NZ Heli Pilots pay
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NZ Heli Pilots pay
Anyone willing to devulge their pay rate (worked out as a daily rate)
and type of work and aircraft flown.
Any info would be helpfull. Thanks
Seems to be a lot of variance in NZ
and type of work and aircraft flown.
Any info would be helpfull. Thanks
Seems to be a lot of variance in NZ
Last edited by slackman; 30th Jul 2006 at 10:03.
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So you really want to be depressed eh? Well New Zealand helicopter rates have to be some of the lowest in the world period… that’s why so man kiwis are flying else ware, to give you and idea flying a AS355 down in the south island. The very top rate is a poultry $ 44,000.00 pacific paso (NZD) and that’s for the privilege of flying 6 days a week with 1 day off (12-14 hour duty days)… so if that hasn’t got you salivating then you can also do a lot of unpaid miles in your own vehicle with no meal allowances…. After all that you will be delighted to see at the end of the year, the company has been making record profits (hourly rates are running $ 2500.00 - $ 3000.00 per flight hour) oh and also if you want to go contract (good for you going it alone) you might get $ 200.00 - $ 250.00 per day, no flight pay but only half if you don’t fly (but that’s more than fair considering that you cant work for anybody else that day)….
Hating bells and the New Zealand helicopter industry
Hating bells and the New Zealand helicopter industry
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Ah the Old Waioru Blonde......Brings back memories
Pilot Wages as follow's
New Cpl Work for love to get a little Ferry time.For every 100hrs worked you get 0.5 hrs Flying.
C Cat maybe $25 to $30 per flying Hour
B Cat $30 to $40 per flying hour
A Cat $200 + per Hour,+ Milelage
CPL Commercial $50 to $100 per flying Hour
Salary's from about $150 to $400 a day depending on experience and type of work.
This is only based on my experience and pay scales.
Pilot Wages as follow's
New Cpl Work for love to get a little Ferry time.For every 100hrs worked you get 0.5 hrs Flying.
C Cat maybe $25 to $30 per flying Hour
B Cat $30 to $40 per flying hour
A Cat $200 + per Hour,+ Milelage
CPL Commercial $50 to $100 per flying Hour
Salary's from about $150 to $400 a day depending on experience and type of work.
This is only based on my experience and pay scales.
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Instructor - $30 to $50 per hour but you need an instructors rating obviously. At $14K that is 280hrs to break even...
Ag work is paying up to $75K a year but its like Bell hater says: work 7 days a week and no time off. NZ has no flight and duty restrictions like the modern world and you are going to get ridden like that sheep...
Medivac/SAR guys on the 222 or BK seem to be starting at $75K and might be on 4 on, 4 off (if you are working the BK) or a similar type of roster on the Duece but expected to be on standby for the rest of the time on a pager. Funnel runs the 222 on a 24hr standby with 2.5 pilots. The 0.5 pilot is the manager. The BK guys are flying up to 90hrs a year and the duece is about 200hrs. Its boring and not that well paid compared to aussie or offshore for CHC, Abu Dhabi etc...
I am not sure about day rates for contract/casual guys but one North Is. tour operator paid $50 a day and $50 a flight hour. Only flying 1.6hrs a day on average means your 12hr day is paid at less than the award wage for being a waiter.
Consider your medical is costing up to $200 a year and twice that if you are 40, wear and tear on your car plus fuel at $1.80 a litre, no per diems (food), no health care nor retirement package, no loss of licence, no income protection and 12hrs a day for 6 days a week. Its FARKED!!!!!!!
Ag work is paying up to $75K a year but its like Bell hater says: work 7 days a week and no time off. NZ has no flight and duty restrictions like the modern world and you are going to get ridden like that sheep...
Medivac/SAR guys on the 222 or BK seem to be starting at $75K and might be on 4 on, 4 off (if you are working the BK) or a similar type of roster on the Duece but expected to be on standby for the rest of the time on a pager. Funnel runs the 222 on a 24hr standby with 2.5 pilots. The 0.5 pilot is the manager. The BK guys are flying up to 90hrs a year and the duece is about 200hrs. Its boring and not that well paid compared to aussie or offshore for CHC, Abu Dhabi etc...
I am not sure about day rates for contract/casual guys but one North Is. tour operator paid $50 a day and $50 a flight hour. Only flying 1.6hrs a day on average means your 12hr day is paid at less than the award wage for being a waiter.
Consider your medical is costing up to $200 a year and twice that if you are 40, wear and tear on your car plus fuel at $1.80 a litre, no per diems (food), no health care nor retirement package, no loss of licence, no income protection and 12hrs a day for 6 days a week. Its FARKED!!!!!!!
For those reading the above posts, just remember the figures are in NZ dollars ($1 NZ = 0.61 US cents!)
The NZ industry is very poor when it comes to salarys, with the atitude that "you should be grateful for having a job" still the norm. Too many starey eyed new pilots, thanks to the student loan scheme, ready to work for nothing.
