hedge your bets
 

Izzy some great advice here.

I flew for a regional/charter outfit once that had a pilot that had the flying job and kept the police job. His police job paid more and I think the idea was for him to build experience to the point that he could have a crack at a major without losing his seniority in the force.

The other thing is that there is the police air wing and you do see them advertise from time to time. Personally in your shoes I'd try leave without pay ect or what ever it takes to not lose your seniority in the police just in case the musical chairs happens to stop suddenly and you are living in boroloola flying a 210 (nothing against boroloola) for 5 years.

Great advice guys.....

Hey Mr Hat who was the copper you flew charter with, was he from Vicpol? I am truly inspired by all your comments. I can work around my roster to start flying so that is good. Once I have the quals I can go part time & fly also. My main problem is that I hate being a copper, 22 years of it and I'm tired of dealing the lower end of society. :{

I've always had the dream to fly as an occupation but thought I was getting too old.

Unfortunately I can no longer join our air wing as I'm a Sergeant with no previous experience there as an O/R. We don't have a fixed wing anymore only rotary.

Part time copper, part time flying instructor - maybe I'll settle for that?

Thnx again everyone, all good. :D

Izzy no was not in Victoria.

Its well worth your while to look into the various cadetships whilst you are at it. I'd look into Qantas Qantaslink to start with.

If that doesn't work then yes instructing in your home town is the go. The difficult bit here comes with chosing where to do your training. Biggest is not always best. On job websites there are often jobs going for instructors these days and some of them i think might even pay ok. You won't have to go bush to get into Qantas but you more than likely will for vb or j* as the opportunity to get multi cmd time quick is mostly in the bush. However one can thru instructing or if lucky charter out of a capital city gradually chip away at that 500 ME cmd. Then again I'm not entirely sure that those requirements still exist for the majors.

If you can't get the Qantas cadetship then worry not as their minimum direct entry requirements are the lowest in the country (500 hrs command). Now before you get stars in your eyes just remeber that the Qf option is often about luck. Some people just get in and and some don't nothing to do with being a good guy or a good pilot or vice versa. Just the way it is.

As for dealing with criminals - well umm aviation has its share..:* (generally white collar though!)

Where is Steve Zissou when you need him..?

Now theres a man who was in your situation 6 months ago..:}can't afford christmas pressies this year tho

Never too far from pprune sadly tho dialup is keeping me in check. At least I'm learning what real CB's are now :ooh: . Izzy, if Oz Police has LWOP like their NZ counterparts I'd suggest taking some time off but have the security of a decent paying job up your sleeve in case things don't work out or god forbid the world economy goes into global recession... I also came from a Police background but it only took 7 years to become bitter & twisted.

Pay cut was significant but the reduced stress from shiftwork etc is priceless (although I don't think that means my hair will start growing back now :( ) Flying is what I've always wanted to do and the Police basically paid for it and learnt me a few things along the way!

Good luck with your flying, I'm sure if that's what your passionate about you'll make it happen.