I am at a loss to understand where're notion has comefromthat a NS salary will buy a fancy house, car and send kids to private schools.
The average NS pilot clears between 2.5 and 5.5k per month. Living in Aberdeen a modest 4 bed house mortgage for a person without family money will burn between 1500-2000 per month. By the time all fixed costs are met probably 2.5-3.0 k has already gone.
School fees amount to approx 800-1200 per month.
Having put 2 kids through private school my NS salary certainly could not cope alone with that burden. I know. I have lived that dream! And the one thing I did not have was a flying debt to service.
I have also suffered a redundancy with three small kids in 1991 right after after the interest rates had peaked at over 15%. At its height my mortgage payment exceeded my net salary. My minimal savings were already depleted. It sucked. It sucked really badly. My experience gives me intimate first hand knowledge of what these people are going through and the stress and worry, embarrassment and feeling of hopelessness that is ever present until something positive happens.
For you, quite frankly, idiots out there, posting utter garbage and expressing punitive opinions of those individuals affected. Shame on you! You do not deserve to called "Rotorheads" you clearly have no clue what these processes are like and how it feels to lose a job,that for the most part, you have worked hard at and done all that was asked of you.
Hueyracer. Sure the world is a tough place and I hear you comments five by five. However I have no respect for someone who cannot sympathise with a man or woman faced with the prospect of unemployment. Whatever the circumstances may be. That's because I know exactly how that feels and even though I personally have many freinds on the NS and some who would consider not to be my friend, I feel for them all. No one deserves what is about to happen.
Huey, also you can scoff at offshore pilots. Like all onshore pilots who think flying offshore ops is a piece piss. But let me remind you that my colleagues spend 98% of their flight time flying over hostile open water. They cannot pop it in a field when a light comes on. Smoke a tab and wait for the ground crew. They spend most of their flight time knowing that if they cannot stay in the air, survival becomes a serious issue. That, above all, is the reason they earn a higher salary than you.
I note that there are very few NS pilots posting on this thread. Maybe fear keeps them quite but I suspect many are reading the sad drivelyouguys post.
Johni, your lack of solidarity for your former colleagues says more about you than them. By your own admission you have never faced redundancy and yet you offer sanctimonious, unsympathetic offerings. Shame on you sir!