RFDS feeling effects of global pilot shortage
Can't speak to QLD, but across western and central.
Western Ops definitely the better of the PC12 sections. Stronger EBA, better pay, more comprehensive service, all NG fleet (central still with some classics). Some really good people at the top and in training and checking. Not perfect but as solid as it gets in GA. Semi-closed tender for their contracts with the state government - they don't have Pelair breathing down their neck like Victorian and South Eastern sections had/still have. Western also does almost all the medical component in house - doctors/nurses/ops team. Makes for a pretty good atmosphere and tight teams on the bases.
Regional base to start, expect Meeka, Hedland or Kal. Each base has its own shortcomings. Broome in 1-2 years. Jandakot in 2-3 years. Shorter if you're lucky, some people landing Jandakot within a year. Rosters can be hard when the bases are understaffed, but you'll do 18-20 shifts in 28 days, nearly all standby from home. Commonly morning/morning/afternoon/afternoon/night/night/grey day/ then RDO x 3. 700ish hours per year in the logbook, the FRMS caps you at 750. Hours are harder than the numbers make it sound, most guys are cooked at 750. Big duty days after decent standby periods, and lots of back of the clock.
PC24 within 3-4 years if you really want it, are competent and willing to go back to Broome. Seems like they want to give it to the younger and keener players, there's a little bit of seniority but just being there for a while doesn't guarentee you anything. 2 year bond. PC24 shifts/rosters a bit rough - lots of Broome - Perth return at unsociable hours. Ignore what the propaganda from Central section tells you about the PC24 - in WA it is a sealed surfaces only machine.
Westops will take you with 1500 of the right hours (or even slightly less). IFR, night, turbine, Part 135 - if you tick these boxes and are good with people you'll get a good look in. The job really can't be done with much less than 1500 hours and a decent footing on IFR - the section is set up so every base/crew does aeromed including high acuity primaries. I think my second or third callout after check to line was a nasty medevac in **** conditions, I had barely more than 1500 hours and was ****ting bricks even after 80 hours of line supervision prior to check. I remember getting told in week one that one in three hires don't get through to line check - saw plenty of people scrubbed for not cutting the mustard.
Great memories though. If you've been offered Westops I'd say go for it, you won't regret it.
Western Ops definitely the better of the PC12 sections. Stronger EBA, better pay, more comprehensive service, all NG fleet (central still with some classics). Some really good people at the top and in training and checking. Not perfect but as solid as it gets in GA. Semi-closed tender for their contracts with the state government - they don't have Pelair breathing down their neck like Victorian and South Eastern sections had/still have. Western also does almost all the medical component in house - doctors/nurses/ops team. Makes for a pretty good atmosphere and tight teams on the bases.
Regional base to start, expect Meeka, Hedland or Kal. Each base has its own shortcomings. Broome in 1-2 years. Jandakot in 2-3 years. Shorter if you're lucky, some people landing Jandakot within a year. Rosters can be hard when the bases are understaffed, but you'll do 18-20 shifts in 28 days, nearly all standby from home. Commonly morning/morning/afternoon/afternoon/night/night/grey day/ then RDO x 3. 700ish hours per year in the logbook, the FRMS caps you at 750. Hours are harder than the numbers make it sound, most guys are cooked at 750. Big duty days after decent standby periods, and lots of back of the clock.
PC24 within 3-4 years if you really want it, are competent and willing to go back to Broome. Seems like they want to give it to the younger and keener players, there's a little bit of seniority but just being there for a while doesn't guarentee you anything. 2 year bond. PC24 shifts/rosters a bit rough - lots of Broome - Perth return at unsociable hours. Ignore what the propaganda from Central section tells you about the PC24 - in WA it is a sealed surfaces only machine.
Westops will take you with 1500 of the right hours (or even slightly less). IFR, night, turbine, Part 135 - if you tick these boxes and are good with people you'll get a good look in. The job really can't be done with much less than 1500 hours and a decent footing on IFR - the section is set up so every base/crew does aeromed including high acuity primaries. I think my second or third callout after check to line was a nasty medevac in **** conditions, I had barely more than 1500 hours and was ****ting bricks even after 80 hours of line supervision prior to check. I remember getting told in week one that one in three hires don't get through to line check - saw plenty of people scrubbed for not cutting the mustard.
Great memories though. If you've been offered Westops I'd say go for it, you won't regret it.
