Pay at WA Skydiving Academy?

[Okavango]

Hi. Just wondering what pay (if any) there is likely to be for meat bombing ops at WA Skydiving Academy? Does anyone have recent experience with them or similar companies?

[D-J]

$20 a load :eek::eek: Ive gotta move to WA

In the east we get a $50 for showing up & between $5-10 a load

[Okavango]

Thanks. How many loads are typical for an average day?

[YPJT]

Wow WA Skydiving Academy paying pilots :eek: I never thought I'd see the day.

There was a time when the dodgy pommies running that outfit were adamant that they were doing you a huge favour by letting you fly their clapped out 182s for free and therefore gaining valuable experience to further help your aviation career.:yuk:

Okavango, Not sure how much they are doing these days but during the summer months you could do maybe 10 or more loads on a busy day. Other days average 4 or 6 only. So $20 per load wouldn't be a bad sort of remuneration with average sortie times around .5

[D-J]

pretty much for us, excluding 'bad' weather days 5 loads is pretty much the min, do 15 loads in a 182 & you won't stop for the better part of the day.
we pretty much average between 8-10 loads a day

[Krazy]

D-J - you obviously work as a meatbomber. At the risk of getting pissed on by everyone in this forum, you don't know of any Sky Diving places in the East looking for pilots to fill loads by any chance do you? (full time, weekends, whatever)

[D-J]

not a lot going on at the moment, whats your history? (pm me)

[Wanderin_dave]

Commando's at Tooradin near melbourne seem to be looking for drivers fairly regularily. Don't know about pay, but they're busy most weekends if the weather's reasonable. They use 2 x 206s and occasionally a GA-8.

[training wheels]

They use 2 x 206s and occasionally a GA-8.

And I assume you'll need 10 hours on type PIC?

I read here (http://docs.apf.asn.au/index.php/Jump_Pilots#SPECIFIC_AIRCRAFT_OPERATIONS) that 172RG time is equivalent to C182 time on type. But, are operators willing to accept 172RG time, or do they actually want 10 hours on the C182?

[D-J]

(d) has not less than 10 hours aeronautical experience as pilot in command of the aircraft type from which the descent is made. For high-wing Cessna aeroplanes, time accrued on the more complex types may be credited for the less complex types in accordance with Appendix 3 (of this manual); and

I think it would depend on the operator whilst the 172rg might be as / more complicated than the 182, when you have 6 bums & 2 loads of fuel she's quite different to the 172.....

Another thing to keep in mind is there are a few suped up 182's kicking around, ours has a 520 up front & wing tip extensions so you can run out of elevator real quick if you get it wrong

[aseanaero]

182's kicking around, ours has a 520 up front & wing tip extensions

All you need now is lift spoilers / speed brakes for the perfect baby jump plane

Precise Flight used to do a C182 kit but I just checked their website and they only do a C210 kit now , pity.

A lot of 182s in the US used them and they were getting 3,250 fpm descents out of them

[higherplane]

Here's a little secret for you. The operators up north aren't going to give a sh*t about hours you have meat bombing. Maybe having a "210 endorsement" (don't get me started, I know there is no such thing, but a lot of them like to see you've done a couple of ccts in a 210 with an instructor) will help a little. Forget meat bombing all of you guys trying to 'gain hours', it's a completely unnecessary, and dangerous step. I hardly know anybody I work with that has done it.

You are much better off packing your stuff up heading up north settling down in your town of choice (Broome, Kunnas etc.) and waiting your turn for a charter job.

[Lineboy4life]

flown cessna 172's, 180's, 182's, 185's, 206's, 402's and even a little in a DHC-2 on skydiving ops and loved every minute of it...(well almost every minute:eek:)

Great people, parties and the money wasn't all that bad either (10 bucks a tandem out the door at 6-8000 tdm's per annum),

Sure there are a few rogues out there (like any aspect of GA) but if you get the right operator I'd say go for it - a great first job and an easy way to get to that 1000 hr milestone, hell nowadays their even starting newbies in turbines (caravans/pacs/Cresco's).

