Originally Posted by
ShaunLanc
Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply - bit of a mixed bag!
Yes I'd be willing to relocate for a job and I have a very supportive partner that is 7 years my junior so I have a bit of time on my side too.
My plan would be to do the CPL and then a flight instructors course as Helicentre apparently recruit all their flight instructors. After that I'd hope to build hours for a year and then apply for any job I could get. My ideal would be SAR.
What I found really surprising is the poor salary for flight instructors. Starting on £24k p/a is less than what I was on as a graduate! They quote that salaries for first job start around £60k p/a for most jobs in multi-crew. Is this correct?
I'd also be interested to hear more about helicentre's reputation. Can anyone expand on that please?
Many thanks
No school hire all the people that go through their instructor courses, they’d have more instructors than students! They may hire some, but will likely advertise hiring lots to make you pay for the extra course with them.
SAR is a competitive route to go, good pay, good terms etc. You won’t get a job doing that with FI hours in a single piston and no multi-crew time. Best to go offshore and build twin turbine and multi-crew in heavy types and after a few years you may get to second to a SAR base.
If the “helping others” nature of SAR is what interested you, some HEMS operators may hire low-time IR qualified co-pilots but the pay is poor and it’ll be an extremely long road before you see captaincy, at 30 already you’d be close to being a career copilot.
Not trying to be overt negative, but trying to paint a realistic view of things you’ve said.
As for the classic pilot shortage? It’s been said for ages, there’s definitely no pilot shortage in fixed wing now thanks to Covid, but arguably lots of rotary guys ended up out of work too and are just now getting back into the busy VIP sector. I guess there is a pilot shortage, but only a shortage of highly qualified pilots with the skills required for particular roles.
There is no shortage of under-qualified, new CPL(H) holders. There is a shortage of companies willing to take those on and build their careers, especially if they can get a pilot off of the shelf.