UK Helicopter Payscales in 2020
Personally, I quite liked SimonK's post. Was nice to see some balance for a change
I've done onshore an offshore. Onshore was more fun generally, but also more stressful with weather closing in, having to deal with clients that were demanding, knowing there was more commercial pressure to get a job done, not knowing how many days I would be flying.
Offshore is actually quite fun, certainly challenging. OK, it is broadly 'repetitive' but you can still do two flights to the same place on the same day and find them very different. I like the two crew environment, and yes, if the money was the same for every helicopter pilot job, I would do HEMS, then Police, then offshore, then Onshore / VIP. But overall with the balance of everything, the money, the actual job, the comfort of knowing the engineering and training is excellent, the crews I work with - I'd still choose offshore.
I've done onshore an offshore. Onshore was more fun generally, but also more stressful with weather closing in, having to deal with clients that were demanding, knowing there was more commercial pressure to get a job done, not knowing how many days I would be flying.
Offshore is actually quite fun, certainly challenging. OK, it is broadly 'repetitive' but you can still do two flights to the same place on the same day and find them very different. I like the two crew environment, and yes, if the money was the same for every helicopter pilot job, I would do HEMS, then Police, then offshore, then Onshore / VIP. But overall with the balance of everything, the money, the actual job, the comfort of knowing the engineering and training is excellent, the crews I work with - I'd still choose offshore.
Brutal, got a feeling you dont like working offshore. I don't mind it, Good roster, good pay and Good T&Cs, hard to find onshore, also grey areas and commercial pressures are less in the offshore environment which is a big plus for me.
Flying in a extremely hostile environment though does weigh on my mind.
Flying in a extremely hostile environment though does weigh on my mind.
Toughest job out there is SPIR onshore Corporate, followed by onshore SPIR AIC. Period.
I laugh when I hear offshore pilots talk about their ‘captaincy’ decisions when you consider that almost any captaincy decision has been taken out of your control.
Every landing site is ‘licenced’, to a greater or lesser extent (HCA is a farce), you usually return to an ILS option and you have ‘current’ regulated weather reports for each HLS. HOMPs, FCOMs and SOPs dictate how and when you fly - and rightly so.
Fog is not just an NS phenomenon.
Captaincy has been reduced to deciding whether or not we tell ATC the real reason for our RTB in case it becomes headlines in tomorrow’s P&J!
I had great fun in the mil and in both corporate and aoc onshore but give me offshore any day ;-)
I laugh when I hear offshore pilots talk about their ‘captaincy’ decisions when you consider that almost any captaincy decision has been taken out of your control.
Every landing site is ‘licenced’, to a greater or lesser extent (HCA is a farce), you usually return to an ILS option and you have ‘current’ regulated weather reports for each HLS. HOMPs, FCOMs and SOPs dictate how and when you fly - and rightly so.
Fog is not just an NS phenomenon.
Captaincy has been reduced to deciding whether or not we tell ATC the real reason for our RTB in case it becomes headlines in tomorrow’s P&J!
I had great fun in the mil and in both corporate and aoc onshore but give me offshore any day ;-)
EESDL - Who wants to work hard for their money! Both on shore and offshore has their challenges and the worst of these challenges both, you wouldn't want to do on a regular basis.
