Fugro Airborne Surveys

[jett-a1]

Can anyone give me any info on these guys such as rosters, working conditions, pay, A/C condition etc...

[Horatio Leafblower]

With all those antennae hanging off it they have to have the UGLIEST Aerocommander I have ever seen... :ooh:

[Skystar320]

Heard there pay is extremely well paid :8

[bushy]

And you will probably need skills that many pilots do not have. So a bit more job sevurity, hard work, and motel living.

[chookcooker]

And you will probably need skills that many pilots do not have. So a bit more job sevurity, hard work, and motel living.
Like making a single pair of undies last four days!:}

[Fourotwo]

...or how to 50' do a beat up on Perth's city beaches, drink copius amount of booze and call the next day's flying off due wx! Navigating across the country at 200' with a road map.

I salute you guys.:ok: :ok: :ok: :p

[Lefthanded_Rock_Thrower]

Who wears undies anyway ?.

Apparently Fugro is quite a good company, can not be compared to GA.

Has internal politics like any company, but is very safety orientated ( Cowboys are not tolerated ), pay is above that of GA.

CP is a great bloke and can smell BS a mile away, he spends a significant amount of effort vetting prospective employee's. Trust in staff is paramount.

Roster is generally 6 weeks on and three weeks off ( roughly ). A wide range of bizarre aircraft types, world wide operations.

Does not generally recruit pilots hop-scotching to the airlines. Not a real lot of opportunity for IF or night.

Is in essence not an aviation company, yes has an AOC and pilots, but they are a part of a bigger equation, producing good quality data for their customer at zero injury / loss of life or damage to equipment / enviroment.

Worldwide has about 100 odd pilots, yet 8-9000 employee's.

For more experienced pilots with a solid aviation background Fugro can provide a nice well paid way to continue their love of flying whilst still being able to afford a family ( for many of their pilots it is a safer option than returning to AG or more sustainable than GA ), whilst visiting the smallest dots on any map and having a great time doing it.

Most operations range between 100 and 300 feet, a good percentage of their fleet is turbine.

Helmets and flight suits are standard equipment, often the computer equipment bolted in the back is worth significantly more than the airframe.

[bushy]

This is what GA is all about. Many years ago I did about 2000 hours flying survey at 200 AGL. There were a number of aerial survey companies, flying aeroplanes loaded with electronics, towing things, and having stingers in their tails. We had to navigate to within 100 meters of track, in the outback, before GPS, mostly with no track guidance. Just eyeballs. (yes it can be done.) And everything is recorded. Data from the electronics and altitude from the radar altimeter on tape. and a camera taking vertical shots every second to record the track. Very crude by todays standards.They are much more accurate than that today.
we got home about once a month.

We now have all sorts of mines, oilfields etc, as a result of that sort of work.

But it takes a while to learn the systems, and the skills. Many pilots could not, or would not do it.

I guess nothing has changed in that regard.

[Icarus2001]

Worldwide has about 100 odd pilots, yet 8-9000 employee's

Are they all ODD? Were they ODD when they started at Fugro or did the...job sevurity make them that way?

[Lefthanded_Rock_Thrower]

Odd, good one, and yes is the answer.

Usually odd beforehand, but some apparently require surgery to meet the high standard of oddness, i heard of one guy that had to have an ass stitched on to his forehead to fit in, life was never meant to be easy ;).

[BackdoorBandit]

Sounds like purgatory.

Not the HELL of GA

But not the HEAVIN of a well paid jet job.

But at 6 on 3 off, the mines pay better, and have a better roster!

[magnum pi]

Yes you will need hours,(a good)low level approvall & ifr.But more importantly you must be able to work in a 3-4 man crew in sometimes very isolated spots(not always in Aus) & live away from home for usually 6 or more weeks at a time(can be hard on family life). If this is your thing then its a hoot!!......Flying @ 100 agl for 5 hrs at a time while staying within 10-20 mtrs of a line that can be 5km or 300kms long.........:} or :) . Nothin like crackin the Cresco canopy & sniffin that JetA1.....:\ PI

[Gabilian]

More a job for a single person, but in saying that, there are people in the pilot group that have (understanding) families.

The pilot group is as varied as the aircraft they operate, I would not imagine there a many companies in Aus where you have the potential to go from a single piston to multi-crew, multi-engine turbine.