The NZ industry is very poor when it comes to salarys, with the atitude that "you should be grateful for having a job" still the norm. Too many starey eyed new pilots, thanks to the student loan scheme, ready to work for nothing.
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thanks for the interesting responses , just reminds me I had better go and feed the bosses sheep,in fact I will give them an extra slice each, that way I will get better productivity from them, eh BOSS!!!!!Today 19:51
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Big mike sums it up nicely i think, there are so many people out there now with cpl's and thats it wanting to work for a six pack of speights and a roast every second week, while people that are flying get a six pack of speights and a roast every week!! so that saves the boss a six pack and one of his girlfreinds a week!! so many came through the loan scheme that it has made it had for anyone else to get into at the mo!!
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actual pays
Some info here not quite right , THL on AS355 pays experienced pilots from 54k to about 75k , 5 or 6 day week depending on deal struck .They are reducing pay rates as new drivers are taken on by hiring lowish time guys.
Auckland rates are better for experience , 75k plus . Recent 2000 hour guy taken on a rescue AS350 started on 85k!.
Heliworks pays min of 75k in Queenstown.
The minimum pay I know of is 45k in Auckland area for under 2000 hours.
I know it sucks compared to working overseas but not everyone wants to tour to ****holes like PNG .
There are a lot of pilots in NZ making 100k but they have been in those jobs for years and they don't move round like Canada where its seasonal.
The jobs that get advertised are generally the lower paid ones , the decent ones are closely guarded.
Why don't a few post their pays here , I'll make about 70k this year doing part time .
Also New Zealand does have flight and duty times like modern countries , amazing eh !!
Auckland rates are better for experience , 75k plus . Recent 2000 hour guy taken on a rescue AS350 started on 85k!.
Heliworks pays min of 75k in Queenstown.
The minimum pay I know of is 45k in Auckland area for under 2000 hours.
I know it sucks compared to working overseas but not everyone wants to tour to ****holes like PNG .
There are a lot of pilots in NZ making 100k but they have been in those jobs for years and they don't move round like Canada where its seasonal.
The jobs that get advertised are generally the lower paid ones , the decent ones are closely guarded.
Why don't a few post their pays here , I'll make about 70k this year doing part time .
Also New Zealand does have flight and duty times like modern countries , amazing eh !!
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Oh dear…
Perhaps, but your info doesn’t sound any better than mine… so I am assuming that you have a little inside knowledge of pay scales, AS355 (down on the South Island) paying $75K…. you have to be dreaming, maybe a few years ago? Only the very last of the old brigade (Tourism holdings days and before the “quick fall” in pay scales) would be getting any ware close to that. But are they really? As the flight and duty day has a CAA approved extension for 14 hours every now and then plus a fully worked new manual allowing a 6 day on 1 day off roster (as apposed to the old 5 and 2) and don’t forget all the benefits that have had the “Magic’s” wand waved over them to make them disappear… as for starting on $54K I don’t think so mate, what about the 1500 hour pilot who started on $30K. That company has gone from the top echelon to the bottom rung… just ask the chief pilot (oh, that’s right he left). Feelerup, what about the MD500 that is operating around the southern lakes area, and the pilot who is flying it getting paid less than a living wage… its kind of like a sweat shop for Helicopter pilots. But I can’t really blame the operators or the industry (for poor conditions) you have to blame pilots who will accept less.... and yes there are a few good jobs in New Zealand that pay OK (not really good) but if you took an average across the industry it would be vary sad indeed.
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Mr Selfish,
No offence intended. I too enjoy the odd 3am approach to minimas and a winch off the rocks at Piha must be great. The 'boring' comment comes from flying maybe 100hrs a year with a fair amount of those hospital transfers. Sure its a quality 100hrs for the most, but its a lot of hurry up, get ready and wait. The money is OK but you jump the gap to the great western island and you are now pushing $110 Aussie for the same job ($130,000 NZD) and a whole lot of benefits for the family. Additionally, it must be annoying to sit and watch jobs you should be dispatched to on TV1's 6pm news. The whole Rescue Helicopter system in NZ is a house of cards supported by communities blinded by the selfishness of a couple of the New Zealands industries greatest 'players'. They are laughing all the way to the bank on the backs of great pilots and crewmen like yourself. Answer this question: why is the Auckland BK not stationed at the airport or close by, where it could access the departure and arrival proceedures instead of sitting in the clag at the Port, declining calls due weather?
But the issue of wages is interesting. Thanks to the cleverness of some Flight Schools and their construction of government approved aviation degrees and diplomas, we now have more pilots than needed, in more debt and low wages. I've observed that due the accessibility of loans, the present route to a commercial job is now similar to the US. Buy a job by getting an instructors rating tacked onto the licence and worry about the $90K dept later. The $30hr will pay that off in 3000hrs of revenue flying. You will get your hours up on the backs of other new pilots who will opt for the high debt load so you can reach your 'B' Cat and then make $50hr. This saturation of low time instructors makes it impractical for experienced pilots to get Instructor Ratings and teach pilots and impart some of their hard earned lessons.
