Current North Sea Pilots Salaries

[Wobblewings]

Hi there folks,

I am currently a ppl (H) looking to progress through to ATPL (H) with (IR)

I have my class 1 medical and am currently in the process of accumulating the finances required to make this happen. I am however a tad concerned about what my salary will be once I am in the fold as a first officer. I ask this because I, like many others, will more than likely have to borrow some of the funding to complete my goal.

Before I embark any further financially, I would really appreciate any guidance that anyone can offer with regards to the level of salary I can expect to be offered from my initial first officer posting through to Captain.

Thanks for any advice.

[krypton_john]

Ho ho ho!

Very good!

[helimutt]

:D

Go spend about £110k to get all the qualifications you need, then sit around waiting to get a job in the North Sea as there are plenty of other folk waiting for jobs, being made redundant and generally not feeling that North Sea flying is the be all and end all they once imagined. Be careful what you wish for.

expect to start on 35k at the very bottom, and after 20 years you might be on 6 figures.

[Wobblewings]

Thanks for the advice there Helimutt!

I appreciate your honesty.

[SFHawk]

Wobble,

I would go for it; building hours, CPL module, IR will probably take you another year to complete (hope your looking to book your IR course now). Although the market for new co-pilots isn't that great at the moment, things can change quickly. Particularly as most job losses are due to companies "tightening belts" rather than demand offshore.

Its handy to have another job you can keep ticking over till you get your first offshore job (and one you can fall back on when made redundant!)

I started on about £45K as a 200hr total time CPL IR and as said before it can go up to 6 figures.

Good luck!

[Wobblewings]

Hey SFHawk,

Cheers for the post. Thats cheered me up a little bit. I was ready for throwing the towel in earlier today but I think its still worth plodding on for now.

Im sure im not the first and certainly wont be the last aspiring commercial pilot to have second thoughts about progressing any further.

I know that there are already a lot of qualified guys out there who are still waiting to get a foot on the ladder and are quite understandably becoming dissillousioned with it all.

But hopefully things will pick up by the time I get through it all.

Thanks.

[Camp Freddie]

I reckon I spent £40k net on pilot training up to the year 2000, and was lucky enough to get my IR sponsored, but if I had to spend more than £100k now with no immediate prospect of a job, i would say that it is not worth the risk.

Luckily it all worked out for me but if I could do it all again I would go fixed wing, there are just so many more jobs around

CF

[detgnome]

And probably not all in Aberdeen....

[Bladecrack]

I had a similar experience to Camp Freddie, 40-50k outlay for CPL/FI, sponsored IR (although im not working offshore) but I agree totally with what he says regarding job prospects/risk etc... If I had to do it all again I would go FW instead although I prefer rotary.

Good luck,

BC

[Pandalet]

It's possible to do zero to CPL/IR for around £70k - £80k, but it takes some careful planning and research. You're unlikely to get any financial help unless you're young (under 25, typically) and even then, there's not a lot around.

There is no waiting list for IRs currently - you can get on a JAA ME course within a month or 2, if you have the cash and hours ready to go.

There don't seem to be any co-jo offshore jobs around at the moment, although that may change in the next 12 - 18 months. There appear to be even fewer low-hour jobs around generally than usual. If you do go ahead with pilot training, I strongly suggest having some other career or source of income to live off until you get your first pilot job; this goes double if you're planning to fund any part of your training with a loan.

[krypton_john]

That said, now could just be the genius time to start training.

Lack of training demand and oversupply of trainers and idle helicopters could lead to some good deals. Nobody training now could lead to a shortage of graduates in a few years time when training and cheap hour building is wrapping up.

Buy in a down market, sell in an up market.

[MuratKayin]

Hello there ;
ı am an ex army pilot. Recently retired from Turkısh army. I have 1900 flight hours. SAR pilot. Deck and ship landing qualified. Spend last four years on SAR battalion. HUET.
Bell 206 , UH-1 (AB-205) , AS-532/332 UL SAR rated. Have a JAA Cpl / Ir (H) .
What is my chance to get a good job in northern sea.

Murat KAYIN. Heli pilot

[TopperHarley01]

Regarding North Sea employment, are pilots expected to pay for their own type rating now, or does the company provide that?

[Bravo73]

Regarding North Sea employment, are pilots expected to pay for their own type rating now, or does the company provide that?


Thankfully, no! (Or at least not yet. Please don't suggest it to the management).

But expect to be bonded for the value of the type rating. Anywhere from £30-50k.

[hands_on123]

North sea type rating bonds are circa £25,000.

But they aren't really legally enforcable.

[Thomas coupling]

Murat Kayin: absolutely NIL chance. Unless you can think of a way of bypassing nationals queueing up in front of you????

Wobble wings: Please please heed these warnings. Don't know your age background financial status etc, but would VERY STRONGLY suggest if you need to fly, you:
Learn to fly FW.
Fly FW commercially.
Fly rotary as a hobby.

[MuratKayin]

um... lifting :
that is a great news. but ı havent heard anything about that. ı will call my friend in red star. and googled CHC site but couldnt find anything.

I am the man of that job :)))

[ironchefflay]

the job in Turkey is being run by CHC global, however, that will be changing. at least one of the aircraft is a 332 based in Aberdeen till recently if they havent changed their minds for the 100th time!!

[Nineteen84]

Can anyone share what an FO with one of the UK north sea operators would get paid in today's market?

[Mitchaa]

Can anyone share what an FO with one of the UK north sea operators would get paid in today's market?

£50-60k starting rising upto circa £120k at the top of the ladder as a Captain is probably in the right regions.

[TimTooWindy]

Hi. Understood re £50-60k. What about a pilot joining with 3,000+hrs and ME time etc? Would they get an increased rate? Senior FO pay rates?

Regards. TTW

[ApolloHeli]

SFO's £60-70k on entry...

[TimTooWindy]

SFO's £60-70k on entry...
Thanks. How does Offshore Wind Farm wages compare with Oil and Gas please? Eg. Wiking etc

[helicrazi]

Thanks. How does Offshore Wind Farm wages compare with Oil and Gas please? Eg. Wiking etc

Similar to hems

[neebother]

Ask any self funded helicopter pilot flying the NS if he/she would do it again....NO. Even with the downturn in fixed wing its a better place to be. Oil and gas is a dying industry.....

[helicrazi]

Ask any self funded helicopter pilot flying the NS if he/she would do it again....NO. Even with the downturn in fixed wing its a better place to be. Oil and gas is a dying industry.....

And yet they all stayed employed during the pandemic. There are still many fixed wing pilots out of work after the downturn.

I would do it all over again

[SpindleBob]

Yep I'd do it all again too, so neebother isn't speaking for everyone

Great roster. Great pay. Interesting challenging role. Better standard of living for many than some of my friends in fixed wing

I think there is an assumption that everyone in fixed wing works for BA at a nice airfield that they can afford to live next to. Certainly not always the case. Not all pilots get the big jobs and those that do have mixed experiences of how good or bad it is.

Rotary offers a range of different roles, so if North Sea isn't your thing, at least you should be able to find something that floats your boat.

[SimonK]

Yep I'd do it all again too, so neebother isn't speaking for everyone

Great roster. Great pay. Interesting challenging role. Better standard of living for many than some of my friends in fixed wing

I think there is an assumption that everyone in fixed wing works for BA at a nice airfield that they can afford to live next to. Certainly not always the case. Not all pilots get the big jobs and those that do have mixed experiences of how good or bad it is.

Rotary offers a range of different roles, so if North Sea isn't your thing, at least you should be able to find something that floats your boat.

Well said and agree 100%, he doesn't speak for me either. NS is certainly not for everyone but neither is the airline world; my oldest friend was a widebody P1 for a ME airline and I have a lot of friends/former colleagues who fly LH/SH. Apart from my chum's very nice salary (which wasn't quite as much as you might think...) and some nice perks such as staff travel and free uniform laundering ;) pretty much everything else paled even next to my modest humdrum life flogging a 92 around the NS. Before I left the military I produced a very geeky spreadsheet with all the flying jobs I could find (LH/SH airlines, NS, HEMS, Police, Corporate etc) and I met/interviewed various chums doing all those roles and I weighted the various factors (salary, pension, time to command, rosters, leave. fatigue, benefits, lifestyle etc) based on what I wanted/needed, which put the NS easily at the top for me. Out of all the pilots I interviewed, the happiest out of the lot (honestly) were the NS pilots - lot has changed since then and fair to say it's been a torrid few years since 2015, but also a lot of important things haven't changed.

[casper64]

Depending on your age: Join the military and fly there…. Much more interesting flying, free training, friends for life and then do a transition to civil live in 10-15 years when they make you fly a desk. 👍

[EESDL]

The salary will be as low as the operators contrive it to be. There is a very effective cartel in operation and passively condoned by the regulator. Engineers pay even worse - it's shameful but I guess you get what you pay for.....

[Apate]

The salary will be as low as the operators contrive it to be. There is a very effective cartel in operation and passively condoned by the regulator. Engineers pay even worse - it's shameful but I guess you get what you pay for.....

Can I have some of what you've been smoking please? It's obviously some pretty heavy stuff, and I am in need of having my grasp on reality as loose as yours obviously is.