$65k going rate for piston twin drivers . . .

[beverlyH NN]

It looks like GA companies are finding it hard to source twin pilots or maybe it is just Chart Air (aka Shaft Air) finding it hard to source pilots and retain them . . . . :hmm:

[startingout]

Nearly 20k above what I used to be on driving around a twin kero burner :eek: sign me up

[Wally Mk2]

$65K is around a grand a week clear not taking into account Medicare etc.
In today's fast expensive society yr gotta love flying to live on that wage!

It all boils down to money, yes money sadly. I'd happily work for $65K a year if it where relevant to the cost of living but it's way off the mark. But pilots are always seeking something better and moving up that ladder has been the same since man invented wings & flew. Simply put general aviation is just a stepping stone, always has been to most.




Wmk2

[Howard Hughes]

That's how it should be!:ok:

In the future pilots will go straight to the airlines and when they have enough experience they will get a job in GA, where the big money will be!;)

[Ejector]

GA wont be here in the future. Not light piston twins anyway. :ugh:

Anything less than this is a disgrace anyway.

[Howard Hughes]

There will always be GA in this country. Will losing the fleet of ageing piston twins be such a great loss?;)

[Ixixly]

Could this have more to do with their new CAR217 stuff that they also advertised for not long ago? Perhaps this is more than just a Charter Twin Driver...although come to think of that they didn't ask for ATPL as a requirement... hmm.

[The Green Goblin]

I'd want twice that to live in the Alice, have my car and house broken into on a weekly basis and to fly below 10,000 in the thermal turbulence.

In fact, I'd want a fly allowance just to deal with the bloody flies!

65K hey? Well one thing is for sure, supply and demand. Perhaps the supply isn't there and the demand exceeds the supply?

Perhaps the cadet schemes are starting to cause a "GA Pilot" shortage :p

[Ixixly]

"GA Pilot Shortage" ey GG? Quit teasing.... :p

[Stationair8]

GG, you generation Y guys are just soft.

Flies in Alice Springs are a good source of nutrition for skinny little pilots from the big smoke.

[The Green Goblin]

Yep, you get a nimble tongue from licking them out from underneath your sunglasses while you're trying to land the damn aeroplane :hmm:

I enjoyed flying out that way, although not in the summer months.

When it rains out there and the dessert comes to life it is one of the most beautiful places in Australia.

When the frost comes and kills all the flies the place becomes almost bearable.

Bushy will be happy that the local operators are finally paying semi decent wages for bush Pilots. :ok:

[Slasher]

I'd want twice that to live in the Alice,...

Christ GG you for real? We did it all for a lot less, and didn't
have things like fancy GPS's to save our arses on a dark and
stormy night to Hooker or Tennant!

And we didn't have wx radars in our Chieftains and Aztrucks
neither - radars back then were for queers.

[PLovett]

Geez.............here we go.........the storms were twice as bad, the heat was meltn' the dash............don't know how good ya get it now............:};)

Just for you oldies..................

Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen - YouTube

[Howard Hughes]

GPS? Weather Radar?

We had NDB us lot did, that be yer all purpose instrument for negotiating storms, tell young people that today and they won't believe ya!;)

[PLovett]

NDB? You were loocky.......................:}

[The Green Goblin]

GPS? Weather Radar?

We had NDB us lot did, that be yer all purpose instrument for negotiating storms, tell young people that today and they won't believe ya!

You had it easy!

The only instruments I had were my eyes and a second hand watch that I found at a dump in the outskirts of lae....

A let down in IMC was flown by dangling a wire with a lead sinker underneath. Once it snapped, you knew to descend no further!

[Ixixly]

Christ, i'm surprised the Pterodactyls you lot flew around on had instruments at all!! Bloody old Codgers (I say that in the nicest possible way!!) :D

[lilflyboy262]

Agreed Ixixly, I was waiting for one to say he flew purely by heading and time.
And he could only measure time by the position of the sun/moon.

[Slasher]

Christ, i'm surprised the Pterodactyls you lot flew around on had instruments at all!!

A bat & ball ASI and compass were all one needed when one
hooned around the NT out of the Alice, along with yer sweat-
stained WAC chart. If you were one of the lucky ones you had
an ADF fitted to yer Aztruck (assuming it wasn't busted).

You also needed your HF working to cancel SAR with Tennant
or Darwin (on 8938 I think).

[JMEN]

The old bat and ball, now that brings back memories!

Alas the question these days would be what is a bat and ball :confused: Don't ya play cricket with them?

For those who trained on a G1000, have a go at this :eek:

Steam driven alright ;)

File:Cockpit of cessna 172e g-asss of 1964 arp.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cockpit_of_cessna_172e_g-asss_of_1964_arp.jpg)

[Lancair70]

JMEN, the TC in the C172 is too modern, as is the VOR, otherwise nice simple panel. Whats G1000 ? ;)

[Pinky the pilot]

A let down in IMC was flown by dangling a wire with a lead sinker underneath. Once it snapped, you knew to descend no further

You were lucky TGG! The Bongo vans I flew up there didn't even have that!!:mad: And I thought that watch I threw out was broken!:}

But seriously folks.....

On subject; Anyone know what AFAP designate as the award rate for Piston Twin Pilots? Off the top of my head I would think that $65k would be somewhere near the mark but I stand by to be corrected.

[PLovett]

Three years ago GA Award for IFR twin drivers was around $43K. Don't think it would be around $65K now, but, could easily be wrong.