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I did 8 years in Aeromed in the early years. I still have good memories of it, it's probably the only job I had where I felt truly needed and appreciated. Landing on the Highway was fun and flare paths using the old kero pot flares, don't suppose they do any of that these days. No GPS back then and not all our aircraft had VLF Omega. You learn what weather flying is. I understand now when other pilots look at me funny when I talk about how to negotiate thunderstorm cells, both cold stream and tropical.
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Been a while for me now, but yes, landing by a couple of faint kero flares and some car headlights in the outback on a visual circuit on a blackhole night sure focussed the attention, and the genuine "thank god you're here" response from the station owner/publican etc cannot be described.
I was somewhat indifferent to 90% of inter hospital transfers through, being somewhat routine. But the aforementioned landings made up for it and kept you on a high for a while.
I was somewhat indifferent to 90% of inter hospital transfers through, being somewhat routine. But the aforementioned landings made up for it and kept you on a high for a while.
Oh Yeah same same. You know throughout my Airline years I always thought that the other pilots knew what I know. It was only 10 years ago in my own private operation with 2 retired Airline pilots like myself that they don't. It seems our group is a very small group indeed.
I'm happy to have been a part of it too, and the good certainally outweighed the bad - especially with the benefit of hindsight. Really did enjoy the flying, camaraderie and sense of being a part of something worthwhile. Agree with you CS that “the genuine "thank god you're here" response from the station owner/publican etc cannot be described“. There are many opportunities to thank God in aeromed.
Missed your dialysis appointment during the day and now in renal failure, and its a Friday night with no local services until Monday? RFDS to Perth. Non-specific pain in the gut but you're in a super remote community? RFDS to Broome (absconded on arrival).
Don't even dream about a road landing or limited flare path, there are guys who've been there 15 years and have never done either outside of training. Just too many good mining strips around and the medical threshold required to risk a AU$10mil asset on something other than an actual airstrip is very, very high.
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This probably needs to be stressed too. You'll probably only do a handful of super high stakes retreivals a year where you're involved in outright saving a life, the rest will be low acuity transfers, repat flights or clinics. For the most part you're just making up for the absolute lack of specialist care in WA other than down south, Gero, Hedland and Broome.
Missed your dialysis appointment during the day and now in renal failure, and its a Friday night with no local services until Monday? RFDS to Perth. Non-specific pain in the gut but you're in a super remote community? RFDS to Broome (absconded on arrival).
Don't even dream about a road landing or limited flare path, there are guys who've been there 15 years and have never done either outside of training. Just too many good mining strips around and the medical threshold required to risk a AU$10mil asset on something other than an actual airstrip is very, very high.
Missed your dialysis appointment during the day and now in renal failure, and its a Friday night with no local services until Monday? RFDS to Perth. Non-specific pain in the gut but you're in a super remote community? RFDS to Broome (absconded on arrival).
Don't even dream about a road landing or limited flare path, there are guys who've been there 15 years and have never done either outside of training. Just too many good mining strips around and the medical threshold required to risk a AU$10mil asset on something other than an actual airstrip is very, very high.
During my line training on the PC12NG I had to land at Meekatharra with two vehicles and two portable lights in 600m at night. It was after a 10 hour, four sector duty and the ground crews working on the runway lights had cut the wrong cable. So we had two vehicles at the threshold and two lamps at the far end. Training Captain made me land the buggar. Was fine but you never know what might happen! 😲
During my line training on the PC12NG I had to land at Meekatharra with two vehicles and two portable lights in 600m at night. It was after a 10 hour, four sector duty and the ground crews working on the runway lights had cut the wrong cable. So we had two vehicles at the threshold and two lamps at the far end. Training Captain made me land the buggar. Was fine but you never know what might happen! 😲
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QLD Section still do jam tin/dunny role flare landings onto property strips, but really only out of Mount Isa and Charleville bases, occasionally Cairns as well.
The only road landings in Qld are onto the purpose built road strips. Still good fun though, seeing all that traffic held up while you come in and do your thing then depart.
It’s genuinely a fantastic job and as others have said, you’re very appreciated by those who rely on the service. Yes there’s some pretty ordinary moments medically wise, some that still haunt me to this day. But if you’ve got any sort of tolerance for seeing a bit of blood and suffering, then you walk away with a great sense of satisfaction.
I can’t speak much about requirements to get into Qld these days, they appear to have changed so much because of the lack of applicants compared to years gone by. What I do hear though is where they might have 1 fail to qualify over a 5 year period, they’re now getting 1 every 6 months or so
. And I wouldn’t put that down to bad training, I’d simply put that down to them not being able to attract the right people.
