Skydiving Pilot

[Victa]

Interested to hear from those who started off their flying career by becoming a skydiving pilot and what they thought of it. Did it kickstart your career or are the rumours true that skydiving pilots are frowned apon? If so, why?

Becoming a skydiving pilot appeals to me, so I'm just a little curious about the best place to get work, experience (flying and non-flying) required, amount of hours to expect, pay, lifestyle, etc.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks. :cool:

[Mainframe]

Victa Parachute dropping ops are a good way to break the 500hr barrier. I have employed many pilots from that background and most of them are now burning kerosene.

You will need to set your own standards and work at maintaining them as the very nature of the operation is not conducive to professionalism. Often, check and training is required to remedy the tendency to throw an aeroplane around, and you don't get much practice at landing with a full load.

Unless progression to multi-engine ops is highly probable, don't stick to it for long as too much (more than 500hrs of it) is seen as a negative due to the need for retraining to professional standards.

This is not commercial ops and though you will have high time, you have the same problem as instructing too long, no experience in all the aspects ( flying as well as paperwork etc) of charter flying.

At 500 hrs you should be able to find work as a s/e scenic pilot where you will start the induction into commercial ops and you will normally progress to charter line pilot after a hundred or so hours. When you get close to 1,000hrs you will probably score your first multi work and then that snowballs to working for one of the bigger charter operators and before you know it you're burning kero.

Hope this answers your questions.

[imabell]

mainframe got it right,

professionalism, in some cases, goes out the window.

taxying with passengers legs dangling out the open door is not a good advertisment for the industry. nor is loading with an engine running.:rolleyes:

[Victa]

Thank you Mainframe for your informative response. Your post was much appreciated. Thanks. :)

[v1rotate]

My first flying position was flying C206's doing static line dropping. I had an Oz commercial licence with the bare minimum hours and then i moved to the UK where I scored a job with a large Skydiving Operator. I had only 370 hours total when I got the job.

I hear many stories of shoddy operators but with my outfit, they let me run the C206 the way I like. I could put as much or as little fuel in it, refuse to go up if the weather was crap etc etc. In that respect, there was never any commercial pressure to break any rules. After only around 4-5 months of doing it (it was only weekend work) and 40 hours later, I was offered a job on F27's flying freight. You would never get that sort of opportunity in Oz but most of the Captains in the airline had started doing parachute ops so I guess they could all relate to it.

I have to say you do learn alot about "flying" from doing meat bombing and there are occasions where you scare yourself senseless.

Pay was £20 a day whether or not it was one lift or 10 lifts. It was really enough for the fuel (the DZ was 97 miles from my place) and a bite to eat. (roughly 50 bucks a day)

[80days]

Victa,

The comments on professionalism certainly ring true. I started almost 6 months ago and have almost 100 hrs meatbombing and upon reflection I realised that the standards I fly to are set by myself. I guess its a matter of professional pride that will dictate the standards to which you operate to but having an understanding operator does help.

On a whole I have found that my stick and rudder skills have increased noticeably as well as situational awareness. Even working out wind speed and direction using the GPS and flight instruments was something I had never come across in my training.

Yes its fun and serious business at the same time. Hope this helps!

:)

[Throtlemonkey]

Victa I started at a smallish drop zone and did 350 hours a year larger drop zone's in more populated area's and tourist hot spots do many more hours, some of these have a fair few pilots all jockeying for work (I hear pete's parachuting up in the territory crawls with pilots at times).

As for places to get work try the list in the Australian parachute federation web site http://www.apf.asn.au/ alternatively try a web search, yellow pages.

Pay ? a bone of contention among skydive pilots while most operators are towing the line and paying pilots It's still not good expect around $ 8 to $ 10 a load maybe more in places around, don't bother with operators who don't pay they don't deserve you ! a bar job or night work might be required to get the rent and renewals paid for though.

Lifestyle is good lots of interesting people plenty of eyecandy and interaction with backpackers and people your own age.

Have to agree with most of the comments above you need to keep your own standards, I did become a little imprinted by jump flying and it took 5 hours or so to get back up to commercial standard.

Anything else I can help with drop me a line [email protected]

[QNIM]

Victa
It's a great way to learn how to handle an aircraft but the problem is that there are some operators that put the dollar ahead of all else and sooner or later you will have casa calling you in.
Some will tell they have approval to drop through cloud make sure you see the piece of paper,the regs are on the casa webb site.
Cheers Q

[Icarus2001]

and interaction with backpackers and people your own age.