Meat bombings not a job you'd do for ever but in a recession with not much on offer its a good place to wait it out until one of the airline's offer to screw you over.:}

[D-J]

Here's a little secret for you. The operators up north aren't going to give a sh*t about hours you have meat bombing. Maybe having a "210 endorsement" (don't get me started, I know there is no such thing, but a lot of them like to see you've done a couple of ccts in a 210 with an instructor) will help a little. Forget meat bombing all of you guys trying to 'gain hours', it's a completely unnecessary, and dangerous step. I hardly know anybody I work with that has done it.

You are much better off packing your stuff up heading up north settling down in your town of choice (Broome, Kunnas etc.) and waiting your turn for a charter job.


Your definatly high.... & out of touch

[The Green Goblin]

leave the meat bombing for the Kiwis, we'll keep the charter thanks :ok:

(although if you get a start on the van take it, will come in handy if you head to Broome/Kunnus or Darwin with a bit of time on the Van)

[j3pipercub]

Higherplane,

Never went Oooop Norf, first job flying vans meatbombing. Got 800 total with 500 command turbine. Got my second job flying in S/E.qld courtesy of that meatbombing time, the chief pilot liked the way I'd been taught to operate efficiently.

Never flown a Cessna, Beechcraft or Piper twin (Bongo all the way!!) , and now in an awesome job.(Twin turbine) in the tropics in qld. I owe my experiences and luck partly to meatbombing.

I'd wager a meatbomber in a Cresco/Caravan works a damn side harder than a twin driver on a 3 hour charter...

So higherplane, be careful ragging out the jump truckers, they work harder than you do I'd wager

j3

[flog]

Hmm. Those dissing meat bombing I don't think have spent any time thinking about the workload and conditions. You're running 10-15 cycles daily, MTOW every time, minimum fuel, effeciency all the way (you get a MTOW 182 to 12,000' as fast as you can and I'll bet I can show you a jump trucker that will get there faster), and engine management on the way down critical (show me a new jump pilot and I'll show you a 182/206 that needs a new front right cylinder).

I fly two commercial ops (no, don't point out that it's not comercial - I get paid). One is flying aerobatics in a warbird, the other is meat bombing. both are high workload, intense, and saftey critical. The jump trucking is the harder of the two.

FYI Commando's in YTND are trying to cut back on the number of pilots - there's just too many once a qtr flyers at the moment...

Flog.

[romeocharlie]

I think you'll find that seeing as the two skydive operations in Cairns use caravans, and that there are plenty of companies in Australia that also use caravans - doing a few hours skydive flying in one isn't the silliest idea. IMHO a fair percentage of the guys that fly charter and RPT out of good old YBCS (and moving onto airlines such as Royal Brunei, Virgin, Qantas and Quatar) did skydiving at one stage or another.

It's a stepping stone people.

[BubbaMc]

I was told recently that WA Skydiving Academy currently expects their pilots to work for free. Can anyone verify this is the case?

Cheers, and apologies for the huge thread bump.

[zanthrus]

They did not pay pilots when I was there in the late 90's.
I expect a leopard never changes its spots.

[notjustanotherpilot]

"I'm surprised CASA haven't shut them down yet after the amount of accidents/near misses they've had... "




As opposed to the York operation?
I know which one I'd rather not be at.
I think times and operational methodologies have changed at several DZs. How much any of them pay I don't know, but could be dependant on the capacity of the "employment" such as pilot only or chief pilot or what.
Just an idea for thought.

[fencehopper]

I think you will find that Skydive the Beach run just about all the WA DZs now. Probably 90% of Aussie DZ's are run or controlled by them.
If you want a job suggest you go talk to them find out what their requirements are.

[notjustanotherpilot]

StB have only the one DZ in WA last I heard, unless calling their temporary DZs at Rockingham and Langley Park qualifies, and if that is so then the other operators also have several DZs where they drop into.

Jurien Bay, Busselton, Pinjarra, Hillman (when they operate) and I'm not sure if there is still one in the Pilbara are all separate.

On the other hand StB seem to be cornering the market on the east coast, but 90% of the market is a tad over stated (although I'm sure they are trying).
Given that most of their operations are turbine I guess that will give a starter as to what would be required to get into it apart from the total hours in command and hours on type etc.