Air solomons
 

Hi All

Does anyone know anything about Air Solomons and their Twotter and Islander fleet.

CP
Mins
T/C

Cheers

Air

HI Airaholic,


They offered me an FO job on the twotter 300 in Jan 2007.
I had a bare CPL, MCIR and GR.3 Instructor rating.
I was over the moon as it was going to be my first job in aviation.

They provided accommodation and lunch each day.

But......the pay was 12k AUD per year. And that was taxed. I worked it out to be $139 AUD per week after tax. Needless to say, I turned down the job.

Hope this helps.

yikes thats even bad by NZ standards:eek:

I am not all that good with finance etc. let alone budgetting.

But If they provided you a bed and lunch, al you had to worry about is dinner and breafast correct?
In a different place flying a nice machine?

While at home you can bash around in an old 210. maybe having to pay for your bed breakfast luch AND dinner.

Back in the good old days when we were still farming, we paid our staff a weekly wages, wich was by townie standards pretty piss poor. But they had free house, meat and milk provided and we paid there electric bill.
They gained a lot off knowledge and all moved on to better positions afterwards.

Point is, if you get that money take it all in account. and also the experience. I have never been in that part off the world but i imagen that the food would not be very expensive.

So you do a year over there and don't put any money in your saving acount, yet you gain hours, life experience. and lots off storys to tell your mates when back in the pub.

It would be different ofcourse if you owned a house and have to pay a morgage. But than i think you would struggle on the wages off your 1st flying job anyway.

just my 2 cents worth:ok:

ga dude,

Ok, then well apply to them if you think that 12k is a good wage!!:ugh:

The cost of living over there is astronomical, and not only could you not save any money, you would be draining your account pretty aggressively.

You also have to take into account that there was a fair amount of civil unrest over there at that time with quite a bit of negative sentiment toward caucasians. I'm all for experience, but I actually want to make it to the bar in a couple of years time!!

Just one more point, the job was essentially a dead end one, all the hours you logged were Co-pilot, and Co-pilot under 5.7 gets you pretty much nowhere. You had to do two years F/O to be 'upgraded' to Islander Captain.

I know all this as I was at the interviews the same time as eternity and was also offered a job as a Twotter F/O. Don't be blinded by a 'big' aeroplane and work for peanuts. At the end of the day, if you're not a complete muppett, you'll get to where you want to be.

ga dude, if you can, type your post in Word or something first and then copy and paste it, it may not be as excruciating to read :ok:

The cost of living in the Solomons is a hell of a lot cheaper then oz and the experience is far greater
Give it a try you may love it

A radio operator on a single pilot aircraft can't be worth much more than $139a week. :E

nice one troppo, but you are forgetting, if you've got the 20.11 you can serve the passengers their in flight meal

Seems a bit weird putting you in the Otter before the Islander. Did you have to fork out for a type rating as well?

I have been to the Solomons several times before and from memory (10 yrs ago now, was there when all the fighting flared up) was fairly cheap Solbrew was about $5 scubidoos and exchange about $1 : 4 so basically beer for $1.25 NZ:ok:.

$1.25 for a beer?? Can I come too??:ok:

Wonder if no one took the job the money may increase.

Airaholic,

they were sketchy on the details even during the interview concerning the Type Rating.

j3

Couple of points:

1. Something like SBD850 pw after accom and (some) food isn't too bad

2. Early 2007 - now would have you with ~1,000hrs twin turbine. Comments from Solair people indicate that people tend to move on at that point or shortly after.

Thanks for the input guys.

Any idea what there Mins are?

roll a handfull of buai down the aisle :}

Mins bare CPL/IR for right seat in the otter.

Good experience and exposure for a young one.

Give Sumsum a call.

First job being turbine is not to bad.:ok:
You will make more money with them then you would at Gator, Dingair, Broome operator etc. and its better time plus lifestyle.:}
You don't need a gun as there is RAMSI:hmm:
Have a go it would be a excellent experience

Only turbine co-pilot under 5.7, not worth much IMHO

Yes but then you get a command with
Multi crew
Multi Engine Turbine
and your salary goes up to better then you would get in oz:ok:

Command on what? They aren't going to let you near the Twotter until you've got 500 multi command, and that would be on bongo's. And as far a multi-crew, it's only 2 crew cos there are either more than 15 pax with no cabin attendant or the aircraft is IFR without an autopilot. So you are not an essential crew member, as the aircraft was Certified for single pilot operations...