Maybe people don't want to work for him because he can only offer a few months of work and then what do they do as Seaplane Pilots? Perhaps if he worked towards being able to employ Pilots year round and took in rookies instead of requiring they have hundreds of water landings before they get there he'd have more who'd come and stay.
I'd love to know how many 457 Visas Air Whitsundays have to use...I doubt very many!