Highland Instructor I can't help but notice you've made a grand total of 4 posts in your posting career to date, all 4 of which are dedicated to slagging off at Highland. I don't know what your particular problem is but if you're so unhappy there why don't you go and talk to them directly and voice your problems, rather than running the place down on PPRUNE to everyone who'll listen. Highland is unique in that you CAN go at any time of day you like straight into the senior management offices and talk to them about whatever's on your mind. Alan, Linton, Julie, Paul G, Nick VdM - they're all right there and every one of them are reasonable and approachable people who'll listen to what you've got to say, if you don't get on with one then go find other. You might not appreciate what that's worth until you've moved on to bigger things one day and find out what it's like to be a very small cog in a very large machine. Hats off to Linton and Julie, they listened to my moaning and complaining on more occasions than I could count and they didn't always agree with me but they did always listen, and on many occasions changed things to my satisfaction.
However you should also be warned (and you can take it first hand from me as well)that you will sooner or later find yourself upstairs in Sutherland or Kerrowgair on the receiving end of a well deserved bollocking from Captain C., should your natural exuberance lead you to excessive PPRUNEing, stirring the pot or engaging in trash talking amongst your fellow pilots. They are very aware of what goes on. Take it from me I know (my goodness do I ever know!) how easy it is to slide into negativity and bitchiness when you're in the day to day grind of the Highland operation and the Scottish winter, but you might want to be a bit more careful - there can't be that many "Highland Instructors" in the RHS and the management do read PPRUNE you know. (And they all know exactly who I am, so I've got no axe to grind!)
Back to the question at hand Mr Beech. With the benefit of a couple of years of rose tinted hindsight, I'd recommend Highland as one of the most enjoyable little turboprop operators in the world. As for the money, as INV based J31 captain, maybe expect to take home +/- 100 either side of £2600 per month depending on how the roster and allowances pan out in a given month. No point in describing specifics of rosters these days because they vary so widely according to where you're based (something that was not really apparent in my day) so the life of a Warton or Cardiff based pilot is going to be completely different to that of a INV one. Do you know where they want to base you?
They do roster up to the max legal duty there's no question about that - but show me a company who doesn't, these days.
The southern based pilots tend to have more stable rosters, only work 3 or 4 days a week between monday and friday, they hardly ever work weekends apart from occasionally ferrying a plane up north for maintenance, and they're at home most nights. Obviously that's got a lot of appeal for many people. However, they also have to sit around in crew rooms for countless hours all day, which can be like watching paint dry (especially in the RAF bases), and the flying is all boring IFR airways.
The INV based guys do get a roster based much more around 7-days-a-week operations, and it's true that they're occasionally rostered for a bit of time away from home covering the crews in the other bases and doing the charters. It's also a much more physical job, when you're doing the freight runs, you will be hand loading and unloading one-and-a-half tons of Daily Mirrors a few times a week which can be bloody hard on the lower back. However, the payback is that they earn slightly better money through the allowances, and they get some of the most enjoyable and varied flying to be had on this earth. Poling around the western and northern isles VFR in the turboprop in a fine summer's day is just about as good as life gets in my opinion. INV is just a cracking place to live as well, all the outdoors lifestyle is right there on your doorstep and a lot cheaper living than down south as well. The weather's better than England believe it or not, it's not well known but that few square miles of little microclimate around the Inverness / Nairn / Black Isle area is one of the lowest rainfall areas in Britain. If they could only get some tax free salaries and big long haul jets up there, I'd go back tomorrow
