Boeing At Oakey

[dapwest]

Hello pruners. New to the forum. Card carrying member from past. What is the latest at Oakey, What is the scoop?

[Shirtless]

My understanding is that Boeing has the contract to supply instructors, day SAR and loadmaster training. The last two being subcontracted to Australian Helicopters.

The instructor side has been done, I believe, by re-employing existing civvy instructors and have advertised for some additional ones but must have previous QHI experience within past 2 years.

AH has recently (about 6 weeks ago or so) advertised for B412 pilots to fulfill their comittment to Boeing. Not sure if they have their pilots (2 off) yet or not?? Apparently the Army will do the night SAR coverage because of their requirement to fly NVG at night. So the SAR coverage by AH is purely day....so I believe?

[dapwest]

I have heard similar rumblings over here. Does any one know if the multi guys will get paid more or same as single guys?

[Shirtless]

The rumour is that the instructors are getting around $120,000....as to what AH will be paying...don't know....don't forget it is day op only....so don't expect the same as the instructors.

Apparently AH have uped the pay for their guys in Adelaide....around $90,000 for ME IFR line pilots....so around that I'd say???

[dapwest]

thanks shirtless. wow what a deal $30,000 a year more to fly a single at night.

[Little Fish]

The AH guys will be on about 90 - 95K. Been talking to guys that did the interviews this week. The pay was a big question asked by the applicants but as the initial rumours were of it only being about 75K. That actually stopped a few guys from applying.

The extra 30K is for not having to put up with students all the time and also the time pressures of getting a course finished on time. Instead you can just sit around and wait for a callout or do loadmaster training every second day which is not a very taxing job. It will be a good first twin for some guys because the Army can actually waive a lot of the requirements. ie M.E. time

[gulliBell]

"It will be a good first twin for some guys because the Army can actually waive a lot of the requirements. ie M.E. time"

Didn't the Oakey contract require 250 ME command? Also difficult to imagine AH handing out an initial twin endorsement on a 412, unless the pay is offset substantially to cover the training costs.

Also interesting to see if the Oakey AH pilots migrate to Horn Island to cover the crewing there. Speaking of which, the AH Torres Strait thread has been silent for a long time. Guess they must all be happy campers at the moment, unless of course they've all left.

[Little Fish]

GulliBell,

Like I said, the Army can waive any of the minimum requirements as they are the customer. Once boeing or AH pick their pilots they still need to be accepted by the customer, particularly if they are under teh minimum requirements. Also it could be argued that the training liability is greater to teach someone to do the job, (the army rules under which they will operate are different to the civil rules) rather than to give them a type endorsement. (They obviously still have to comply with Civil rules as well but the military have different ways of doing a lot of things)

For these reasons I would be very surprised if an ex or soon to be ex military pilot who has already done the job doesnt get the job. Especially if they already fly Hueys, (this reduces the conversion time) or if they fly blackhawks but may not have 250 M.E. PIC yet.

As for going to Horn Island, The guys will have their hands full meeting the requirements of the contract. I'd imagine the penalties would be pretty huge if the whole army training centre has to stop flying because there is no SAR aircraft available.


Maybe some of the guys that did the interviews will read this and feel compelled to add some comments about the questions they got asked and also the questions they got answered.

LF:)