Just checked the award - not much change - just over $45K for a C402/PA31 driver (first year).

Why do they make the award so bleedin' hard to read. :ugh:

[Howard Hughes]

Have a look for yourselves...2010 Pilots Award (http://www.fwa.gov.au/documents/modern_awards/pdf/MA000046.pdf):ok:

[WhoWasPhone]

I read that entire first page with a Yorkshire accent in my head thanks to that video! :}

[crwjerk]

Fark me.... Award has more than doubled in 10 years and you guys are complaining about 65k.

[Brian Abraham]

I was waiting for one to say he flew purely by heading and timeThats what we did in our part of the world. Water, lots an lots of water, no landmarks you see to see at sea. ;)

[The Green Goblin]

You're all as soft as Nannas scones :p

I had to sweep the hanger till 3am, go to bed at 1am and get up to work at 5am. I only got half an hours sleep by going to bed at 6am... Then I had to walk 30 Kays to the airstrip in the rain during 45 degree heat in the middle of the wet.

I couldn't afford shoes back then, so I did it with old oil rags wrapped around my feet.

Of course we hand swung our props to start the engines back then. It was pretty difficult because it was so damn cold. Our hands would get stuck to the metal propellers and the engines would be just about seized because the oil was so thick!

Of course because we couldn't afford gloves you had to be careful of getting
splinters from the stone chips on the wooden propellers.

After flying 16 hours in a 5 hour duty period working 13 hours straight, we'd have to walk the 50 kays in the freezing rain in the middle of winter to get home.

You lot have got it so easy these days :ok:

[Howard Hughes]

Looxury, we had to carve our props out of ole firewood...:}

[The Green Goblin]

Looxury, we had to carve our props out of ole firewood...

You had firewood? You had it eeeeezy.

It was so cold for us in the middle of summer we had to walk around in our underwear just to keep a little less warm. It certainly didn't help when it began to snow! :p

[Chimbu chuckles]

Fooking loogshury!!!

Firewood and snow?..no ski resorts when I were a lad. Lived in tree house wit nought but betel nut breakfast, lunch and dinner...on special occasions we might have Lime to go with it.

Fell out of the tree 2 hours before we went to bed and battled 69ks UNARMED through fierce headhunters to fly 87 sectors in 22 stick hrs/day 8 days a week.

You tell youngans these days and they just don't believe you.

[Howard Hughes]

Ks? kays? In my day we walked in miles and we wos thankful! ;)

[Slasher]

TGG its YOU who had it soft, ya big girls blouse! ;)

We had to make OUR own brooms out of spinifex for hangar
sweeping, using nothing but string and high-speed tape!

And you....WALKED to the airport? God we DREAMT of being
able to walk to the airport! In the Wet season we had to row
the old Company's leaky boat 20 miles out to the strip, and if
we had enough old pilot shirts we would sew 'em together to
have the luxury of a sail!

You had oil rags? Jeez what we wouldnt've given for oil rags!
All we had were our old pairs of jocks!

Worked 13 hours straight? Your Company must've thought the
sun shines out of your arse lad! We had 20 hour days and the
remaining 4 hours were counted towards a full day off every 5
days (5x4=24). The only real day off we got was being herded
into the hangar once a week to do 50 hourlies on the Aztrucks!

[Chimbu chuckles]

You had string and high speed tape?

And wot we wouldn't have given for JOCKS!!!

We woulda sold our sisters....if we had them...for jocks.

You lucky, LUCKY bastard.

ROFLMAO:ok:

[Howard Hughes]

High speed tape? In Chucks day I believe flying involved molten wax and feathers...:}

[The Green Goblin]

In the Wet season we had to row
the old Company's leaky boat 20 miles out to the strip, and if
we had enough old pilot shirts we would sew 'em together to have the luxury of a sail

You had a boat? Looxury!

We had to swim 50 miles to work in the pouring rain, dodging crocodiles just to get to the strip.

The sun was beating down, burning our backs in the freezing water. It took so long to swim this great distance we had to leave before the sun rose just to get there on time!

:}

[Ixixly]

I flew a C206 doing meatbombing that had the same instruments as that 172 minus the GPS and VOR and such, it was such a DOG!!

And guys...you have me in stitches, that some funny stuff you got in those pipes!!

[Pinky the pilot]

By gum! I haven't heard of anything so funny since the night at the Club Dero when a Talair Pilot told me that he saw ######## try to
(the following has been censored to avoid identifying certain guilty parties:E:D

Walk to the airstrip?? I had to sleep in a hut in a corner of the field that was so cruddy even the local raskols turned their noses up at it. They said it stank too much even for them!:}

[Aerodynamisist]

Whats the go with the percentages quoted in the award ? for example :

"A pilot (excluding Fokker-28 pilots) flying a turbo jet aircraft will be paid 1280% of the standard rate per annum."

[OpsNormal]

Aero, keep reading the award, it makes reference to how the "standard rate" is to be worked out then applied.

One of the best reads here I've had here in a long while, thanks you guys for the laugh. I wish the crew at Alice all the best, the three and a half years I was in Central Australia were some of the best flying I ever got to enjoy. It is of great interest Chartair offer East Coast turbine driver wages to fly a piston. Good on them for doing so, however I must admit that with the way rents are there in Alice now they had to offer those dollars to make it work.

Regards,

OpsN.;)