Casual employment?

[sgenie]

I've been hearing a lot about pilots looking for jobs. I wonder, though, if there is a market for casual jobs for pilots. The area I am interested in is Auckland. There used to be patches of GA activity employing/using pilots on casual basis - glider towing, parachute ops, scenic flights and such. It has all dried up. So, without too much of a sarcasm - is there still such thing as a casual engagement for the pilots?

[50 50]

HAHAHAHAHA

[BNEA320]

contract work ?

[sgenie]

Contracts are even rarer, I reckon - apart from large companies, that can afford legal complication of the contracts.

[skkm]

Why all the snide responses?

My operator has casual pilots, so they do exist.

[sgenie]

And this is something I've been pondering about. Many of the aviation-related businesses complain about high costs, expenses etc - small operators may actually benefit greatly by employing casual stuff. If you only call a pilot for a flight when there is a flight requested and you pay only for the flight time leaving the rest of the expenses to the pilots (well, not something pleasing but it is a necessary evil) then the operator can greatly slash unproductive expenses. May be a bit naive but similar scheme works in other types of businesses - why can't it work in small aviation?

[deadcut]

Sgenie,

I can't figure out if you are just taking the piss or think that you have re-invented the wheel.
I most small businesses already pay their pilots casual wages.

To give you an example:
Take two operators in Auckland: One pays a full time wage which is literally the minimum wage and to get the privilege you need to have 750 hours which you probably would have gotten from instructing and earning even less.

Second operators pays a day rate so if you don't fly for a week you don't get paid.

Small aviation business are struggling and pilot wages aren't the reason.

[Terrorhawk81]

And you still have the cost of training and compliance with casuals even if they are not flying. Much better to have someone full time then you can flog them to the max of flight and duty too 😈.......

[sgenie]

deadcut: neither. Simply curious. For some reason aviation community seems to tend towards very sarcastic bunch and quite often even a simple question is taken as an insult. Mine was not. I've been watching the development of GA (at least in NZ) for a number of years and I do think now it is a well-designed and well-oiled Ponzi scheme. My question about casual employment was more a theoretical one.

[Runaway Gun]

sgenie says If you only call a pilot for a flight when there is a flight requested and you pay only for the flight time leaving the rest of the expenses to the pilots


A difficulty comes in that the pilot has spent a lot of time and money just to be hireable, and still has weekly living and yearly aviation costs. Such an 'hourly' rate would have to be high to secure a pilot to return and remain hireable.

[deadcut]

Look mate I didn't mean to be a dick to you but GA wages are a sore point in the aviation community, hence the snide and sarcastic remarks towards you.

GA in New Zealand (bar a few companies) is a joke and the owners/operators will not look after you in terms of remuneration after you have sacrificed so much. This had lead to a vicious cycle of high pilot turn over (when Air NZ is hiring) and the situation gets worse.

[sgenie]

Aye, and hence my comment about the Ponzi scheme. If a business can only consume that much of the resources (read pilots) what is the point in creating larger supply? Casual employment mechanism allows for the business owners to optimise their cashflow without sacrificing the range of the services. Granted, pilots here are those who suffer most financially but such model gives them at least a chance to build up their experience/time. It is not supposed to be a wage earner for the pilots, merely a tool to sustain and develop their skills. Similar to CFIs, by the way.

[Captain Nomad]

sgenie, there is no shortage of this working arrangement in GA - it is far from a new idea. I spent the first 5 years of my pilot career employed as a casual. At one stage I was employed casually in 3 jobs at the same time. 2 different flying jobs and a factory job in the afternoons/nights. I thought I was sure to get a full-time slot once when a full time member left and guess what? The position was replaced by two casuals. During this time all I wanted was a full-time gig somewhere and it took a long time coming...

Flying schools particularly benefit from casuals as often the instructor is only paid for their flying hours with most briefing work, upkeep of student notes (do you know how many hundred signatures are required in the CBT day VFR syllabus before you can send a student solo?), supervising of instructors and flying school operations (in the absence of CFI on weekends etc), office work, answering phones etc all being carried out unpaid. It can be depressing for a career pilot after years of working hard in this environment where they spend 2-3 times more time in unpaid work for relatively small number of hours flying and no internal employment progression on the horizon. The Grade 1 instructor casual wages might look good but when you consider how much unpaid work is required along with it, the REAL hourly rate can work out a lot worse than working at Maccas - and that's for a Grade 1!

Have worked under the daily rate too and more often than not the employer gets a very good deal under that arrangement also.

Believe me, if there is a way for a GA employer to cut costs with pilot employment it has already been tried somewhere. For a career pilot though, nothing beats a proper full-time salaried position.