Which License do I use?

[SASless]

Just when you think you got it figured out....

Now we hear rumours of Expatriate Staff making like Rats from an aquaduct, from both ADA and GHC's! We all know of the now famous ads by Dave.....and no...we are not talking Wendy's burgers here.

To further compound things....I seen an ad that thinly disguised itself from being ACN in Nigeria.....looking for 365 Captains in the worldly sum of 5000 USD per month for a 6/6 rotation. Now that really computes.....

Whilst forging that special bond between my myself, my thirteen year old diesel pickup, and the open highway....I ran across a trucking industry newspaper that announced Wayne Acklie, the owner of a very, very large trucking company....bemoaning his driver turnover rate of 100% and suggesting the industry needs to wake up and start paying the help properly. He noted a need to raise pay by more than 60 percent.

Hold on here....I said that right....an owner telling the rest of his industry that they need to raise rates and pay the hired help.!

Made me dig around and confirm my other Professional license was still current......

Took a test drive in a brand new Western Star today.....still can float the box with the best of them!:ok:

[skidkicker75]

well at last someone in the industry is willing to pay a decent wage, if only the same could be said for the UK trucking industry. If i got a 60% pay rise from what i used to be on (B4 spending my hard earned on learing to fly choppers) then i might have stuck with the industry and just have flown for fun.

Well if it happens at least i know i can earn a living wage whilst trying to get my first flying job, and even to suppliment flying wages.

Still makes me laugh though that the likes of 'marketing execs' earn more than a rotary pilot, REALLY which is the harder and more dangerous???

But hell if we were doing it for the money we wouldnt be doing it ( I use we in the loosest terms poss as Iam still learning, but i have high hopes!!)
:ok:

[The Rotordog]

Rally-car drivers wanting to be helicopter pilots...helicopter pilots wanting to be truck drivers...truck drivers wanting to be, well judging by the turnover rate anything else...it's a crazy, topsy-turvy world that makes me want to run around in circles ululating like an Iraqi woman!

Mr. Acklie may moan about his 100% driver turnover rate, but let's be honest. First, for the turnover rate to be that high there must be other problems at his company other than low pay. Secondly, it might seem a little obvious to point this out, but HE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM! As long as there has been a steady stream of applicants who want to be truck drivers, the trucking companies have kept the pay down. Supply and demand at it's finest, eh? (See any parallels here?)

Not to zing off on a union tangent, but there are those anti-union among us who feel that a pilot's pay is absolutely and directly proportional to the revenue his aircraft can generate. 300 seats = big airline pilot pay, 5 seats = puny helicopter pilot pay.

Now here comes this Acklie guy, former Chairman of the American Trucking Associations throwing that equation out the window. Here he is saying that even though truck drivers are, to coin a phrase, "a dime a dozen" (geez, I should save some of this for the JH forum), the industry should RAISE their pay to a level above the going supply and demand rate just to stop the turnover! What the...? Who the...? What a concept! You'd think the geniusi who run the helicopter companies would have come to that same conclusion long ago, right?

Alas, saying it does not make it so. We'll have to see if Mr. Acklie's dreams become reality - or if that big Klank you hear ;) is Mr. Acklie's idea falling flat on the floor.

SAS, I really hope you don't trade your cyclic for a gearshift of an 18-wheeler. It would be a pity for our industry to lose an experienced pilot such as yourself. ...On the other hand, your departure might allow everyone (including both Whirly's) to move up a notch, and make room at the bottom for...oh, I don't know...a disillusioned race driver desperate to switch careers?

Hey, when they put automatic transmissions in those big rigs, lemme know, willya? I been watching re-runs of "Smokey and The Bandit" and I'm ready! So keep the shiny side down...er, up...er, whichever way it needs to be, good buddy. 10-4?

[SASless]

Dog....

You are in luck sir....automatic trannys have been in vogue ever since the trucking companies started scrapping the barrell bottom and could not find folks that were coordinated enough to shift gears, steer the truck, and find their way around. Besides, most of the fairer sex have legs that aren't able to push that clutch thing in and hold it long enough to do any good.

A real Trucker....dear boy...learns to "float the box" and thus eliminate the use of the clutch except to start and stop the rig. Of course....drivers that do that also are getting up in years and like some of my helicopter buddies are getting out of the business.

I still tell stories of reaching down thru the steering wheel to grab the second lever when shifting a "Brownie".....ah but I digress.

The helicopter industry and the trucking industry are like mirrors....questionable management decisions....cuthroat competition....doing business for the short-term instead of using long-term strategical thinking. Ignoring the fact that people are assets as well.....explained to a Dispatcher one time that when I complained of a shortage of miles.....I was also telling him the company asset...the truck was being under-utilized.....he never grasped the concept.

At least ol' Wayne is talking publically about turnover rates, pay, and working conditions. That puts the trucking industry one step ahead of the helicopter industry.....what does that tell us?

The Acklie ariticle pointed to Union freight hauller contracts as being a model for the truckload carriers as being a place to start basing wages.....reckon we will see that in the Helicopter industry?

Oh, by the way....I did once own a Big Rig and earned more money than I did flying.....worked harder but faced fewer risks most times. Granted, setting at the top of some snow covered passes out West had its moments.....like Loveland Pass, west of Denver at almost 12,000 feet at night during a blizzard with two empty double trailers....or haulling triples in the snow (had to get those UPS packages to the sort yard for Christmas!)

I can draw up a list of guys that are not with us from helicopter accidents....know but one trucker that got killed....he fell asleep and ran off the road with a load of beer behind him. Alcohol will kill you!

