Instructing and RFDS?

[zepthiir]

Hi all,

Just wanting a bit of advice as I am nearing the end of my CPL studies and will soon be looking for that first bugger of a job.

Very long term my mind is set on trying everytihng in my power to get into the RFDS or Air Ambulance as I feel that will be the most rewarding career and a way of giving something back for the priviledge of being able to fly for a living.

The decision I now have to make is should I start off instructing or go bush straight away? Will taking an initial job as an instructor make things any more difficult firstly getting a job down the track doing bush work, mail runs or whatever and also what will the RFDS think of me having that experience?

I know they are mainly interested in the IF time, bush experience etc but then I have also heard that instructing time can help you get a job with a charter op as they can use you for checkrides.

Also I would be interested in finiding out what kind of flying jobs would be worth pursuing in the mid term to get the IF time, multi time and bush flying that the RFDS want so much.

Thanks all,
Zepth

[Chimbu chuckles]

Very rewarding flying indeed....but ditch the putting something back for the priveledge of flying crap. If you get into the RFDS you will be a professional pilot working in an extremely demanding sector of the industry requiring above average skills, professionalsm and discipline...and you will be paid reasonably well.

As to the best way to get there?

Lots of remote area, night, SP multi IFR...and luck.

[zepthiir]

Believe me chimbu, I know that flying for the RFDS involves being a proffesional pilot and I know that flying for them will involve probably the most challenging flying I will see in my career but that will not stop it from being an extremely rewarding job.

Quite frankly for me personally the choice between carrying people to their holidays and work conferences or having a chance at saving peoples lives and for me RPT just doesnt cut it.

But hey thats just my personal preference and I am not trying to convert anyone.

Also I know what type of experience the RFDS are looking for, what I was hoping for was an idea of what jobs to go looking for to get that experience.

Zepth

[Jamair]

'zepthiir', you are joining a well-trodden path and the choices are yours.

You will need your ATPL so get the subjects done now; you won't have time when you're flying for a living.

If you WANT to instruct, go ahead and do it; don't do it 'cause you think someone somewhere down the track might like to see it on a resume – that is not the way to become a good instructor.

Take whatever flying job/s you can get, the end result is hours in the book - and you will need a LOT of them, say 5000TT, 2000ME and at least a couple of hundred each of IF and night to get a look in (I know what the published minimums are, I'm telling you what reality is).

Do yourself a REAL big favour and ditch the fantasy that RFDS is a 'life-saving' service. 99.8% of the work is boring as sh!t, dragging passengers from point A to point B and back, in between getting dragged out at 2AM for yet another routine transfer. Most destinations are navaid and GPS serviced bitumen with permanent lighting. Once in a blue moon will you actually respond direct to a scene of severe illness or injury, and fact is if they are still alive when you get there they will probably survive to hospital.

All that said, as Chuck pointed out, it is a job not a privilege. It can be as much fun as any other and as boring and frustrating as any other. On the upside you have relatively good aircraft, capable aircrews and reasonable wages, but you have to put up with lots of bureaucratic cr@p, snotty nurses, smelly bodies, shift work etc.

Look back in ten years and see if I’m right.

[Chimbu chuckles]

Don't get me wrong zephir I agree its rewarding work...sometimes.

Once upon a time I was the Chief Pilot of a Singapore based, international corporate jet medical retrieval operation. I loved that job and would still be doing it today if not for lunatic beancounters destroying the operation. A very senior Doctor who was in a position to know told me on our way home from Pakistan one day that our operation was one of the top 5 or 6 in the world...I took great pride in that fact.

But as Jamair says...you were rarely saving lives in a direct way...usually the patient was stable and you were transfering them from a clinic in some third world country to a 'bells and whistles' hospital in Singapore. In fact if there was any real chance the patient would not survive the trip they didn't travel...too much paperwork involved...one or two did of course, but they were 'kept alive' until reaching the hospital.

But every once in a long while you really did feel you had made a huge difference in someones life...and it felt great.

A neo natal retrieval from Thailand was like that....the very prem baby was born a few hours after we landed back...healthy...as we loaded the (very worried, stressed) American mum to be onto the aircraft I told her with a smile that she should keep her legs crossed until Singapore. "Why?" Well there is this old law of the sea which applies to aeroplanes too that says if the baby is born airborne ya gota name it after the Captain...and if it's a girl 'Chuck' will cause all sorts of grief later on at school. She laughed as did Dad to be...stress relieved....a bit.

A very cute little girl was born the next morning...they called her Charlene and smiled broadly when they told me a few days later. You cannot begin to comprehend how cool that is for the single dad of a girl, 11 at the time!

There were a few more...usually involving kids...one little girl (about 8yrs old) we retrieved from Kathmandu walked onto the aeroplane unaided all smiling and chatty...my Dad instinct suggested "you don't seem too sick young lady" allthough I said nothing...she lay down on the stretcher for takeoff...a bit over the top me thinks...it's a VERY long way from Kathmandu to Singapore with a fitting, convulsing child on board. It must have been terrifying for the parents.

Another time we pulled a very sick little boy out of Hanoi along with his parents (American volunteers) and his sister. I cannot remember what was wrong with him but he was dieing and any movement caused him to vomit blood...lots! The Australian volunteer male nurse from the clinic in Hanoi was way to emotionally involved and it seemed a French surgeon had refused to operate the night before. Our Doctor was on the sat phone talking to our boss Doctor in Singapore...she was worried the trip would kill him...we had a VERY well equiped aircraft...but it didn't have a blood bank. The boy was in the ambulance, emotions were running high...the Mum came to me and asked what was going on...They are very worried your son won't survive the trip if he starts losing too much blood there is nothing our Doc can do....it's 3 hrs to Singapore..at least the clinic has a blood bank.

