Yeah.But it basically meant that I
was doing, you know, one and ahalf jobs for a couple years.

Bryan (40:31):
Which must have been pretty crazy.

Dan (40:32):
It was busy. Yeah. Yeah. It was busy, but it's super
rewarding.

Bryan (40:36):
Yeah. How did you find the transition from instructing
to flying the hurricane inoperational environment?

Dan (40:43):
It's been nostalgic the entire time. Being on shift
again after six years away frombeing on shift was cool and
doing actual SAR missions wasfantastic. But this time I had
three young kids at home tobalance that SAR schedule with
and it was really hardinitially, especially to get

(41:06):
sleep for night shifts and stufflike that. Going up and starting
your flight at midnight andlanding at 4AM is really easy
when you're 25 and you have nokids. It's a lot harder when
you're 37 and have three youngkids.
But we've adapted and and yeah.I I really love it. I'm gonna

(41:27):
miss I'm gonna miss the SARportion and I'm gonna miss the
Herc as well when when I leave.

Bryan (41:31):
Yeah. What are the unique capabilities of the Herc for SAR
missions, especially in theMaritimes?

Dan (41:38):
The Herc has range and persistence. So it can go pretty
much anywhere in our area ofoperation and can stay there for
a really long time. So if I havea mission at thirty west

Bryan (41:54):
Which is like the middle of the ocean.

Dan (41:56):
Middle of the ocean, I can take max fuel and I can go out
there and I can sit there forfour hours and then I can go to
Iceland and get more gas and goback. And that's a pretty cool
capability. Same with thissummer, I had four or five
missions up in the Arctic whereI took off at ten at night and I
landed back in Greenwood aftersuccessfully completing the task

(42:19):
twelve hours later. And that waskinda cool.

Bryan (42:22):
Mhmm. Yeah. The Herc is I mean, that's one thing that's
amazing about it. It's similarto the Aurora and that they just
have such a like, an ability toreally carry a ton of gas and to
stay in one place for a reallylong time. And and that's what
makes them so great at what theydo.

Dan (42:38):
Yeah. And it's a it's a cargo plane. You can also put a
ton of people on there andthere's there's nothing to
throwing an entire extra crewand maybe you're maybe you're
putting on extra pumps and extrasea rescue kits because you have
a a big water mission orsomething

Bryan (42:54):
like that.

Dan (42:55):
There's tons of room on the plane for that kind of stuff.
And that does give you someadvantages. But it is still an
old school plane with very fewelectronic and avionics things
that are gonna help you out on asearch. We do have the new Casar
system on board right now, whichis a system that allows us to

(43:18):
search for cell phones.

Bryan (43:20):
Oh, yeah. I've heard of this.

Dan (43:21):
Yeah. If we're searching for a person, a specific person,
and RCC has through RCMP beenable to get their unique code
for their phone, we can actuallylook for that phone on the
aircraft. And I have beensuccessful looking for that
phone connecting with the personand confirming whether there was
distress or So it's a reallycool functionality. Mhmm. But

(43:45):
that's about as technologicallyadvanced as we get for
searching.
99% is people looking out thewindow and searching.

Bryan (43:52):
Right. Which is gonna be a huge game changer with the
Kingfisher, which we'll talkabout in a bit.

Dan (43:58):
Yeah, absolutely.

Bryan (43:59):
How do conditions and challenges in the Maritimes
differ from what you encounteredon the West Coast?

Dan (44:05):
So the Maritimes are really unique because the ocean is
cold. You get a lot of reallybad weather, especially in the
Newfoundland and offshore. Butour AOR extends all the way up
to the North Pole throughIqaluit basically. So we also
have all the mountains in BaffinIsland, all of the Arctic

(44:28):
considerations for up north, andheavy sea states, and then all
the way to 30 West to theAzores, basically. And we share
those responsibilities with withthe Portuguese, with the
British, and then with the withThe US to our South.
But it's just such a wide rangethat you can you could basically

(44:49):
get any mission on a given shiftand and have to go and persecute
that mission.

Bryan (44:54):
So it has like a lot more varied challenges in terms of
terrain and all the differentthings you can encounter. Well,
you could be way out in theocean, you could be way up in
the Arctic. There's just like alot more variety to what you
might encounter.

Dan (45:05):
Absolutely. And it's And it also gets hit by hurricanes. So
we have to deal with hurricanes.If there's a person having a
heart attack on a boat 500 milesoffshore, they still need to get
off that boat regardless of kindof what the weather is. So we
operate with the cormorant andget those people off the boats

(45:27):
into the hospitals.
And that's a lot of our missionsare are things like that. Mhmm.
Or hikers, snowmobilers, youknow, 1,200 miles up north.

