Best country to start career

[wingslikehercules]

So, what country do you reckon gives the best start to a helicopter pilot career? America as is has more heli's? Australia because of tourism and mustering? or somewhere else.

[Evil Twin]

Not being facetious but probably the one you plan to work in is best.

[Frying Pan]

As the 'Great' J.Clarkson once said....the best place in the world to live in....Norway, Sweden, Australia....not necessarily, it's the place where your friends are. So, from there, fly where you're most comfortable. Every country has it's merits and woes, without knowing anything else about you it's pretty hard to give any answer.

Good luck though.

P.s Did Hercules really have wings?

[Bravo73]

Which country/countries have you got a 'right to work' in? (Passport, work visa, green card etc)

This is ultimately going to determine where you are going to be able to find work.

[Arrrj]

WLH,

It's "straya" mate.

Arrrj

[Gemini Twin]

Best bet, stay where you are! Aren't tourism and mustering pretty much the same thing?

[newfieboy]

Canada....extreme,remote,mountains,fjords,-40c,+40c,hot and high,Arctic,wildlife,fires,offshore.....yep got it all.

[MartinCh]

to START career, ie low timer, starting from scratch and no specialist skills in aircraft engineering to get foot in door or ex-mil stuff?
Strictly civvy?

Well, handful of Asian and African countries' nationals get sponsored by big companies or upon managing ANY CPL(H), get straight to copilot job offshore or similar. Some countries have companies offering 50% sponsorship of training cost and guaranteed spot (only not manageable if being total asshole and not passing all tests)

USA? Its great GA flying affords more jobs, but starting out can be tricky if not lucky or not having deep pockets to get hours up if not in often part time casual by the hours FI job or some scenics/photo flights. Great if you get in to military, after x amount of years get out. As flight crew, easy to convert to civilian ratings, if other duties, generous VA/GI bill/veteran benefits for 'retraining'. This alone keeps many schools ticking over nicely especially when unsecured private loans/credit were difficult previous years.

Canada? Nowadays probably the LAST place I'd like to be as freshly minted CPL pilot (100hr jock in TC system) due to all the obstacles such as insurance, having to move far from home to be 'ground crew' till having chance to fly a bit. Even R44 job shuffling pax around in S&L regime, asks for 500hrs or more. Yes, as higher experience pilot, it offers great variety if someone fancies stinkin' cold weather and being far from anywhere, but that's not the question.

NZ if you don't have cash and get most of the training paid for as government loan, then if no job due to having tons of newbie instructors and many jobs needing more experience, jumping to Australia and competing with local fresh CPL grads for R44 scenics/charter.

Everything's easier with enough money/funding options, being easy to get on with/fitting the bill for companies that may hire you, etc etc. Oh, and being memorable/standing out (in positive way) as well. Persistence and effort often required when things not going as smooth as expected/planned.

Various European countries, ie Spain, Sweden, Norway, UK, Ireland have starter jobs as copilots on multicrew twins, but due to the past credit/remortgaging funds availability and people spending TONS of cash out of desperation/to get ahead, the twin IR(H) has sadly become 'standard' hiring criteria, thus being 185hr helicopter CPL grad with no cash and paying for life/loan, isn't position I'd like to be in in Europe. Some limited copiloting on twin VFR ops in Spain, elsewhere not sure. Again, if anything, jolly flights in R44 afford some job opportunities.

[newfieboy]

Yep typical, people always figure Canada the great white North. I'll remember that this next fire season when it's +35c. As for far from anywhere, well yes I'm currently in Baffin Island en route south from Alert, doesn't get any more remote than that. But the scenery,mountain flying, extreme weather etc makes it worth it and definitely keeps it interesting. Sure beats airport to airport in Europe or US.
As for low time, company I work for had low timers 200hrs flying Longrangers on spray last summer.They did fine........
Newfie

[hookes_joint]

F-glHAzXi_M

If it's all like this I can't imagine a better place to cut one's teeth in the industry. In the application process for a work permit and visa at the moment. Hope to be joining you soon Newfie

[jamhands]

Yup. That video accurately depicts the majority of the clientele (Drillers, loggers, juggies, oil and gas workers and firefighters) you will transport in Canada's remote work. And it's pretty well all remote work here. Never a dull moment and always lot's to see.

As for starting a career as a low timer in Canada. Well, its long tough road and as said before the amount of work without pilot minimums above 1000 hours is only getting more scarce.

[MartinCh]

Newfie, I spent some time in Oregon and 'venturing North' to Washington state over summers, which is around the corner from Southern BC, if I remember the 'insurance non-coverage and expensive fuel line' also commonly known as borders with Canada. ;)

Yes, summer isn't freezing at lower latitudes. I should have specified, but do people only really want to work 'in season' and go do something else rest of year? Anyone can grab stats for certain area and check climate and max/min temps. Just like not all of Australia is hot summer holiday resort year round.

