its been a while since i posted, so bear with me as a i ramble on. i know that there's a [most excellent] sticky collated by heliport on training, but i can't find what i'm looking for.
i am 23 and, like most young guys on here, have always wanted to be a helo pilot. unlike them, i have also always wanted to live abroad, so am not bothered about converting an overseas licence back to a UK one. for cost reasons, the most obvious places for me to train/live/ then hopefully work are the US, Oz, or NZ. When I do emigrate I will be taking the missus with me and so the US is out due to her being a pharmacist and uncle sam would require her to redo her 4yr degree from scratch. That leaves Oz and NZ. I have no idea what the cost of living, job prospects, etc. are in either of these countries, and would appreciate a little objective advice from locals and expats.
Looking on the various training websites, it looks like i can get a CPL ticket in either country for around £20k [inc. contingencies], then i plan to get CFI/CFII qualified to build hours [any ideas on costs?] before moving on the the ATPLH. Basically, i'd be in the same boat as all the local low time guys.
Okay question time....
1] what are the realistic opportunities for obtaining a full time flying job in both countries. Most of the larger training outfits advertise that they give priority to their trainees for low hour jobs, but is this just
PR speak or is there a steady demand as their CFI's leave for better jobs? What are the other hour building jobs in the region? [i would love to gain some experience mustering, but have heard they mainly train local guys who have ties to the area and won't jump ship at the first opportunity].
2] should i obtain a full time CFI position, would the salary be enough to maintain a decent standard of living, bearing in mind I hope to pay for all training costs with my savings [i.e. no loan repayments] and the missus will be working in hospital pharmacy. I'm not asking for a ferrari and sydney penthouse, just a good sized apartment and a reasonably new car. i've read starting salary figures of around AUD25,000, which equates to around £10,000. I'm not clued up about real estate prices, tax, cost of living etc. over there but this figure would get me nowhere in the UK.
3] which region/city would serve best as a base for finding flying work with low hours. I like the sound of the sunshine coast as there are lots of operators [and beaches!] but would need an area with a healthy engineering/industrial sector to work in if the flying work doesn't start as soon as i hope [i'm currently working as a manufacturing manager]. I know that the NZ and Oz licenses will allow me to fly in either country, but would prefer some stability regarding where i live early on.
4] my long term aspiration is obviously to fly large turbines, either for a local operator flying from a fixed base or working tours within south east asia. will the Oz/NZ licence allow this or would i need to convert for each country i want to fly in?
5] if you were me, would you stay and work in the UK for longer, knowing that any additional cash i save will transfer favourably to dollars, or move as soon as i have the money to train? i'm itching to get started as soon as possible, and it will largely come down to if i can find work quick enough following training. it would be nice to have that financial cushion, but am hungry to get airborne.
i know some of my questions aren't really aviation related, but i would appreciate your views [particularly those of someone who has been there and done it]. i'm not in a priveledged position where i can make this kind of investment and shrug it off it it doesn't work out, so need to dip my toe in the water before jumping in. i am prepared to work hard to get where i want to be though, and hope that this counts for something.
cheers for reading,
Phil.
