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Thread: Fly in/out Oil jobs picking back up? What's it like?

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    Default Fly in/out Oil jobs picking back up? What's it like?

    Just curious if anyone does this sort of thing, what to expect, pros and cons etc.

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    Definitely different depending on a lot of things:
    -Who you work for
    -What your personal life situation is like
    -What your job will be there
    -What your work schedule will be
    -What your personality is like during the downtime

    I don't do it anymore for personal reasons related to all of the above, but happy to chat over a coffee / beer if you want?

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    ^+1

    Used to do it, but getting married changed that quickly.

    I was working 7 and 7, with 12 hour days so no real spare time to hang out and socialize at camp. I was at a good clean large camp with very decent food (Albian village). Basically my life was wake up, work 12h, gym, eat, get lunch for tomorrow, sleep. They did have things like rec league sports and movie nights etc.

    Even though I had the nicer level of rooms, and my own personal room so I would leave stuff there (towel and laundry service also) it eventually started feeling like prison. This is pre covid also, so this info is about 4 years old. Also as mentioned, don't be a contractor, their rooms are pretty close to what I imagine prison to be (shared bathrooms ugh).

    Vacation is pretty cool though, you take 1 week off and you basically have 3 weeks off.
    Last edited by DonJuan; 06-13-2022 at 02:49 PM.

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    Pfffft, you want the 21/7 shift.
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    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

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    I have kids, can i have the 365/7 shift please.

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    Pretty much all the same.

    Fly in
    Work
    Fly out
    Repeat for a few years
    Divorce because you're never around your SO anymore

    Encana was pretty good though, you leave a large duffel bag or luggage thing there plus whatever you fly with. Land, grab your bags, unpack your room for 2 weeks, then pack it up and toss it in storage until you're back. Different room each time but they're all the same anyways. Food was good, gym was nice but always busy, rec room was blah because too many people.

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    Quote Originally Posted by pheoxs View Post
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    ...
    Encana was pretty good though, you leave a large duffel bag or luggage thing there plus whatever you fly with. Land, grab your bags, unpack your room for 2 weeks, then pack it up and toss it in storage until you're back. Different room each time but they're all the same anyways. ...
    Every time I hear about camp experiences of others I realize I had it pretty good and I shouldn't say anything.

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    Lived the life for long enough when I was younger.

    I personally think its false economy; you'll never be able to earn as much elsewhere, so eventually you'll be faced with taking a paycut to come back to reality.

    I also found social time to suffer drastically when on time off. Reality is that most people are home in the evenings after work, and somewhat more available on weekends.

    Nobody is going out for drinks on a weekday evening, so if you enjoy being with your friends or family, it really sucks.

    1/10 would not recommend. Especially because you probably travel unpaid, and possibly on one of your own days off, so that needs to be factored in to your actual hourly take home.

    Can you earn lots of money? Yes. If that's all that matters to you, then I guess its worth it. Strongly agree with the divorce comment, probably runs a 50-60% rate up there.
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    If I had known you guys would end up being such bitches, I would’ve opened the parenting forum.

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    Quote Originally Posted by DonJuan View Post
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    Every time I hear about camp experiences of others I realize I had it pretty good and I shouldn't say anything.
    idk I don’t see having a private room really being any different. Saves all of half hour unpacking I guess but I’d also rather just have all my stuff packed away where it’s safe from any staff going in my room.

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    I'm a FIFO at suncor staying at Mount Logan on a 7/7 12 hour days on maintenance. 7 on is good because just as you get tired, it's time to go home.

    I dont earn a ton of money considering, but I do ok and it's solid never ending work being a maintenance welder. I honestly thing being away for the 7 days helps my relationship, because I'm actually a cunt.

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    Quote Originally Posted by tcon View Post
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    Just curious if anyone does this sort of thing, what to expect, pros and cons etc.
    I've done it. Not a fan of staying in some shit construction/contractor camp. But overall it's pretty good.

