Jump Pilot Pay
 

Can anyone who has experience with Skydive operations tell me what the pay is like for a pilot? How is it calculated?
Cheers

Well I'd very much doubt you'd get a salary!

What are you planning on flying and where?

Me, I was moving a U206 around 5 square miles for £20 a day. That covered the fuel to get there, a bacon sannie, some lunch and as much tea as I could handle.

Some of the best flying experiences I've had! :ok:

I've just recently started doing a bit of para dropping at weekends. Its a small club with just one aircraft. Theres no pay, but then again im not in it for any financial gain. To be honest, i dont know if any of my local clubs pay as such. Perhaps some of the bigger operations down south(assuming your speaking about UK) might pay something, im not sure though.

If you're dropping jumpers on a PPL, the pay will be nothing - you might get your tab at the DZ canteen paid if your lucky.

At a larger DZ, if you're flying something bigger and have a CPL - you might well get paid something very modest.

You'll not get rich dropping skydivers, but it's excellent experience and generally great fun.

Pay
 

Well, this weekend for 4 hours and 7 lifts i got 2 cans of coke, a mars and a kit kat chunky, food in the air, drink on the re-fuel turnarounds. Your pay is flying for free:ok:

Great fun, hard work and not an easy ride!!

I always traded jumpers for skydives. One load of skydivers for one skydive. I did the same thing with packing parachutes. One parachute packed, I get one skydive.

I've had friends who flew jumpers for much of the year. I had one friend who lived out of the airplane, and would stay at a drop zone for a few months, then go elsewhere. He carried his Harley Davidson motorcycle in the back of the airplane, slept on the floor in the dropzone loft, and took his winters in Prague to translate for the National Library. Some thought of him a homeless bum, and never learned that he lived that way because he wanted to; he had a masters degree in electrical engineering, I believe.

It's hard to make much of a living in skydiving. As a pilot, jumpmaster, packer or rigger, drop zone owner, whatever. It's just not a high dollar business, though it's an expensive one. As far as pilot pay? What's that?

The best pay you can get at a drop zone is to be repaid in jumps. It doesn't get any better than that.

We earned 2 pounds per jump....... but had the use of the aircraft for some of the most enjoyable flying that i have ever done..... :):)

Mutt

I've flown 1000-ish lifts, and never gotten any form of payment or renumeration.:{
On the other hand, I did enjoy it and got to fly the Islander. What more could you possibly ask for?! :E

SNS3Guppy,
How did the skygods feel about being traded.....;)

I'm not an extremely experienced skydiver, and what jumps I do have are spread over about 25 years. I still own two jump rigs, both considered "old man gear" today, but seldom get to jump.

I always got great treatment on the DZ, even from the "skygods," because I was their jump pilot. I had a chance to jump with some world class skydivers, and though I was never one of them by any stretch of the imagination, a few reached out a hand to give some personal instruction or advice on a jump here and there, and as one can expect at a DZ, the camaraderie was good.

I believe you're making fun of my typo "jumpers" however...didn't actually trade "jumpers," as I was never quite that much in demand :ouch:.

At first I found that I was the bottom of the heap...not a skygod, not much of a jumper, just a means to get to altitude. One day surface conditions exceeded the jumpers perrogative, and the DZO ordered me down. I came down like I always did in the little 182A...steep slipping turns (later learned it's unwise, wouldn't do it now), but it was a most impressive descent which kept the engine warm and got the airplane on the ground usually before the jumpers.

When I got on the ground, all the hairy-chested falling wonders crawled out of the airplane, and several threw up...vomited on the spot. I think they had a little more respect after that, and never once gave me a hard time again. Skygods got demoted to the more politically correct "sky-persons."

I'll tell you what I got a few years back. I'd get $8 a load and I'd do aobut 5 loads on a good day. It was SLOW. Money was crap! Experience was great - but I could only hack around 3 months max. Money was crap, and hours were slow and poor. It was fun to do (for a few times) - just do anything else instead. I'd work for real money and buy hours instead. But all said and done - I think it was part of paying dues or something. Whatever.

Good Experience, but take care.
 

Prittpower;
I spent a couple of seasons "Dumping" out of a 206 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Pay was nil but grub at the DZ was free and the club also threw in a static line course or tandem jump which was well worth it (if you're offered it, do it! Great giggle!). One word of warning though....if you do start dropping don't get pressured into dropping when the weather's marginal (GPS etc), some might say it makes a "Man out of you" but it can all end in tears. Most clubs/jumpers respect this although there are one or two..!:cool:

SNS3Guppy,
Good one.;)


Of course, para-dropping can be slow. If weather is bad and the skygods spent all their hard-earned cash on beer the night before, there won't be much flying. I know.
Especially with the smaller DZ's.
But, if you happen to fly for a larger outfit, it can be very busy and as much a commercial operation as anything else. Just without the pay.
Demands are just as high, and every minute counts!
You can't linger in the climb, nor in descent, and make sure to catch that first turn-off, so that you don't waste time taxying around!:E

From experience, nil pay.....!!!!!!!

5 bucks a load, and on a good day I could do 20 loads........but only weekends and odd weekday.

Certainly not a way to get rich quick, but post 9/11 it was all that was going. I worked in a factory and was a part time cleaner to make ends meet, but I guess many of us have stories like that....

That said, I went from 200 hrs to 1000 over 3 years, met some fantastic people, and generaly had great blast. Wouldn't have changed it for anything.............

In 1999, with a brand new CPL and flying a turbine I was getting £50 a week and free accomodation (caravan) for a full weeks work paradropping! As somebody has already said, you ain't going to get rich flying paras, but you will get valuable experience if you need it.

Today, now flying other things, I do it for the fun of it.:ok:

From my own experience as both a jump pilot and former examiner no pay but great experience! If you need to make some extra cash while your doing it learn how to pack the student chutes, always lots to pack after a busy weekend.

question
 

did you guys have to pay for a checkout on the aircraft that you were going to be flying?

I just got an offer to fly but the company wants a 1000.00$ for a check out on a c182

all advice welcome im hoping to get it waived as i fly a c72r which i think is similar

happy contrails

Firstly, they want you to pay them for a checkout?

Secondly, $1000? One. Thousand. F#@*ing. Dollars?! :eek: Let's say that it costs them $100 an hour to run (an overestimate), they're going to check you out for ten hours?

Some people really know how to take the p*ss.

What salary, a kick up the ass if your lucky.......get those god dam turkeys into the air ,drop their sorry asses, high speed descent , land then another pick up and go again....same as an airline job really but without the big bucks !:rolleyes: