Here in Australia there has been talk of a pilot shortage and to be honest there are signs of it. Higher pay, lower minimums and more adverts for jobs, However, this has led to a training boom and there are loads of pilots in the pipeline at the moment. I'm told chopperline has 20 students on the go now. Heliwest have got about 40. I don't know about the other schools but my guess would be running at maximum numbers.
This will flood the market with pilots and only a few will ever work in the industry.
It's a good job but I would fly for fun if I had my chance again and make good money in an other field.
Ringer
Ringer I have a keen eye on the Australian market also
and can second your observations re. shortage. Not as pronounced as in the fixed wing world, but definitely getting there. Probably mostly due to retiring baby boomers/war pilots more than through growth in large operators.
BUT: What makes you say there's a training boom?
At my school, one of the biggest in the country, there seems to be no big increase in numbers over the last year or so.
IMHO the number of students alone is not a sufficient criterion
unless they're all recent sign-on's and full time students and there's an expressed intention by many of those to take advantage of a better job market. All schools have varying numbers of casual students, plus the inevitable entrepreneurs and other assorted folk who will for one reason or another never hit the local job market, but are of course still counted in the overall number of students training at the school..
Also, I would doubt many could or would feel motivated by (what is still) a minor upswing in a difficult market for recent CPLs, to go and spend tens of thousands. I don't think the barriers for entry into the junior helicopter pilot market have changed much. Am I kidding myself?
Can you maybe elaborate on the numbers you quote and what makes you think there's a training boom? I'm genuinely interested as I am trying to suss out what position I'll be in once I finish my training!
Cheers