    The downsides are the same as any job that you would have to commute for. Being away from home, not getting daily face time with your kids if you have them, struggling to get projects done around the house. etc.
    -Also, there is so much good food and snacks in camp, which is all free, that it's hard to maintain the will power of avoiding it and not getting fat.

    The benefits of camp though I find to outweigh the negatives.
    -No commute for work, you're usually a quick 10min bus ride from your worksite.
    -No meal prepping or grocery shopping. Wake up, grab food from the line, and wolf down breakfast. Grab whatever you like for lunch and toss it in your bag. Then after work, it's easy to smash a workout in, then shower and go down for supper. And have plenty of time for 8 hours sleep still.
    -No fuel costs, which can be important in this day and age
    -No miling out a vehicle for work


    Overall it's very smooth and relaxing compared to physical commuting. I did FIFO in camp when commissioning Suncor Fort Hills project for a year. And now I commute from Edmonton to Fort Mac(thanks covid!) on my own dime. I hate it. I spend around 10k/year in fuel, and 12k/yr in rent. Plus I have a half hour drive to work from town, and then back again after shift. By the time I hit the gym and get my food together for work, shower, etc. I'm lucky if I can get 7 hours in bed.

    If you're not used to working out of town, then it's an adjustment with home life for sure. If I go to work for a week, it means I didn't get a single thing done around the house, so now I have chores piled up when I get home. But My wife has essentially been a single mom for a week dealing with everything herself, so she needs a break. Which means I don't get as much of my chores done as I want, and that backlog continues to pile up. Plus I'm pretty eager to hangout with my kid after missing him for a week, so i avoid certain chores that I can't involve him while doing.

    If I was a single guy, I would 100% be doing a 2week on/off camp rotation somewhere. And using Canada as nothing more than my transfer airport to get to Mexico or something on my days off and live there.

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    Been doing it since early 2013. 7 on/7 off. There was a push to change it to 14/14 by some men/women that didn't have families.... the one guy wanted to live in Rome and commute from there. But the family guys shut that shit down quick and we stayed on 7/7.

    Camp life is getting old. Breakfast/Supper meals are too repetitive but aren't terrible. (Not great, not terrible.) Lunches are fucked and makes a guy shake his head with disappointment. But almost 10 years later, camp life is turning into an annoyance. BUT being fed for free is great, no spending money. Our rooms are modeled around a somewhat hotel style so we have our own bathrooms.

    Commute by 737 isn't too bad. I like aviation and enjoy flying so there's that. The airline ontime performance is pretty good so not much for delays over the years.

    We basically get paid a premium to stay on site as we are technically "on call" while in camp. But I have never been called in out of bed like that. I have had to stay late for 16 hour days a few times over the years but have been able to sleep in the next morning to compensate. Decent flexibility on that.

    I have no kids. Wife mostly works for the week I'm away. Relationship is fine. Kids would be a different story tho. I do miss a lot of events tho,.... weddings, funerals, graduations and the like, friends partying on the weekends I'm not home. The good news is I have a lot of my family who are also on a 7/7 schedule and we're all on the same rotation so family dinners/camping and what not are always a go and easy to plan.

    Overall, I find FIFO not too bad, if you can handle the bullshit in camp.
    Looking around
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    Have done it off and on for a lot of my career. As soon as I got married and the talks about kids have been more serious (clocks ticking I'm not do subtlety being told!), I actively made a point to find something that was in town. Less money but more regularity.

    I've worked with some guys who have FaceTimed watching their kids open gifts on Christmas. Told myself then and there that would never be me.
    Ultracrepidarian

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    Tl;dr 0/10 recommend if you can make even close to as much money while living a normal life.

    Flying elsewhere for work is just great when you’re single; less so when you’re married… would never do it now that I have kids.

    I spent lots of time flying earlier in my career, usually out Monday morning and home thur evening. Some of it to nicer camps up north (new, my own bathroom, desk, recliner, etc), some to hotels in real cities. Only one camp I stayed at had good food, but it burned in the fires (black sand exec lodge… my room had two queen beds, wtf).