"My son will die if he stays here!!" said very quietly and calmly...but you should have seen her eyes.

I went and spoke to our Doctor who was on the phone to the senior doctor in Singapore...both wonderfull doctors- the two we flew with most often...and asked what was going on...she told me the boy likely would die enroute..I told her what the mum had said...the doc on the other end heard me and just said "Bring him here!!!"

We loaded him on and got airborne...it was the only time I ever declared 'Med 1' status. The Vietnamese controllers were great..we stay low for a sea level cabin, cruising at FL250 we were constantly diverting left and right around CBs for a smooth ride...our lady doctor was working her ring off on the boy all the way. I got out of my seat to get a drink from the galley and saw his sister peering up into the cockpit through the open door...wanna go look? Yes please. I got her sitting in my seat and explained what some things did as I stood behind her...see that big cloud? Yep....gently twist this little knob here so the aeroplane points beside it. See all the other big clouds...yep...don't hit them just steer between them...Casey (the F/O) here will help you...she has control Case...ok boss.

When I came back from the cabin Casey was leading her through reprograming the FMCs one button at a time...she was PF for well over an hour and I just stood behind...it was pretty cool....and it kept her mind off her brother and let her parents concentrate on her brother.

When we landed at Seletar the boy was not only alive but had some colour in his face and could raise a week smile...he made it to the hospital, they worked out what was wrong and fixed him rght up. My daughter and I visited a few days later, as we did from time to time with a few patients, we bought the family home to our condo so the little girl could swim in our pool with my little girl...both 11 or 12 at the time. That was very cool!!!

Another time I had no-one to look after my daughter when called out to Hanoi on a day off...so I took Chelsea with me...I booted Casey out of his seat on the way up so Chelsea could sit with me and marvel at the 10 of 1000s of fishing boats off the coast of Vietnam lite up in the middle of the night with halogen car head lights...like stars. The patient was an older expat fella with heart problems...about half way home the doc came up the front and I asked how Chelsea was doing in the back..."Oh she's playing cards with the patient!" "Yeah?.. she only knows one game!" Yeah she's playing 'snap' with him!!!:E :}

our medivac jet parked at Kota Kinabalu one morning early (http://www.fototime.com/{25262ACA-CDDF-40E7-A535-4AC96AC1D5CA}/picture.JPG)

[maxgrad]

Medivac can be very very rewarding both for the spirit and for your flying skills.
I came about it via the mail run/charter etc route. Consistency in your flying and in your approach to ANY job you do. The industry has big ears but a tiny brain!
What you do and say today will be common knowledge tomorrow. Night hours and remote flying experience is a nice thing to have when you apply. Fly a black hole approach with your eyes hanging out of your head coming to the end of a long shift and you wiil appreciate the flights you made in a/c prior where you didn't simply just "fly the plane", but challenged yourself and worked hard to get it as close to perfect as possible.

[Cactus Jak]

Gday Zepthiir.

My opinion having flown RPT with a regional and currently working for the RFDS, aero med wins hands down for me.

I met many interesting people and got to visit some absolute paradises in my days with the regional, however, I didn’t experience a great deal of enjoyment on the day to day monotony of operating over the same routes for all those years. Challenging flying? Once in a blue moon.

But in saying this, many enjoy this sort of career and find it best serves there goals in life.

The RFDS/Air ambulance work also has scatterings of tedious, routine and very regular work. Ops managers should think about applying an airline type schedule to some the towns we service.

I haven’t landed on a road at the scene of an accident yet but it does happen. If you want that sort of stuff on a regular basis then go and fly the aero med choppers.

The MOST important thing you have to absolutely be sure of before you commit to a career in aero med, is knowing you will be able to cope with constantly being around people that are very, very sick. Often, you will be asked to transport patients that have life threatening and transmittable conditions. Some may only have hours to live, have all manner of tubes sticking out of their orifices and limbs and be accompanied by a loved one. Patients may actually die on board during the flight and in the process, leave a large amount of bodily fluid all over the inside of your shiny king air. The odours from burns patients are very pungent and hard to forget. Accompanying medical teams into hospital because it’s too cold at 3 in the morning to stay with the aircraft can present even more awkward experiences. You may be faced with witnessing an anguished mother or father, husband or wife etc. being told there is nothing that can be done for their loved one, or being asked if you’re the pilot that’s taking their school mate to the city after a car accident, knowing in your mind that their mate won’t be going anywhere as he has just passed away.

I gain great satisfaction from my work with the RFDS but many find it a short lived experience for the reasons I’ve just outlined above and move back into a people moving job.

I don’t consider myself to be the one saving lives, that’s for the doctor, nurse, paramedic in the back. I just fly the plane like any other pilot.

I would say that about 80% of the aero med work is very routine and the rest is of the more urgent nature, but this varies a great deal from base to base.

In terms of the type of experience you should target, all of the above. The RFDS employs pilots with predominantly instructing background as frequently as they do any other sector. Instructing does give you an advantage when your promotion to check pilot arrives. It’s all familiar territory. However that is not a driving force in the choice of who gets the check upgrades. Try very hard to get the all important command time and sprinkle it with some turbine time as well.

Good luck and don’t lose sight of your goal. It may take you many years to get there but it will be worth it when you arrive.

[Towering Q]

Jamair, can't speak for your side of the country but over here RFDS Western Ops don't require an ATPL.

[nomorecatering]

Very occasioanlly a post in prune can reduce one.....me.... to a blubberring mess. Chimbu, yours was one of them.

Thank you for sharing.

NMC

[tinpis]

NT News (http://www.ntnews.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,15880996%255E13569,00.html)

[turbinejunkie]

Great post Chimbu!

TJ :ok: