Originally Posted by
krismiler
I had a mate who did a short spell with the RFDS,
Basically maintenance is as good as it gets, they can't afford to have an aircraft break down when a call comes in so write it up and it's fixed no questions asked.
They really look after you and job security is excellent.
By GA standards pay is good however he did mention that the flight nurse earned more than he did.
Base was determined by supply and demand, apparently Charleville was popular and no one wanted to leave.
You are required to live within a certain distance/time to the airport.
Single pilot IFR, and could be quite demanding when trying to land on a bush strip during a stormy night.
It's a unique job, like flying in Antarctica or being a seaplane pilot in the Maldives.
Sorry to labour the point but Krismillers mate only worked for the RFDS for a short time, why, could it be he/she couldn't get a sustainable wage? He goes on to mention "By GA standards the pay is good" The truth is that GA pay standards are appalling. The reasons for this are unchanged over 50 years that I know of, pilots working for below salary, flying unserviceable aircraft overweight and out of hours etc just to get the hours to get to the high paying gig in an airline, then sneering at GA as crap. Shonky operators cutting corners, tendering below par to get a contract and then putting the screws on pilots to make it work for them. And so we come to this now that the RFDS is claiming it's a global shortage of pilots that is responsible for their predicament, what garbage.
Make no mistake, the RFDS is not that cosy fuzzy Mother Theresa like benevolent organisation it makes out, it's a business, as ruthless and cutthroat as any other in this industry and a long way from the Rev. Flynn's idea of a community service.
And for a few obviously retired ex airline pilots to suggest that RFDS or GA pilots should just suck it up because they "want it all" and have lost sight of what life is all about or the CEO to suggest the "pilots give back to the sector" is the height of hypocrisy.
A look at the post from KRviator will give you an idea what is happening in the real world, he has to be the smartest guy to visit PPrune. We all know why his industry can afford to pay what they do, no shonky operators undercutting and no sycophantic drivers prepared to work for less. Costs passed onto the consumer, easy