Time to come home?

[Relight]

Gad A!
I am a corporate pilot with many years experience in the field and typed on several mid size jets. I am an Australian citizen by parent default and have not resided there except when very young. Just completed a vacation on the east coast and had a real blast, now I think I might like to come down south for a few years. I have no aviation contacts and would like any advice/info on the situation. A friend here (not aviation) lived in Sydney 1 year, and told me he thought there were not many bizjets there and living conditions not so great.

My points of concern are:
Difficulty getting employment (prefer part 91/consider jetprops)
Low salarys
High taxation (prefer contract thru mu offshore Co.)
High crime rate
Urban lifestyle (prefer not in big cities)

If corporate/private employment not possible, I might be interested in regional/major jets with direct entry or quick upgrades. Thanks in advance for all your info. I have ATP, FEW, Masters, 12250 tt, 11850 multi, 8780 jet, 7500 pic. Typed in
HS-125, LR 25/35/55/31/45, GR-1159, DA-20, CE500, BE400.

[safeskiesabove]

DO YOU HAVE ANY C210 TIME THOUGH???;)

[Wizofoz]

G'day Relight,

I hoped to get a reply in before some smart-a### flamed you, but as you can see, I'm too late.

There are some basic realities you need to understand before coming to Aus.

Firstly it is a sparsley populated country with a few centres of population well served by direct flights by the major airline(s).
As such there is very little "Middle level" aviation. The needs of business people to bypass hubs basically does not exist as there are no hubs.

There is, however, quite a large GA industry serving the vast, sparsley populated interior. The result is there are a hell of a lot of experienced light twin pilots who are clamering for what few better jobs are available.The very few corporate jobs available are almost exclusively in the Major cities. There is some Turbo-prop charter in the secondary cities, but again very competative, and pay is not great. I'd figure maybe 50k AUD (28k USD) tops at higher tax than you're used too.

As to flying for a major, I put the "S" in parenthesis in the first paragraph as the country has about 1 1/3 large airlines. Qantas is obviously the largest. It's recrutement processes are largely objective, meaning they put you through there own tests and choose on the basis of those, so experience is not an overiding factor. If they offer you a job it is as a Second Officer. "A flight engineer?" I hear you ask? No! A second officer is an international relief pilot who is not entitled to takeoff or land the aircraft. Promotion is on seniority and you can probably expect 3 years as an SO before RHS in a 767 or 737 might be available.

The "Other" airline is Virgin Blue. They may offer you a FO job, on the basis you then pay for a 737 type rating. They pay (Any VB guys feel free to correct me) about 80k AUD (45k USD?) for an FO, and you'll pay 49 % tax on a goodly proportion of that. With your experience, you might score an upgrade within 2 years.

To top it off, our "Other" major collapsed a year ago releasing at least 800 qualified jet pilots onto the already small market.

Crime rate lower than the states (we don't tend to give our 12 year olds assult rifles).

Great weather, nice life style and cost of living generally cheaper than the states (Though you'll S### your self when you see the cost of cars and gas!!).

I'm not saying you won't find work, but it will be harder, be in lesser equipment and pay less than you're used too.Most Aussie pilots would love a green card to have the opertunities available in the states.

To give you an example, I have similar hours to you, and am writting this from a foreign country as I'm one of the guys from the "Other" major, and had to leave Aus to find suitable work!!

Oh yeah, Why would a country with so many available pilots use off shore contractors? Unheard of, forget it.

Best of luck.

[Relight]

Thank you Wizofoz! I appreciate the info.

Can you confirm you would pay 49% tax on a $80,000 AU salary with Virgin? Would you also know what the net salary be for Captain? Are there other taxes you pay to State/other?

I guess there are not many corporate jets at all there. Would you have an approx figure on the total number? By offshore contract, I mean a setup to avoid local taxes where the company/airplane/crew are registered and 'based' from a tax agreeable offshore island country as happens here if it works for the owner. Is it not used in Australia, for example Vanuatu or Cook?

Can you also clarify me these points on lifestyle:

I agree the gun laws here are crazy, but my fiend insists the everyday general crime rate in Australia is twice more than here, excepting of course murder which is mostly gang related and not really affects me.

He also said the Sydney weather is cold half the year below 70 max and precip days 40-50%? What bases do Virgin have?

I bought a 2 year SLK320 covertible with 14,000 miles for $34,000, how much more approx would this be in Australia?

[Wizofoz]

Yo Relight,

Can somebody post current Aussie Tax rates here? You will definatley be in the 49% band at 80 000, but I'm not sure at which level it cuts in. As I said, I'm OS and not paying Aussie tax at the moment, but suffice to say it's substantially higher than the US.

