Work / Life Balance

[downtownboy]

I posted on here a little while ago with a barage of questions and had excellent, thoughtful responses from a lot of people for which I was very grateful and as such I have since decided to pursue my dream career as a helicopter pilot.

I have one last area I needed to ask about though which is your work / life balance as a helicopter pilot.

What are you typical work patterns and do you find it overtakes your personal life?

And if for example you are working a 6 day on 6 day off rotation, do you find your free time is all taken catching up on the last 6 days or does it feel like you have an abundance of time off to pursue your other interests or even businesses?

[ShyTorque]

Overtakes it?

Being a helicopter pilot IS your personal life. :hmm:

[helimutt]

Typical work pattern? I wish! Work/Life balance? I've never believed that as much chaos existed in the universe.
Life as a helicopter pilot? Be prepared to travel, or live close to a McDonalds! Contracts and companies change with alarming frequency.

Don't expect it all to be 6/6 etc
I usd to have a work life balance, unfortuantely now, my scales have gone missing!!!
:uhoh:

[paco]

"Contracts and companies change with alarming frequency"

Don't they just! Don't buy/rent a house near where you work - find where you want to live and rotate round it!

Phil

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Paco has it right - live where you want, work where you must.

Best idea is to find something you want to do and find someone who'll pay you to do it - you never "work" again. Being a floater onshore in the UK might not be the best paid job (then again, who became a heli pilot to get rich?) but it beats all the others into a cocked hat when it comes to variety and sheer enjoyment.

I left a fairly-well-paid contract in the Middle East to start HEMS/Police/lighthouse work, and (for family reasons) turned down an even better offer from an exceptional unit in Oman after visiting them and looking around for 2 weeks. I'd have loved the place (as I did 25 years earlier) but it wasn't right for all of us. Make sure you know what your priorities are and stick to them!

[Helinut]

All the previous posts seems pretty sensible insights to me.

Most things in helicopters are temporary. If "it" was permanent, they would build an airport next to it or a motorway to it, rendering us heles redundant. There are one or two things that can't be done any other way than rotary though.....

There is a lot to be said for basing your home where you want to live and then working away from home. This may be particularly important for keeping any partners and rug rats happy. That certainly applies to me, although I now have a home from home too, just to confuse matters.

Part of the enjoyment of heles is the variety. For me, I have found that changing the type of work pattern from time to time is also beneficial. So I have had periods where I have worked as a "relief pilot" all over the place. As T&B says, lots of advantages, and you learn a lot. However, the downside is the non-working time you spend away from home. It is important to try and make as much use of that down time as you can. Eventually, though, (IMHO) you get fed up with "never being at home". I have managed to do spells as a floater and then take a fixed job. This change gives a chance to get the work-life balance a bit more sensible, until I get bored again.

The other reason/need for change is make progress in your flying career. There is not much chance to progress your entire career with one employer, so you need to expect to move from time to time.

Perhaps one thing to realise is that you never get it completely right permanently.

[handbag]

If you want to chase the big bucks then you need to go where the work is. There are still a good number of 9 to 5 home every night jobs out there, maybe don't pay so much but they are there.

[polar57]

I find the "life" part over rated anyway :ugh:.

Seriously you will either live full time somewhere you don't want to be, but have a reasonable amount of pay / and time off, or do rotation somewhere you really don't want to be and then live somewhere you do.

Hope that makes sense.

Basically the general rule is more you want to be paid, the worse the crap hole you have to work in.

The nice south England jobs where you can still have a life tend to be lower pay, or difficult to get into. You could come to the lovely NE Scotland have lots of time off but your 3 hrs drive to um somewhere else.

Don't mean to upset anyone here, just need a change.

[Bladecrack]

Have to agree with ShyTorque on this one...

I gave up:

1. Weekends
2. Social Life
3. Family life
4. Being debt free (in this life anyway)
5. Many friends (see 1 & 2)

Im now in a good well paid job doing the kind of flying I enjoy, would I do it all again to fly helicopters for a living? Answer: NO!

Sorry for the depressing reality check...:{

I'll get me coat..:E

[ShyTorque]

The loss of weekend days off really gets to me at times. I no longer have real friends or social life because they've come to realise that I'm either flying already and won't be home until really late, or going flying tomorrow and must leave really early. I regret not being able to spend time with my family, especially as one of my children is at school.

Roster? No such thing. It's just me and the machine. If I want to book a day off I have to find someone else who is current on type to replace me or get lucky that the aircraft is in maintenance. My days off are the ones in retrospect when I wasn't required to fly or plan a trip, find landing sites, make bookings, etc etc. Dentist? Just managed to get to an appointment having cancelled three times in four months for the tooth filling I needed. Every time I make an appointment for that or almost anything else - JOB!

[Bladecrack]

I feel your pain Shy...

The ironic thing for me now is that after years of working weekends, in my current job I rarely now have to, but as most of my friends are still "weekend warrior" type pilots I still have no social life as they all go out during the week...:{

Unfortunately I don't have a back up pilot to cover me so, no being off sick, only schedule appointments around work, and only go on holiday when the boss is away on holiday...

However, all moaning aside (and all helicopter pilots I know are never happy and moan about everything anyway) I know how lucky I am to be doing something I like (which pays the bills, just about) especially in these hard economic times, and I remember how keen I was starting out all those years ago, so if your willing to make the sacrifices and REALLY REALLY want to do it, well, you only live once so go for it. :ok:

[Quichotte]

Shy, i know exactly what you wrote. It's a special way. After the first 10 years as helicopterpilot i found me on one remarkable day exhaustet, alone and depressive.

The first years were so impressive, i loved flying, i got permanent new ratings, new tasks, new clients, new countries, new hotel rooms :) anyday news!. My logbook was full of hours, about 700h p.a. I never mentioned that i was beginning to loose my friends, my social background, my link to the normal world. Never saw a new film during this time, never visited a theater, never gone hunting, never... never... never... just barbecues with the collegues somewhere next to a parked helicopter or sleeping like a brick after long days. The first company collabsed after 3 years, no problem up to the next. The next wasn't better, also not the others... One day i became clear in my brain and went into HEMS. Sometimes it's boring and i miss the old amazing days. But my life is now in good shape.Because i'am a helicopterpilot living like a human.