Helicopter Jobs

(Hennie) wrote in message om...
Rocky,
You are right nothing much has changed except for the color
of my hair and the size of my tummy. Who would ever forget Ollie
and the radio highveld helicopter.

You should know that a pilot sometimes learn a lot just from hangar
talk and that is why we would love to hear some more stories.
Please!!!!!!!!!

Regards

Hennie
Hennie
Lets start another topic regarding some of the flying adventures shall we?
Cheers
Rocky


Voetsok with the stories!! Passed Kroonstad many times enroute to
Welkom when I worked for Astra Helicopters at Rand in Germiston. That
was a job that allowed me to see South Africa in its entirety. Doing
contract flying for ESCOM and way leaving for the power lines. Got to
see the country top to bottom, coast to coast. Even flew the Radio
HiVeldt traffic watch with Ollie in the earliest days with a Bell 206A
model. Barely enough power to carry him, the radios and me up there at
6000 ft but it was fun.
Even so, the money was only enough to pay the rent and food plus a few
incidentals. Hasn't changed all that much since 1974 has it?
Cheers -Rocky

(John) wrote in message . com...
I've been hearing very contradicting statements about helicopeter
jobs.

Some sources say that there just aren't any and the ones that are
there are very low. Say 20-30k a year. However, other sources claim
that pilots are becoming scarce, and that new pilots aren't coming
along quick enough to replace the vietnam era pilots as they are
retiring. Also that starting salaries are around 30-50k depending on
your source. And many sources i've found say the avg. helicopter
salary is 100k.

So what i would like to know is what does the job market look like,
how easy/hard is it to get a job as a comercial helicopter pilot. And
how much do they pay?

John
As an added story for you, and one that I have posted before, that
illustrates how a low time pilot can get a job and make "decent" money
with low time. He is from UK, came to visit our spray operation and
ask about work. He was quite proud of his private license and a total
of 65 hours in helicopters. We hired him as a mechanic and
loader/ground crew with a promise to let him fly with us as time
permitted. We were operating piston and turbine Hiller 12's. Over the
years season, he worked hard at near minimum wage and we did give him
some stick time going to and from work areas. He had the bug bad and
borrowed enough money to finish his commercial rating with Helicopter
Adventures in Concord. He came back to work for us and hoping to get
more time logged. I worked with him to show him the basics of spraying
as a pilot (he already knew the other parts) and we started to let him
fly the really easy stuff. He was still working for minimum wage and
didn't get all THAT much time but he was getting seasoned. The
following season, the boss let him fly more in the "C" model and began
paying him normal new guy spray wages, but still paid him lower for
the ground duty and wrench turning. He stuck with it, has been
spraying every year now, has crashed a couple helicopters, has been to
the AStar school and flies one of them on corporate gigs for a local
farmer. He is making about 45K now and happy with it. We nicknamed him
"Spanner" when he said thats what they call mechanics in UK and it
stuck. He is flying the helicopter shown on page 39 of Flight Journal
April 2002. That is at least one successful story I can relate.
Ol Shy & Bashful

If you are a helciopter pilot, why not share your story of what it
took to get where you are, and how much your salary happens to be.

It seems very difficult to find any reliable information about these
jobs.

Thanks,
JOHN