Mcgrath50, agree with what you say. However really single engine charter work, really is an apprenticeship given that so many think of this style of flying is only a step to the regionals and the big boys and they better money. The days of a pilot wanting to make a career out of charter work because they love basic bush work and flying is gone. You can argue it is because the pay is crap, and no one wants to live in isolated areas. Well it is very much a chicken or the egg argument. There are people like I who love this lifestyle and the isolation from the hectic hustle and bustle of the big city. You can live cheap in the bush, but not in big regional mining centres, as there isn't anything to spend it on apart from a few beers and Barbecue on the weekends.
At the end of the day market forces dictate the future. We in GA are also getting screwed. We cannot rely on a RPT route that has set departures and can budget on projected loadings. To a certain extent, unless we have contracts to supply a service, we have to rely on someone walking in wanting to charter the whole aircraft to go somewhere.
If they don't walk in or feel that it's cheaper to drive we sit and panic mortgage the house and hope it will turn around. Meanwhile our pilots and staff still get paid, usually I don't. The cost of just having a company sitting is getting horrendous.
The other problem is if we put our prices up our flight hours decline as companies, clients can no longer justify the cost of a flight. The publics perception of aviation has changed. The low cost carriers has driven a value into the travelling publics head. The most common question that is asked is why are you so expensive, I can fly from Darwin to Bali, for half the price you are charging.
I don't expect sympathy, I choose to live in the bush and run a business with the best available tools and resources, and at the end of the day my tale is that of any small business battling to survive in tight times. Rising costs, ageing aircraft, decline in the quality of personnel and reducing income.
I do get angry that some out there think that all GA operators are tight fisted Scrooges getting fat on the back of the hard graft of the underpaid worker. In 95 percent of the cases I have found, we are hard working passionate people that love to fly and enjoy watching and teaching others to do the same.
MS