The beauty of truck driving is being able to pullover and take a nap in yer bed if it suits you.;)

[The Rotordog]

Sasless:You are in luck sir....automatic trannys have been in vogue ever since the trucking companies started scrapping the barrell bottom and could not find folks that were coordinated enough to shift gears, steer the truck, and find their way around. Besides, most of the fairer sex have legs that aren't able to push that clutch thing in and hold it long enough to do any good.I'm in luck! Oh wait, was that a jab? I still fantasize sometimes about becoming a gear-jammin', double-clutchin' diesel-drivin' man. Then I turn off the country music station and go back to listening to rock.I still tell stories of reaching down thru the steering wheel to grab the second lever when shifting a "Brownie".....ah but I digress.Ah, so that's what you call Little Sasless, eh? "Brownie?" I always wondered what truck drivers did for, um, entertainment to pass the time on those long legs between fillups...then again, I'm not sure I want to know!The beauty of truck driving is being able to pullover and take a nap in yer bed if it suits you.Well...yeah...it may be your bed but it most certainly is not in your home where your wife is keeping your *other* bed warm (hopefully by herself...unless you have a milkman who looks like Fabio...as I do...which explains why I never leave the house...except to go out and buy milk, which we no longer have delivered).

[skidkicker75]

SASless

Its not only those who are advancing in the years who can float the box, some of us young un's can still play dixie on an old crash box, (thats what happens when you grow up a poor farmer who can only afford tractors from the 1930's).

Not everyone has what it takes to be a chopper flyin', truck drivin', rootin' and smokin' farmer. ;) ;) These if you hadn't guessed are highly evolved skills.:ok:

[4ero]

Still makes me laugh though that the likes of 'marketing execs' earn more than a rotary pilot, REALLY which is the harder and more dangerous???

I truely think that marketing exec is a harder job than flying helicopters. In flying you get to execute your plan and the success is based entirely on your actions and descisions, with marketing, market forces and competing companies get in the way, and it generally comes down to whose got the most cash and works the longest hours.
As far as dangerous.... There is no significant data on the fatalaties caused by long term stress. Which a lot of exec positions come with. Sypmtoms like depression, spontaneous nose bleeds, spontaneous pneumothorax, twitches, stutters, hardnening of the arteries etc etc etc

No...flying helicopters is much safer and a lot simpler, they can keep their saville row suits, prada loafers and six figure salaries.

[GLSNightPilot]

Well, I wouldn't complain about the 6-figure salary. ;)

[OHALLY]

skidkicker and sasless .... what kind off driving were you doing , what kind of flying are you now doing and at how many hours

A curious ex-driver who pulled flat decks with enough overdimensional and overweight experience and who is now flying an R44 in the oil and gas industry with 700 hrs neatly tucked under the belt wants to know.

[SASless]

Dog,

At peril of incurring the wrath of Heliport for speaking of very touchy topics and using questionable language....I shall attempt to clarify some glaring misconceptions you hold.

"Shifting a Brownie" is one topic that I feel needs be addressed. This is not as common an event as one would assume. It does happen frequently and most anyone can do it. To "Shift a Brownie" properly, takes planning and a good bit of timing. One must select the correct time and ease the shift so that the "Brownie" does not get stuck halfway. Also, if one tries to shift too fast, you can strain the works and cause other problems for yourself. There is little in life that beats a really good shift of a brownie.

There are times the "shifting" can be more complex than normal. If one is in a hurry and does not have the free hand necessary to handle a "split shift" then alternative means of doing the "non-shifting tasks"....thus the need to reach through the steering wheel. Now, if you manage to goof up the "shift"....and get the "brownie" stuck in the middle. a Jimmy bar comes in handy.

Jimmy bars got their name from the old GMC trucks that had the Brownie trannys and the old 270 Detroit diesel. That was the one that had a torque curve of about zero....you got max torque at max rpm....and anything under that RPM gave no torque at all. To get best efficiency out of the engine....you slammed your hand in the door getting into the truck so you would be in the right attitude to shift the gears properly. Whence the name ....Gear Jammer.

Now it follows that if you are angry while working....you will not be at your best thus lots of jams occurred in during the "brownie shifting". Thus the pry bar that one used to un-jam the tranny became known as the Jimmy. Ah, but I do digress here.

You incorrectly assumed "little Sasless" was involved...that is not the case. However in rare cases, where one is making an accelerating turn in front of on-coming traffic and the "brownie shift" fails to go smoothly, then one might have an a "brownie shift" sure enough....and Little Sasless might then get involved involuntarily.

Now as to napping and such. Helicopter pilots and truck drivers all have the same problem with Uncle Jody stopping over while we are on shift. Hopefully, your wife is of the sort that she will at least take up with a Jody who will be good to the kids and leave you a sixpack of beer in the refrigerator for when you return.

Now remember the Jimmy Bar....even today the Jimmy Bar has its uses despite the trannys no longer being "brownie's". Good drivers always keep a Jimmy handy in case Jody refuses to leave Bud in the cooler. It also helps to pry free any other gear that gets stuck in places it should not be when the driver comes home early and Uncle Jody has not left yet.

So Dog.....I hope this helps a bit.;)

[The Rotordog]

SASless:There is little in life that beats a really good shift of a brownie. You got that right! (I prefer to bring an aviation magazine in with me.)

On to the rest of the post...

Damn! ...And you thought *I* was Klank? Methinks I know where *that* finger ought to be pointing ;) But seriously, I would reply but I know when I've been outgunned. Nothing I could write would top that. Thanks for the lesson in...well...I'm not really sure what that was a lesson in, but it sure taught me more than I was expecting.