First Job Drive Australia
 

Does anyone have a list of aerodromes/operators that are a must visit when I begin driving around the country looking for work. I only know of interstate operators that ask for big hours :ok:

Advanced Google search is your friend. Can can search for "any of the following" and "must include"

So in your any boxes type in scenic flights, charter flights, air charter, air freight, cessna, piper, etc etc until you get a good list. Then in must include add the town or place you're wondering about.

Making your own list makes life a lot less competitive than using one that already exists.

You can also do the same on the CASA Register website. Type in town names, aircraft types and it will bring up some interesting information.

One thing I can tell you is that there are no manned bases at Halls Creek

One of the problems with the big drive or indeed any first job chasing is that for the number of operators wanting pilots is that there are too many pilots being trained for the number of jobs likely to be available for new first job pilots. Then in the near future we will have a new arrangement that will encourage more Kiwi pilots to come to Australia to compete with local pilots for first jobs.
Sure there are adverts for pilots here in Australia but from my observation most operators are after experienced aircrew. That means more than the basic or minimum number of hours.
For any new pilot and in training the things to think about are getting as many hours as you can log. Also get to fly as many round dial aircraft as you can, The heavier the better. Get some remote experience. A few trips to the Red Centre and landing on dirt strips will help. Nice to have twin and IFR time but most first jobs will be driving a six place single. The twin and IFR experience may be used later. The operator would prefer that you bend the single rather than the more expensive twin. Then if there are vacancies for twin and IFR drivers there are most likely to go to other pilots with the same operator who are the anointed ones to be elevated first to those positions.
Some flight school will have the story of fly with us and you will get a first flying job after you complete training. For someone wanting a GA job that is not always the case, and then there is that big loan to pay back, job or no job.
Keep knocking on doors. Some times it is a case of luck over planning to get that first job.

You need to be competitive and stand out from the crowd. This is done by networking and getting as much command time as you can in relevant types and environments.
We get our CPL hour builders to start networking as part of their hour building prior to CPL, fly to these places to meet the Chief Pilot and get the feel of the places, show you are comfortable nd competent flying in that environment. Driving there in a car proves nothing about your flying ability.

Minimum hours are set by insurance as well as the boss. You are wasting your time driving up there if all you have done is minimum hours drilling holes in the sky on an integrated course in a capital city. Unfortunately many flying schools tell people to get Multi/IFR (because they are in the business of selling you courses!) which is like selling someone a ladder with the first rungs so high up that you can't reach them. That can come later when you are working and can tax deduct it. The dollars spent would give you much more value putting command time to interesting places in your log book and having a "ladder" with reachable rungs.
I know some of the integrated /VET debt course people will flame me for this, but it's meant that our CPLs have had jobs waiting for them, not had to go online and ask strangers how to find work.
Good luck!

Often a statement overlooked by many, and I understand the cost pressures involved in hour building is unlike anything else, but doing as many hours as cheaply as possible hour building in a 152 or so on, isn’t competitive. If you have 50-100 hours PIC in a 182 or even better 206, you’re competitive.

I know someone who did 80 hours in a 206. Networking and that aircraft worked for him, he landed a 206 charter job at the end of it. The job came to him. He made his CV competitive.

It’s a brutal career. You need a rich daddy, a well connected daddy or just plain good luck.

Absent the first two, perseverance, resilience and time results in “luck”. More than a few of us managed to eke out a career this way.

A tip I give any newbies, from someone who has been employing pilots for around 30 years, is to understand the importance of showing that you will get on with everyone else in the team and clients, suppliers etc. and that the customers will feel comfortable with.

This can be demonstrated by things other than your flying experience in the CV. eg previous work history, travel, volunteering etc, or just having some hobby or skill that really makes you stand out as an interesting, innovative person that you'd like to spend time chatting with on a slow day.

There are some who come out of certain training environments who have a superiority complex. Having them constantly saying how their inner city sausage factory did things SO much better will end the career very quickly.

"That guy is a ********" is mud that will stick for the rest of your flying life! Be professional but also be good company and remember that good communication skills are essential in any type of employment. This doesn't come naturally to everyone and is a skill many need to work on.

Good luck!

Agree with this.

And for gods sake make sure you get some Cessna time. I have spoken to 3 or 4 operators over the past year and they said their biggest problem has been new pilots who come from the city sausage factory flying schools having flown nothing other than a DA40, who can't even seem to operate a C172 properly :ugh:

Get at least 10 hours in a C206 and learn how to fly a nice tidy circuit, or a C182 at the very least.

Not just Cessnas but Cessnas with round dials. The ones where what is outside is more interesting and colourful than what is inside.
Cherokee time is valuable too.

I stupidly overlooked what I thought was implied, but I guess there are heaps of G1000 Cessnas and Pipers floating around these days. Yes everyone, round dials!