And the issue of Flight and Duty is bull****. You can fly all night on a medevac call for flappy and then have the morning shift call in sick and be required to stay on the pager all day, and fly if required. How can you run a 24hr operation with 3 pilots and give everyone their time off, sick leave and decent rest periods? OH! I know... you consider a day at work that you didn't fly or was sitting on the pager, to be a day OFF. Sure you couldn't have a beer or go to the beach or leave town but you got paid for it right? Wrong, salary = $75K flat. Nothing for OT.
If you are working for a company with nice red helicopters, you can expect to instruct all day and do frost protection all night, instruct all day, frost all night....
As for the PNG guys. They are on about $80K aussie or $100K NZD. It wasn't too ****ty when I was there, even the tent camps were comfy and I never had to cook or clean for myself. When a guys comes home for his 26 days off - he is OFF work. $80K for 6 months of work is not too bad.
Pilots really don't have a choice to accept less because the industry is so unfair to the pilots. A regulatory authority allowing the operators to dictate the standards of their OP's manual is retarded. Every other regulatory authority on the planet specifies stringent F&D requirements for Op's manuals. Take the Australian system as an example of the worlds most complicated F&D system!
Apply fair F&D and all of a sudden you need more pilots for more jobs.
Great to be chatting about this. Regards to all...
No offence intended. I too enjoy the odd 3am approach to minimas and a winch off the rocks at Piha must be great. The 'boring' comment comes from flying maybe 100hrs a year with a fair amount of those hospital transfers. Sure its a quality 100hrs for the most, but its a lot of hurry up, get ready and wait. The money is OK but you jump the gap to the great western island and you are now pushing $110 Aussie for the same job ($130,000 NZD) and a whole lot of benefits for the family. Additionally, it must be annoying to sit and watch jobs you should be dispatched to on TV1's 6pm news. The whole Rescue Helicopter system in NZ is a house of cards supported by communities blinded by the selfishness of a couple of the New Zealands industries greatest 'players'. They are laughing all the way to the bank on the backs of great pilots and crewmen like yourself. Answer this question: why is the Auckland BK not stationed at the airport or close by, where it could access the departure and arrival proceedures instead of sitting in the clag at the Port, declining calls due weather?
But the issue of wages is interesting. Thanks to the cleverness of some Flight Schools and their construction of government approved aviation degrees and diplomas, we now have more pilots than needed, in more debt and low wages. I've observed that due the accessibility of loans, the present route to a commercial job is now similar to the US. Buy a job by getting an instructors rating tacked onto the licence and worry about the $90K dept later. The $30hr will pay that off in 3000hrs of revenue flying. You will get your hours up on the backs of other new pilots who will opt for the high debt load so you can reach your 'B' Cat and then make $50hr. This saturation of low time instructors makes it impractical for experienced pilots to get Instructor Ratings and teach pilots and impart some of their hard earned lessons.
And the issue of Flight and Duty is bull****. You can fly all night on a medevac call for flappy and then have the morning shift call in sick and be required to stay on the pager all day, and fly if required. How can you run a 24hr operation with 3 pilots and give everyone their time off, sick leave and decent rest periods? OH! I know... you consider a day at work that you didn't fly or was sitting on the pager, to be a day OFF. Sure you couldn't have a beer or go to the beach or leave town but you got paid for it right? Wrong, salary = $75K flat. Nothing for OT.
If you are working for a company with nice red helicopters, you can expect to instruct all day and do frost protection all night, instruct all day, frost all night....
As for the PNG guys. They are on about $80K aussie or $100K NZD. It wasn't too ****ty when I was there, even the tent camps were comfy and I never had to cook or clean for myself. When a guys comes home for his 26 days off - he is OFF work. $80K for 6 months of work is not too bad.
Pilots really don't have a choice to accept less because the industry is so unfair to the pilots. A regulatory authority allowing the operators to dictate the standards of their OP's manual is retarded. Every other regulatory authority on the planet specifies stringent F&D requirements for Op's manuals. Take the Australian system as an example of the worlds most complicated F&D system!
Apply fair F&D and all of a sudden you need more pilots for more jobs.
Great to be chatting about this. Regards to all...
What a few people don't realise, not only is the company paying you for your experience, they are paying you for your "Time"
Sit down and work out the duty hours you have worked in a year, then devide that by your salary.
The hourly rate might give you a bit of a scare...
Sit down and work out the duty hours you have worked in a year, then devide that by your salary.
The hourly rate might give you a bit of a scare...
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Fu 24 950 how do I put this; seeing on your profile that you are in Hong Kong you may get it, the ex chief pilot is working many “Miles” way in a tropical (malaria filled) swamp