There are no other income taxes (The 49% I quoted includes 1 1/2% Medicare, our social medicine scheme. Adequate, but you'd probably want some private medical instead.) There is a 10% GST sales tax on everything except food.

Have a look at the CASA web site. They have a register of all Australian registered Aircraft (there are only about 9000) and I think it has a search function to find how many of a certain type, But I'd be suprised if there were more than 20 Mid sized jets (Falcon 20 and above) or more than 100 including citations etc., but I stand to be corrected if anyone closer to that feild has better info.

Gross for a Captain at Virgin is about 130K. With Aussie tax, I guess that would translate to about 6k AUD in hand a month.

Aussie certainly has it's share of crime and it is increasing, but I still think in terms of violent crime against innocent individuals, we have a way to go to match the states.

Sydney winters are moderatley cool. Temps of 15-25 C during most days depending on the prevailing system. Autumn and Spring are lovely. Usually quite warm, sunny and dry. For the last several years Summer has either been stinking hot (Temps in the 30s) or warm and wet. Certainly Southern USA has a warmer climate, but then so does Northern Australia!! Thinl Oregan more than Florida.

As to the SLK, Way out of my league!!! I think a new one would be about $120 000 (75US) so maybe 90 for a two YO one? Petrol is 75-90 cents per Liter (Note, not gallon! 1 gallon is 4.4 liters)

As to the contract arrangement, I'm aware of the setup. But one piece of advice, DON'T MESS WITH THE AUSTRALIAN TAX OFFICE!!. They make the IRS look like a sunday school. If you live and work in Australia, you are NOT gonna get away without paying tax.

This is all general from someone not living there right now, so open to clarification by people more in the know.

Hope it helps

[Icarus2001]

Did this same fiend (sic) who told you how bad the crime rate is here also advise you about good job opportunities in Australia?

As to the weather....http://www.bom.gov.au

Tax advice http://www.ato.gov.au

Licence (note spelling) advice http://www.casa.gov.au

Documents http://www.airservices.gov.au

I think the top tax level starts at about $49,000

Yes there are off shore tax schemes but if most of the income is earned in Australia I understand one has to pay tax in Australia. To pay for the roads to drive your imported SLK on.;)

[Relight]

Thanks both for your reply!

I did not think the job opportunity would be great, but looking to try a diffrent location/lifestyle for a while and thought there might be something for me there. VirginBlue could work out for me, I wanted to get a BBJ typed anyway. Do you know if they are hiring and what the working conditions are like (hours per mo.)?
Would they hire a guy that has not flown in Australia before?

Wow, the tax I knew was high, but that sure seems harsh to lose half on those moderate amounts. I guess all your medical, dental, college, etc needs are for free. But I still can't believe it! Can you claim substatial sums back in your tax returns?

I got the crime rate statistics, my friend seems to be on it (he did have a bad experience in Sydney). Rape, serious assault, break and enter were my concerns, they are all over double the US. Probably still not too bad, I'm not so paranoid about it anyway.

(PS: Wizofoz, I always worked on 1 gal=3.8 liters?)

[ComeByChance]

Relight,

Nothing is free in Australia anymore, you pay the high tax plus pay for your medical benefits (Medicare levey or pay your own private benefit). You will also have to use your own money to said your kids to college. The ATO is cracking down on claims airline employees can claim.

[Wizofoz]

Hi Relight,

Sorry, that's 4.4 per IMPERIAL gallon (Did you KNOW there were two kinds?). With the demise of Ansett, Virgin B are expanding as fast as they can. I would think with your hours you would have a good shot.

Not flying in Aus should not be a problem. It's not that difficult an environment, though have you ever flown a big jet OCTA, no tower, no RADAR in IMC?

Hope it works out for you.

[Relight]

I have a couple more questions:
Working for VirginBlue F/O, you would get $55,000 net and pay $26,000 total tax. What kind of tax return money can you claim on back, do your accountants get most of that back for you? Does this company pay all your medical/dental insurance. I think my company pays about $3000 yearly which covers everything including worldwide air ambulance. Thats in USD$.

I have not flown big jets, the biggest only a Gulfstream. Fly in and out of a lot of no tower airports. Nearly all the US is under radar. Been lot of places with no radar: most in the Caribbean, South America., over to Hawaii and Europe, Africa a few times.

I got you now on that imperial gallon, forgot about it, so used to US gal, I didn't think any were using that one, seems everywhere is metric except US cant get it together!