Interesting assumption monkey.

[Throtlemonkey]

It's Throtlemonkey to you please Icarus2001.

Not an assumption an observation based on my own experience as a jump pilot, given most post CPL pilots are young and the majority of skydivers are young or young at heart and the staple customers are backpackers at most drop zones, it makes for a pleasant work environment.

[OpsNormal]

Icarus, I'm kinda with you on that one, but please don't take issue TM. From what I saw at the DZ I worked at a while ago the age spread was fairly well right across the board. It was the "oldies" (as such), that keep coming back week after week. It would probably be different at all DZ's across the country, but I can only speak of my experience in one DZ. ;)

Victa. Jumpadumpin' as a start? Absolutely! Just make sure you adhere to some personal standards and don't cave-in to pressure when you believe that it will put you or your a/c in any sort of unwarranted danger.

My advice? Maintain your standards, get yourself to 500hrs and make way for the next guy, coz at 500 you are a much better prospect for those who employ charter and scenic guys, if of course that is the way you would want to go. It is, after all, your decision, and you can quite easily pick-up the odd jumpadumpin' gig wherever if you have already flown them somewhere else before.

Good luck.

:)

[Spinnerhead]

When you move onto a charter job, it doesn't matter how badly you get paid, how shonky the aircraft are, how badly you get treated, or what little respect your employer has for you - it will be much better than what you had as a skydive pilot.

[QNIM]

Victa
Check out Barwon Heads Crash
He was and I said was a meatbomb Pilot
Q

[High Altitude]

Throttlemonkey,

You been outa Darwin for a while? Pete's stopped operating quite some time ago. No more chutes onto Mindil beach...

Must say I haven't doen alot of meatbombing, think i've done more jumps than flights. As long as you have the discipline then fly away. Just think about your life before you do anything stupid. The absolute stupidest meatbombing DAY i did was in a C402B (no crew door), it was a great day 6 sorties to FL140 I wore the pilot rig but honestly after hearing about the 208 that went in and the problems the pilot had getting out, I woulda been dead if we had a problem... Somethings are just not worth it.

IF YOU GO BOMBING ALWAYS WEAR THE PILOT RIG!!! and it won't hurt to do a few jumps just in case you ever have to bail.

[THREEGREENS]

Victa, agree with most everything said before and it can be a fun way to gain experience; but the following is the minimum checklist you need to tick-off before even considering flying dirt-darts!
1. Pay - should be about A$20 per load (or more) (less tax if they are legit)
2. Insurance - make sure the machine is insured and you are
named on ther policy personally.
3. Workcover - make sure they have a workcover policy in place as if you are injured TO or FROM or AT WORK, you will be covered.
4. Reputation - talk to others away from the operation and make sure they haven't got the usual bad name etc. Remember; the mud will stick, and finally,
5. Airmanship - try to maintain your own personal high standard of professionalism and airmanship REGARDLESS of what they try to convince you to do.:p
If you can do these things, you should not only gain a few hours but you might have a bit of fun and earn a few buck along the way!

Good Luck:)

[Malfunction Junction]

Threegreens,

A very valid point about WorkCover. Had a mate recently hurt himself as a full-time tandem jump master and he went to make a claim against workcover as the injury was sustained on the job. Alas; NO WORKCOVER. The business has never paid any workcover premiums despite employing 4 full-time jumpies and up to 10 part-time pilots over the past 5 years.............now maybe the ATO should get involved in this one too 'cause, a dime to a dollar; they will not be coughing up tax component either?
Suggest ANYONE thinking of seeking work in the parachuting game in the Wollongong area might be well-advised to check into these aspects of the deal before they start.
:mad:
(and who thought only the pilots were getting ripped?);)

[marreeman]

malfunction junction is your mate paying tax as a full time tandem/jump master ? . If he is the company would be on his group certificate & therefore known to the ATO as a business. If this is the case report the company as it is a requirement to pay workcover. Most tandem/jump masters i know dont declare the earnings from skydiving so dont really have a chance for workcover.

[Throtlemonkey]

It's been 5 years or so HA who's dropping meat bombs up there now? , I heard a romour about a io 550 conversion 182 doing 20 minute turnarounds up that way somewhere.