Tropic'requirements as far as i understand are 1000 hr + and at least an endorsement on the 500, and of course the more turbine time the better. From what I'm reading here now ....... lesser hours may be considered on a case by case basis. The guy to talk to if you are interested is Abner Indino (he's their OPs manager there at the moment) . He will be able to answer all the questions you want, his email address again is
[email protected] . If you've got any more questions I'd only be to happy to try and answer them for you.
Tropic are differently not a "rogue operator" ....... a lot of changes have taken place in their hangar over the last two years, mechanic's are screened more closely, all new mechanic's have a mandatory OJT of a month to three months in the hangar (depending on their experience), where they are assessed before being released to the boats, if they are no good they are sent home. In most cases a mechanic will be sent out with an experienced mechanic to be trained in the correct procedures on board, they are then signed off and released to their boat, new pilots are treated the same 95% of the time.
It's sad to say that Tropic's rival company doesn't do this, their crew, as soon as they step off the plane, in most cases go straight onto the boat, talk about deep end training. I was one of them just quietly !!!
I have been in this industry for over 10 years, around it for 20, 8 of them flying off the boats
and I just loved it. It's certainly an experience that you get no where else, that's for sure !!!!
This will be my last year, my contract finishes in June, moving on to bigger and better machines if everything goes to plan.