One of my past instructors is hunting/fishing fan and seems happiest in wilderness of Alaska or Colorado in winter etc. Each to their own regarding remoteness, wild and climate (also extreme).

Great to hear about 200hr guys getting Jetranger flying. How many a year on average and how many other companies have such favourable first job? That is, if 100 to 200hr are overcome not too hard.

[whoofi]

At this moment.......i would say with no doubt .....Brazil.....

As far as i know there is a tremendous lack of helicopter pilots there......the big problem...you must be a Brazilian national.....

The Brazilian government doesnt give any work permits to foreign pilots.....there fore.....fresh out of the school pilots have big chances on getting a great job.

Regards

[newfieboy]

MartinCh
Mmmm think maybe venturing up 'north' to Washington state doesn't really count on knowing the Canuck helicopter industry very well. We do fly all year round you know, in fact winter is the best time for certain ops. I certainly don't have time to do other things. Most of my time is spent flying....As for summer not being freezing at lower latitudes, well it's early spring here, I was in Alert yesterday N82 50 latitude doesn't get much higher in lat than that.....was -5c sitting on top a 6000ft mountain, positively balmy......
I don't have stats for other companies, but the one I work for positively encourages low timers. I have seen quite a few come through the doors. I don't understand why you think it would be the last place to give a freshly minted CPL a go, with the right training and oversight the ones we have put in the seat do ok.
Flying in extreme remote places is what the helicopter is all about, n'est-il pas.

[Helilog56]

Canada's helicopter industry, let's see....heli logging, heli skiing, seismic, drilling, mining support, power line construction, pipeline construction, animal capture, EMS work, Schedule service, animal capture, offshore oil support, tourism, ENG, etc, etc.......!!!!!!
Yep, why would anyone want to work in Canada.......:}

[newfieboy]

Helilog

You forgot fires, forestry, spray, tree planting,remote camp support, bird tow, polar bear counts, caribou counts, moose counts, much much longline precision and production, oh f#ck it......I give up. Yeah why on earth are we working here........

[fijdor]

I think Martinch is not too far from the truth as far as Canada goes in the last 4 or 5 years. There are a lot of young Canadian Pilots looking for work around here for now, it might be different up in Newfoundland, even if some gets in, a lot are still looking.

I have been in the industry for 37 years and I would rather fly in Winter at -30 than fly the Oil Rigs in the North Sea or on the East Coast here, thanks but no tanks. It all depends what a person is comfortable with.

To answer the question, in theory Canada would be an excellent place to learn to fly because of the diversity of her Weather, from very cold to very hot, from Sea level to Mountain flying, from dry to really humid, the work itself like it has been said before is VERY diversified, you need to have some knowledge in a lot of Trades and that from one week to the next. You can be fighting fires one day and the next they send you on Flood control in the next Province.
But to get all that you need to get in as a young pilot and it is not the time now to do that.

JD

[MartinCh]

newfie,

the only reason I don't have Canadian commercial (converting) just yet, was that despite having done my initial Class 1 medical in 2011, I didn't get to go across border as I had some stuff to catch up/instrument f/w training, time to get back to Europe. As I wrote, I was not allowed to go across the border in school's N-reg Robinsons, even if I organised APIS/customs paperwork, due to insurance.

I do know that many low timer jobs don't need to be advertised online, but those that are, with very few exceptions (and then also doing ground crew only initially) are for more than just 100hr commercial grad. I also have kept track of some stuff but I guess not your company. I don't have enough hours to chance looking for job on Working Holiday visa and prefer to fly in warmer climate.

Brazil - yeah, for nationals it's pretty buoyant job market. From what I know, 500hrs rotary and pretty much guaranteed job offer for copiloting flying to oil rigs. Plenty R44 charter jobs for fresh commercial pilots - the high DA/max gross ops and limited pilot experience have resulted in handful of 'interesting' Raven crashes on youtube, which implies more not recorded on video.

[nuthin]

+ 1 for Canada. However if you can work in more than one country you may have a chance to build that first 500- 1000 hours faster than in Canada.

It is a big step from flight school to working in the bush in Canada. One of the reasons it can take 3-5 years for that first 1000 hours these days.

But overall if there is one place that has had a good track record over the last 10 years it would be Canada.

Alot of pilots out grow the utility sector available to 2000 hour pilots in their own country. That includes NZ, Oz, US, Europe.
They come to Canada often having never bucketed, long lined or worked in high mountains.
Sure the work may exist in their own land but it belongs to the 10000hr + guys that have already spent time in PNG, Canada etc.