Originally Posted by
X670
avoid it altogether...
Relocating to a remote town at huge cost, to sit around begging for employment is not a great strategy. Pick the wrong location or fail to make the right friends and someone else gets the job. It's also incredibly expensive, these are not cheap places to hang around waiting with no certainty of ever getting that elusive first break.
Add to this, airlines are filling their entry level positions with cadets. That's far fewer positions open to GA pathway than existed in the years prior to cadets.
Do the math on icus programs or self sponsored type ratings. Quick hour building and better employment prospects, you will end up years ahead of colleagues who slug it out in GA.
This is true. It really isn't the best way to get a start. Based on raw numbers of applicants vs openings every year, your chances of a GA gig in the top end are enormously low.
I tried this method (move up, get unrelated job in town, go in to operators each month) and nothing ever came of it. In fact it was on the east coast that I got my start. After buildings hours there where I was able to secure a top end GA job (which I applied for on the east coast).
It's a bit of a strange one. I would still recommend young CPLs to move up north, just because of how much value it has. No matter if you're established with a family and career or young and leaving home for the first time - the top end is such a different place to the east coast and
will spit out people walking a bit different - more confidence, more ability, better judgement. Whilst I was waiting up north I had a number of jobs, some remote, some in town. They instilled a great deal of confidence, working skills, people skills and technical skills (I changed a tyre for the first time up here) which actually made a couple of chief pilots to pick up my resume and give me a call whilst I was flying back east coast.
So whilst my advice is to go up north, at the same time, it would also be to do the smart thing and network on the east coast/Melbs/Perth for a job. My working holiday in the top end was only a byproduct of looking for a job as a pilot.
Originally Posted by
TheFlyingKiwi722
I understand there's a lot of movement in the industry right now. However, in what world is Australian aviation hiring cadet pilots (I'm assuming right out of flight school?) over GA pilots who likely have over 1000 hours flying up in the Top End? I must be living under a rock.
I'm pretty sure there are a certain number of QGPA graduates and QFPP participants are getting starts straight off their licence. The rest are getting starts a few months/years later whilst working GA.