I always thought 6pack Cessnas and Pipers were the worlds easiest things to operate proficiently but somehow the products of the sausage factories make hard work of it.

A quick google shows Kununurra operators using:
Shoal Air - C 207 & C210
Kununurra Air Tours - C210 & GA Airvans
Avair - GA Airvans

So yeah, round dial Cessna time is still relevant. If you were really switched on, you’d do your CPL training in one.

I agree about the interview. The Qantas interview (25 years ago!) was all about psych tests and other rubbish, but the Ansett interview was all about how nice a person you were, and if you were going to be interesting enough to sit next to for four hours at a time. :)

And, back in the day, GA operators used to be a bit leary about pilots with only flying instructor backgrounds. Too “by the book” and not enough GA “get on with it” was the impression. (which I disagree with, but I’m not the one hiring).

oh, and learn to cook. You don’t have to be Jamie Oliver, but three pasta dishes and three Asian dishes from memory should do it to start. If you’re going to work up north, then at some point you’ll be sharing a house, and that means (for social and practical reasons) sharing the cooking. You don’t want to be the boring person who has to order pizzas each Wednesday. That means learn to eat as well. If you're a fussy eater, if you've ever pushed away a plate of food made by your parents, if you only eat fried food, or no vegetables - then give that up. Eat food others have cooked with a smile.

"But but the flying school said I had to learn in a glass cockpit because that's what I'm going to have in my first flying job, which will be in an Airbus! Does this mean I'll have to look out of the window? I'd better do the "GA ready" course!"

:ugh:

You've made a good decision in taking a drive around instead of emailing out resumes, even if you don't get lucky this time you'll make a few contacts and people will be able to put a face to your name if something comes up later on. I got my first break in Australia when an operator I hadn't even visited needed someone and they called an operator I had visited and asked if they had anyone meeting their requirements on file. The location wasn't very desirable and they wanted higher than average experience because of a prior incident. I grabbed the job and got on the employment ladder. Pay was above award with free accommodation and a ticket there.

Avoid going in first thing on a Monday morning because everyone is too busy and stick to the road rules even if you're in the middle of nowhere, you'll be surprised at the places the coppers target.

Is that six months pouring drinks and changing kegs behind a busy bar, a taxi licence and three weeks volunteering in a hangar gapping plugs, swapping tyres and changing oil filters?

Don‘t be silly, you speak common sense.

GA ready is to be prepared to be bent over without the vase supplied! Yes whilst handing over ya thousands…

Still infuriates me that operators charge for ‘check flights’!

I can’t believe that people pay for a GA ready course. I have a new one on offer…a “ Drive around Australia to find your first job” ready course.

Give me strength.

In the world of flying training the aim is to get the student to be able to pass the licence test and then move on. It is unfortunate to record that often the candidate does not receive the knowledge that is needed to be a real prospect to be employable as a first commercial job candidate.
Such things as looking after the aircraft, topping up the oil, tying the aircraft down, having flown into dirt strips, having remote area experience, using a paper chart instead of a panel mounted GPS map, doing overnight trips. Having flown aircraft with round dials, have flown aircraft of the type a prospective employer may be using, (not only having experience on glass) The list goes on. Too many students are told that fly with us in our brand new composite aircraft with its glass panel and you will be easily snapped up for an airline job. Oh, and the Government will pay for your training!
Absolute Bull!
What an employer wants is a pilot who has big Cessna or Piper or GA8 experience. Can fly on a paper chart, has more flight hours than the bare minimum from a Part 142 ticket, knows how to fend for themself in the outback. Again the list goes on. All Part 142 school does is create a pilot who may have a new CPL licence but are effectively unemployable.
A lot of this can be put down to the level of instruction that the student received. What experience did the instructor have? How much of the above. In recent times I have seen new CPL pilots who cannot write up the MR and the flight record, cannot keep the oil level at the stated amount, do not report minor snags, do not turn up on time, have a log book that looks like a kindergarten crayon book, look like anything but a CPL on the way to a job. Turn up with facial hair, an arm full of tatts, a crumpled shirt, and are going to fly a load of pax who are paying on the north side of $400 an hour and who wonder if they will get home alive.
Get real!
In recent times, post Covid in particular, the level of experience of instructors on average has gone downhill. Experience is the stuff that a competent instructor has to pass on to the candidate. Passing on skills that will get a CPL candidate that first job.
If one is planning that big drive north join the convey with other budding first flying job pilots. Sure there are job adverts to be seen in the media and online but all ask for experience. Put another way there are too many new CPL pilots being trained who are competing for fewer first time jobs.
This is where the recent trend of doing a GA Ready Course has come into play. Doing such a course may not get you that first job overnight but it will bring you into the real world of commercial flying. Maybe the flying school should have an off shoot that runs a GA Ready Course as a tack on after the candidate gets a CPL.
Food for thought.
R