The only road landings in Qld are onto the purpose built road strips. Still good fun though, seeing all that traffic held up while you come in and do your thing then depart.
It’s genuinely a fantastic job and as others have said, you’re very appreciated by those who rely on the service. Yes there’s some pretty ordinary moments medically wise, some that still haunt me to this day. But if you’ve got any sort of tolerance for seeing a bit of blood and suffering, then you walk away with a great sense of satisfaction.
I can’t speak much about requirements to get into Qld these days, they appear to have changed so much because of the lack of applicants compared to years gone by. What I do hear though is where they might have 1 fail to qualify over a 5 year period, they’re now getting 1 every 6 months or so
. And I wouldn’t put that down to bad training, I’d simply put that down to them not being able to attract the right people.
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I can only speak for QLD section and agree with Morno.
The remote bases (Mt Isa and Charleville) certainly do the best mix of flying, combining the 'good ol' station flare landings along with plenty of trips into the tertiary Hospitals closer to the coast. Allowances at remote bases also means you will also earn 25-30k more then the coastal bases. Rosters are good, 14 shifts in 28 days, usually 4 on, 4 off. Half day shifts, half night and home pretty much every night unless there's an AOG or occasionally a priority task means you'll end up away from base. Coastal bases do the fairly mundane Hospital to Hospital transfers which is not overly exciting. Expect much more challenging and exciting taskings out of Charleville/Isa/Cairns.
FRMS is 700 flying hours a year. Flying hours vary between bases, Expect to fly between 400-600 hours a year, Townsville, Rocky and lately Charleville have been hitting 600 and over. If you fly over 600 you will earn an extra $260 for every hour over 600 paid annually. New Aeromed pilots start on around $135,000, Clinic pilots about $105,000. Both those figures to change shortly as a new EBA is up for vote very soon.
Minimums are always advertised as having 4000 hours total, however Aeromed pilots are getting in with 2500 or so. The Remote area mentoring program (RAMP) pilots have been getting in with around the 1500 total hour mark.
Aeromed is not everyone's cup of tea. It's busy, tiring, sometimes emotional and sometimes traumatic. Taskings can sometimes do your head in and waiting hours for an ambulance to come collect you patient can be beyond frustrating. But that odd job that comes in where you truly make a difference makes up for it. The highs certainly outweigh the lows though and I loved my time at RFDS and reflect very fondly on some of the jobs I was part of and relationships I made.
The remote bases (Mt Isa and Charleville) certainly do the best mix of flying, combining the 'good ol' station flare landings along with plenty of trips into the tertiary Hospitals closer to the coast. Allowances at remote bases also means you will also earn 25-30k more then the coastal bases. Rosters are good, 14 shifts in 28 days, usually 4 on, 4 off. Half day shifts, half night and home pretty much every night unless there's an AOG or occasionally a priority task means you'll end up away from base. Coastal bases do the fairly mundane Hospital to Hospital transfers which is not overly exciting. Expect much more challenging and exciting taskings out of Charleville/Isa/Cairns.
FRMS is 700 flying hours a year. Flying hours vary between bases, Expect to fly between 400-600 hours a year, Townsville, Rocky and lately Charleville have been hitting 600 and over. If you fly over 600 you will earn an extra $260 for every hour over 600 paid annually. New Aeromed pilots start on around $135,000, Clinic pilots about $105,000. Both those figures to change shortly as a new EBA is up for vote very soon.
Minimums are always advertised as having 4000 hours total, however Aeromed pilots are getting in with 2500 or so. The Remote area mentoring program (RAMP) pilots have been getting in with around the 1500 total hour mark.
Aeromed is not everyone's cup of tea. It's busy, tiring, sometimes emotional and sometimes traumatic. Taskings can sometimes do your head in and waiting hours for an ambulance to come collect you patient can be beyond frustrating. But that odd job that comes in where you truly make a difference makes up for it. The highs certainly outweigh the lows though and I loved my time at RFDS and reflect very fondly on some of the jobs I was part of and relationships I made.
So what type of person are they looking for? And what are they getting?
I know they had been quite picky historically. Was always one of the most competitive jobs to grab. Now, why bother when one can get a A320 or 737 job with only flying a Cessna Caravan.
The ‘career RFDS’ pilot is probably non existent these days.
I know they had been quite picky historically. Was always one of the most competitive jobs to grab. Now, why bother when one can get a A320 or 737 job with only flying a Cessna Caravan.
The ‘career RFDS’ pilot is probably non existent these days.
Seasonally Adjusted
The ‘career RFDS’ pilot is probably non existent these days.
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