Bryan (45:37):
Yep. So let's talk now about the future of SAR and the
transition to the c two ninefive Kingfisher. A fixed wing
SAR replacement has been in theworks for a long time. And I
mean, like, when I was a studentin Portage, we had a guy on our
course who was doing conversiontraining who had been on the
fixed wing SAR replacementprogram and even by that point,

(46:01):
it was a long time coming. Sothis is like decades in the
making.
Yeah. Finally, it has come tofruition and will soon be on the
line in the form of the c twonine five Kingfisher. I think
it's pretty accurate to say youhave a fair bit of experience
with fixed wing SAAR havingflown numerous missions on two
different platforms. What areyour thoughts on the transition
to the Kingfisher?

Dan (46:21):
Yeah. So of all, a lot of people have been working really
hard to get the Kingfisher onthe line. And it's really
exciting because it justreceived its provisional
operational airworthinesscertificate last weekend. And
that's a huge step. Can you tellus what that means?
It means that the plane hasexited the testing phase and

(46:45):
we've deemed that it isoperationally ready. So it's got
its operational airworthinesscertificate, which means that we
we can start flying it forsearch and rescue. So in Comox,
they're gonna start that in May.They're gonna start flying
operationally. And for us, outeast, we're looking next
January.
We're gonna start operating.We're gonna start receiving the

(47:07):
planes at the end of nextsummer, so summer of twenty
five. So we should receive ourplane in August or September of
twenty twenty five, and then byJanuary have three aircraft in
Greenwood and six and a halfoperational crews coming off of
the conversion training to startholding limited search and

(47:30):
rescue lines of task in January,which is really exciting. Mhmm.
We talked about the range andpersistence of the Hercules.
The two nine five is a is adifferent aircraft. And you do
lose some of the range andpersistence that you have on the
Hercules, but what you gain is amodern aircraft with a modern

(47:52):
sensor suite and and somecapabilities that that older
aircraft can't really hope toemulate. So we're we're pretty
excited. It's a big change andthere's a ton of overturn and
and churn in personnel that hasto occur in order to stand up a
completely new fleet. And thebiggest challenge that we have

(48:14):
is that we still have to providesearch and rescue response on
the East Coast while we'retrying to stand up this this new
capability.
So right now, we already havemaintainers out on course in
Comox learning how to maintainthe new aircraft. And that's
gonna continue by next January.We will have sent all of our

(48:36):
maintainers and gotten themqualified and all of our air
crew that are gonna fly thataircraft and get them qualified
while maintaining a small cadreof Herc qualified personnel to
maintain our line of tasking.And that that's it's a lot of
work. But in the end, we'regonna have a new aircraft with

(49:01):
much higher levels ofserviceability because it's new
and because there's more of themin service.
And the EOIR and the MX 15camera, the camera is really
exciting and the data that itcan capture. We have two sensor
operators on the plane. We havethe ASAP sensor operator and the

(49:22):
AXO sensor operator who aregonna be able to go through
data, connect to a ground basedsystem for analysis in between
basically fuel stops and thenthey can maybe if we're looking
for a kayak in the SaintLawrence, which is a typical
task, it's a task that I've beentasked on three times in the
three years that I've beenthere. We'll we'll still be

(49:47):
flying lines, a lot like whatthe Herc will be doing. It's
gonna be flying lines, but itmight be at a different altitude
and a different airspeed thanthe Herc was, Higher probably so
that the the camera can seebetter.
And we might not see anythingwith our eyes. We'll still be
searching with our eyes, butwe'll also be using the camera.
And then we'll land for fuel,they'll connect to the ground
based system, and maybe thecamera will say, hey, actually,

(50:10):
it was over at that latin log atthat point. You should go back
there and look. Oh, really?
Yeah. It has the the planedoesn't, but the data from the
camera can actually be analyzedto give us some some better
data. We got to see it in theNational Search and Rescue
exercise last September where itparticipated along with the

(50:33):
Hercules and the Cormorant andit was was pretty eye opening
seeing the footage that theywere able to capture and how
quickly they were able to find abunch of search objects when we
basically took half an hour ofcircling to find the same search
objects.

Bryan (50:49):
Really? Yeah. So game changer.

Dan (50:51):
It is a game changer. There are limitations because we
sacrifice range and persistence,it needs more fuel stops and
that's just something we'regoing to have to learn how to
operate within. So what we'vebeen messaging is that we want
to be positive but realisticabout it. There are so many
really modern capabilities thatthis plane brings that we we

(51:17):
have to adapt how we operate inorder to make the most use of
it.

Bryan (51:21):
For sure.

Dan (51:21):
Because we can't operate it like we fly a Herc. Yep. You
know? Sometimes we just put gason and we go to the search area
and we stay in the search areauntil we're gonna run out of gas
and then we go home. We may needto be more laser focused or or
precise with this aircraft.
And we may need more support tobring other personnel to a

(51:42):
northern a northern location,like maybe a j model needs to
bring a backup crew if a searchis gonna go on for two or three
days because there's not enoughroom on the plane to bring
multiple crews full of people.

Bryan (51:54):
Right. But that's because this is a purpose built search
and rescue aircraft, not a cargoaircraft.

Dan (51:59):
Exactly. It's not for it's not for cargo operations. It is
for search and rescue.

Bryan (52:04):
Similar

Dan (52:06):
if we're operating with a cormorant, if the hirk is broken
and the cormorant is tasked togo up north, they need support
in order to bring personnel,maintenance supplies, whatever
up north. It's gonna be moresimilar to that.

Bryan (52:19):
Okay. We've talked a little bit about this. There's
been some concern over the rangeof the kingfisher. How do we
plan to overcome that issue?

Dan (52:27):
So of all, with education. So the the range of the
kingfishers is actually prettygood. Mhmm. If you fill it up,
take all the gas that you can,you can get really far. It's
just that when you get there,you will probably need fuel or
you won't be able to won't beable to stay overhead for the
same amount of time.

Bryan (52:46):
Then because it just simply can't tanker as much gas
as a Hercules.

Dan (52:49):
Exactly. Which is fine because it's it's not a
Hercules. Yeah. Right? It's ait's a different aircraft.
So we just have to change how wethink about the process and
reeducate and retrain our crews,and that's what they're doing in
COBONX right now. So we willoperate within the limits of the
aircraft to bring as much fuelas efficiently as we can and

(53:11):
then plan to take fuel near thesearch area. And that's probably
the best that we're going to beable to do. But it still will be
able to reach the differentareas of the AOR that it's
required to go.

Bryan (53:25):
Okay. So like it'll still be able to get out to 30 West
and

Dan (53:29):
Yeah. It's gonna it's going to be able to get there, but it
will have to do it in adifferent way. It's not gonna
it's not gonna go direct to 30West and then search for four
hours, but the number of timeswe've had to do that
operationally are pretty low.Mhmm. And it will be able to go
out there by taking fuel stopsalong the way.

Bryan (53:48):
Okay. What do you think will be the biggest challenge
the Kingfisher will face and howcan we overcome that?

Dan (53:55):
The biggest challenge is definitely going to be getting a
cadre, both air crew andmaintenance, fully trained, and
then keeping those members inthe community long enough for
the transition to occur and andthe the OTU to become steady
state, to be able to provide newblood into the system. So we

(54:17):
have to overcome that just byaccepting the problem,
understanding that it's gonna bea big challenge to stand up a
new capability. It requires alot of people, and we have to
protect those people. So we haveto keep them able to do their
job by protecting them fromextra duties, extra courses, or
taskings that aren't critical tosearch and rescue or critical to

(54:41):
their careers. You still have togive those members opportunities
to progress their careers.
To do

Bryan (54:46):
their career

Dan (54:46):
courses. Absolutely. But you have to especially from the
leadership, you have to createan atmosphere where they can
apply themselves to thetransition without burning
themselves out or becoming toofatigued. And that's that's a
leadership challenge. And I Ithink the step is just accepting

(55:08):
that that is going to be one ofour main challenges and and
addressing it.

Bryan (55:12):
I think we've danced around this a little bit, but
can you tell us exactly when thec t nine five will hit the line
and begin conducting operationalmissions?

Dan (55:22):
So in May of this year in Comox is when it will hit the
line and and take on a line oftasking. And in January of
twenty twenty six on the EastCoast. From there, they'll move
on to Trenton and then Winnipeg.

Bryan (55:38):
Okay. So let's talk a little bit about life beyond the
flight line. You're a very busyguy professionally, but you also
have a wife and three kids. Howdo you balance the demands of
your career with your familylife?

Dan (55:50):
I try really hard to not bring work home. I work as hard
as I can at work, and then whenI go home, I just try to be dad
and husband. Cook dinner, takethem to hockey, do all do all of
those things. Obviously, there'sthere's bleed through, but also
just open communication andhonesty. When things are coming

(56:13):
up, I have to go spend a week inWinnipeg.
It's not a last minute thing forthem. They know that it's
coming. And as long aseveryone's expectations are
being met, then everyone ishappy. That's what that's what I
found. So

Bryan (56:29):
It helps that you've got a very resilient family too.
Absolutely. And you guys but youguys have encouraged that
culture of resiliency to developin your family too. It's not an
accident.

Dan (56:41):
No. We we try and we try to treat life as an adventure and
each challenge is an opportunityto to see new things and do new
things. But a lot of what we youknow, we we talked about
sanitizing your bedrooms so thatyou can sleep properly. I treat
my home the same way. So I Idon't bring work home, but if
work comes up and there's thingsthat need to be done, I try to

(57:03):
go back to work to do it.
So maybe I'll put the kids tobed and then I'll head

Intro/outro (57:07):
back into work for two hours,

Dan (57:09):
Handle the tasks that need to be handled and then come back
home and then I can relax.

Bryan (57:13):
Mhmm.

Dan (57:13):
So that's that's how I try to handle it and, you know, keep
everyone happy.

Bryan (57:20):
Okay. What are your future aspirations in terms of
your career in the RCAF?

Dan (57:28):
Well, I am hoping to become a CEO of a SAR unit at some
point. So that's what we'reworking towards right now. So
the next step is DCO in at threeCFFTS for the next couple years,
and try and complete the jointstaff command program, and

(57:49):
hopefully get a CO billet in thenext three or four years.

Bryan (57:53):
Okay.

Dan (57:54):
Beyond that, I'm not really sure. We'll we'll see how
everybody's doing and and justkeep adapting and evolving. Yes.
It's it's been an adventure.

Bryan (58:04):
Yeah. The one thing that I've observed with successful
senior officers, people who havereally managed to make a go of
the career in terms of pursuingpromotion within their career,
is they constantly check-in withtheir families too and see how
they're doing and see like, areyou are you game for this next

(58:25):
step? Like, is this gonna workfor us?

Dan (58:27):
Yeah. I don't make any decisions in a vacuum and I I
also don't It's not my career. Ialways call it our career.

Bryan (58:33):
Mhmm.

Dan (58:33):
So my wife and I, we we sit down every quarter and we
discuss how our career is goingand where we wanna go with it.
And honestly, it changes. Itchanges every quarter. There's
all sorts of opportunities outthere and sometimes we decide to
pivot and chase newopportunities. But as long as

(58:54):
everyone is having fun and in onthe adventure and the kids are
invested, then it's it'sawesome.

Bryan (58:59):
Yeah. That sounds great. Looking back at your career so
far, what are you most proud of?Now you don't have

Intro/outro (59:06):
to answer that if you don't

Bryan (59:07):
want to. I know a lot of people have a hard time with
like, what am I proud of?

Dan (59:12):
Yeah. I mean, I would say that in my career, I have left a
trail of people who aremotivated and that's that's not
my doing, but I have encouragedit and professional. And I have
really tried to foster that ineveryone that I interact with.

(59:36):
And I see a lot of peopleeclipsing me in their career.
People that I interacted with,maybe I trained I can think of
what I'm not gonna name drop,but you think of one person that
I trained in in 2017 who isgonna get a CO billet before me.
And he's an awesome pilot and areally, really great person. But

(01:00:02):
I'm proud of how I've interactedwith the people that I've had
that I've been blessed tointeract with. And the military
is a great place, especially ifyou enjoy other people because
you you get to interact with somany people. And I really think
that I've tried to be a positiveforce on everyone's life that I

(01:00:22):
interact with. And that that'swhat I wanna keep doing.

Bryan (01:00:24):
Yeah. So for you, it's a lot about the mentorship
opportunities.

Dan (01:00:28):
Yeah. It's the soft side of the military. Every time that I
have a conversation with a youngfirst officer who is maybe not
quite motivated or not quitesure what they wanna do and they
leave that conversation feelinga little bit more motivated,
that's a success. Or you'retrapped in Tule for three and a

(01:00:50):
half weeks because you blew acouple prop seals. That's a
great opportunity to work onyour entire crew and get them
just motivated to be wherethey're at.
And I think that if you leadwith empathy and positivity and
enthusiasm, people are peopleare gonna follow. Yeah. And
people are going to I've had alot of really good examples who

(01:01:12):
have led that way and andthey've shaped my career.

Bryan (01:01:15):
Yeah. That's awesome. So we're down to our last three
questions. We've asked you thesebefore, but a lot of time has
passed since then. You've had alot of different experiences.
So you've had a world ofexperience since we've last had
you on the podcast. What wouldyou say is something you've
learned you must do to stayready to do your job?