    The experience is partially dependent on what kind of living quarters and commute you have, but I assume also what type of job you have. I rarely worked outside, but it seems like it sucks. Hot as balls in the summer, colder than a witches tit in the winter. There’s a reason unskilled labourers can make as much money as they do up north.

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    Quote Originally Posted by cjblair View Post
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    Tl;dr 0/10 recommend if you can make even close to as much money while living a normal life.

    Flying elsewhere for work is just great when you’re single; less so when you’re married… would never do it now that I have kids.

    I spent lots of time flying earlier in my career, usually out Monday morning and home thur evening. Some of it to nicer camps up north (new, my own bathroom, desk, recliner, etc), some to hotels in real cities. Only one camp I stayed at had good food, but it burned in the fires (black sand exec lodge… my room had two queen beds, wtf).

    The experience is partially dependent on what kind of living quarters and commute you have, but I assume also what type of job you have. I rarely worked outside, but it seems like it sucks. Hot as balls in the summer, colder than a witches tit in the winter. There’s a reason unskilled labourers can make as much money as they do up north.
    Maybe it's different for me. I find the separation and having a full week at home, not just a weekend really helps with everyone's sanity at my house.

    My kid would like me home every night, but at the same time, I only really see him for maybe an hour or 2 a night other than weekends.

    Summer time when he's home and I'm off for a week, I can do things with him constantly, not just an hour or 2 a night and on weekends.

    I dunno, I like it that way. I've worked outside most of my career and ya it sucks, but that's the career I chose and i knew that it was going to be this way.

    However, the job I'm doing now, most of the stuff is actually inside buildings, so im rarely outside working, maybe 25% of the time or less.

    The camp is really good, the food is decent generally and ya, you save a boatload by not being home every night spending money on food.

    I wanted to be closer to home and make the same as what I have now, but the reality is, having 2 days off at a time sucks, I much prefer working half the year.

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    I write this as I'm on bus to work..

    I've essentially been working this schedule since 2010. Previous to that I worked for a company that had no set schedule and we worked waaaaay more, I didn't know any better.

    Everything's basically been covered already. It's totally a personal decision if it works for you and your family (if you have one). I met my wife while working this schedule, she knew what she was signing up for. For us, pros outweigh the cons.

    I algin more with what 03ozwhip is saying, things could change down the road but for now I don't see things changing.

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    I think a lot of people forget what time is like for kids under the age of 10-12. A week is forever to them. My father worked shift work as an operator which was bad enough on his night shift stretch as effectively he wasn't around then.

    Not trying to guilt trip you guys or anything, this point seems to allude people. Now that I am older, I can see as a kid having less money vs more dad time would have been way better for me. We're very close, but you never get that time back.

    Food for thought.
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    If I had known you guys would end up being such bitches, I would’ve opened the parenting forum.

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    Quote Originally Posted by msommers View Post
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    I've worked with some guys who have FaceTimed watching their kids open gifts on Christmas. Told myself then and there that would never be me.
    The year I left my shift was about to start 7 years of missing Christmas. So I bit the bullet took a 30% pay cut and found a job in town. 4 Years later I'm almost at the same take home pay as when I used to FIFO. I'd only do it again if I was single, for that week no expenses is pretty sweet but in most cases it can be straining on relationships. Almost everyone I worked with was single or divorced. You hear rumors about camp STD's, and other shenanigans going around, some of it is WILD. 12h shift and valuing my sleep kept me out of trouble. I'd basically fly in and count the days till you leave.

    +1 what Zechs said. Even if it's only 2-3 hours I get to spend with my 18mo old daughter afterwork, it's the highlight of my day.

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    I did 10/4 out of university. Great money; lifestyle sucked and it wasn't a fit for me. You usually miss hangouts with friends because when you're back in town for four days, two of those days you're catching up on sleep and the other two, they have other stuff planned. I wake up at 5AM to catch my ride and be cooped up in a portablle office for 10-12 hours a day.

    I lasted 7 months.
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    I ain't worried 'bout it right now..

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    Never did the shift work. Wife was very clear it would mean divorce. I appreciated the clarity.
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    You realize you are talking to the guy who made his own furniture out of salad bowls right?

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