Dan (01:01:33):
Well, I think that you still need to capture the joy of
what you're doing every day inorder to this might be the
answer I gave you three yearsago. I'm not sure. I I always
think to myself that the momentI'm not excited to be on the
schedule is the moment I need tostop flying. And you have to
focus on the joy and make adecision to be motivated and

(01:01:57):
happy in what you're doing.Otherwise, it's gonna slip away
and you're not gonna actually begood at it anymore.
Mhmm. And in aviation, you don'thave don't have the leeway to
not be good at your job becauseit's risky. Yeah. Right? So that
and sleep.
Sleeping is is absolutely Ithink the biggest part of
success at at any level and youhave to just make time for it

(01:02:22):
and make it a priority.

Bryan (01:02:23):
Yeah. You absolutely do because it's so easy. Especially
I imagine when you're doingthings like you've been doing
where you're in a leadershipposition and you're also flying.
I imagine it would be very, veryeasy to start sacrificing sleep,
whether that would be to getmore work done or to have
leisure activities. I imaginethat would be a really easy
thing to do.

Dan (01:02:44):
Yeah. I definitely I definitely have created gates
for myself. Like I I knowexactly how much sleep I need
and therefore I when I can stayup late playing video games or
know what, if I have to be atwork at seven tomorrow or if I
have to fly tomorrow, I shall beasleep by 10:00. So I have to
set myself up for success thatway. And it's paid dividends,

(01:03:09):
but it's hard to be disciplinedin that part of your life.

Bryan (01:03:11):
Yeah. For sure. As we've said, you've flown on two fixed
wing SAR aircraft and have flownnumerous SAR missions. What
makes a great fixed wing SARpilot?

Dan (01:03:21):
Adaptability. You have to be able to come up with a plan
that works and then change theplan when things change. And
that can be weather,serviceability, the other
aircraft that you're workingwith or even what's going on
with the patient. So you have tobe willing and able to adapt and
and think ahead, but you alsohave to be resilient. So you you

(01:03:43):
have to be able to you justsearched for for nine hours and
now you're being told, okay, thesearch is done.
You have to be able to just gohome and then the next night the
next night, you might be taskedon a completely new mission and
you have to be able to switchgears and go and do it. So
adaptability and resilience.

Bryan (01:04:05):
Okay. If you were talking to a young pilot that wants to
fly SAR, what advice would yougive them?

Dan (01:04:11):
Do it. It's super, super fulfilling. Yeah. It's a really,
really great career. It'sapplicable to other careers.
If you want to go do somethingelse afterwards, you're going to
be an excellent instrument pilotif you're a search and rescue
pilot because that's like ourbread and butter. And just don't

(01:04:33):
listen when people tell you thatyou're not gonna be able to do
something. Just do it and provethem wrong or give it your best
shot and then move on to whatyou can accomplish. But don't
let other people tell you whatyour limits are.

Bryan (01:04:46):
Yeah. Don't let someone else set your limitations.
Absolutely. Yeah. Dan.
That does it for our chat todayon fixed wing SAR. I just wanna
thank you so much for being heretoday. For the listeners, Dan
was down in Winnipeg for a worktrip and he made the trip out
here to Portage to do this inperson. So I know you're a very
busy guy and I just reallyappreciate your time. So thank

(01:05:06):
you.

Dan (01:05:06):
No. I appreciate the opportunity. I love the podcast
and and I love the message thatyou're that you're sending to
the next generation and thecurrent generation. So thank
you.

Bryan (01:05:15):
Thanks, Fly safe. Always. Alright. That wraps up our two
part chat with major Dan Conwayabout his career in fixed wing
search and rescue as well as thefuture of fixed wing search and
rescue with the CC two nine fiveKingfisher. For our next
episode, we'll be sitting downwith captain Aaron Edwards, a CH
one forty six Griffin pilot whohas served with four two seven
special operations aviationsquadron, a recipient of the LC

(01:05:39):
McGill award, and a currentCAPCOM in Houston working with
NASA.
Do you have any questions orcomments about anything you've
heard in this show? Would you orsomeone you know make a great
guest, or do you have a greatidea for a show? You can reach
out to us at [e-mail] or
on all social media at at podpilotproject. And be sure to
check out that social media forlots of great videos of our RCAF

(01:06:01):
aircraft. As always, we'd liketo thank you for tuning in and
ask for your help with the bigthree.
That's like and follow us onsocial media, share with your
friends, and follow and rate usfive stars wherever you get your
podcasts. That's all for now.Thanks for listening. Keep the
blue side up. See you.

Intro/outro (01:06:18):
Engineer, shut down all four. Shutting down all four
engines.