HEMS World UK
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Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 13
Likes: 1
From: UK
HEMS World UK
Being an older chap and having hung up the need to be in the game anymore, it seems to me from old colleagues and friends still in the "game" that HEMS flying in UK is becoming less attractive. By the turnover of pilots at bases, and pilots doing less time in the HEMS world before moving on. It was always the lower end of the salary scale compared to most parts of rotary aviation and still asked a lot more of the pilots in return ( not always aviation related but task related) But still an attractive part of a pilots life. Is my understanding of their views just a blip or has it became an issue UK wide? Interested to hear current views.
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 173
Likes: 20
From: The 4th dimentia.....
A U.K. wide issue. Those of us who remember a time when you could fly Scottish hems then return offshore without losing all your years of effective service can merely lament the current state of play.
A combination of charities with toxic cultures and penny pinching commercial entities have driven the race to the bottom.
Some now have rapidly increased salaries quoted in job offers to £90k but it is too little too late and they are not filling available slots.
Trawl the numerous HEMS charity websites and you can see what and where priorities are but the ratio of corporate staff to frontline crew, those in the south east with ridiculous volumes of cash are serious offenders. Purchases of new shiny airframes with claimed needs that are unsupported, transitions to multi crew where it benefits nobody except the few pilots who want to continue past 60, lengthy lists of clinicians who average so few shifts a month they are mere passengers throughout are all contributory factors.
Most of those who have happily returned offshore from the hems arena regurgitate the same frustrations: ‘great job but the charities and operating companies are all as bad as each other’.
Those with shiny new red H135’s and royal connections had at least 3 captains vacancies recently having lost some of their newest recruits, 145 NVIS captains getting £1200 a shift from another as most resigned within weeks of each other, and operations in the midlands with a turnover of freelance crew that is inexplicable save abject incompetent management and controlling behaviour. Recently departed toxic Scottish hems management have taken their attitudes to sunny sandy places, meaning an impending exodus there.
Conflicts of interest are also abound such as charity post holders getting contracts without due process for their own private companies or being given type ratings in return for temp contracts should be investigated.
Though hems in the Emerald Isle is just as bad. That’s more an issue for the regulators than the public purse.
Remove the characters at fault, force charities to publish full accounts and aircraft purchase costs for the last 12 years whilst being transparent, pay crew appropriately including contractors, stop demanding they commute long distance without accommodation and mileage and you may begin to reduce the incessant movement.
Experienced reliable crew will go where terms are best. If they keep leaving hems then hems is where the problem lies.
A combination of charities with toxic cultures and penny pinching commercial entities have driven the race to the bottom.
Some now have rapidly increased salaries quoted in job offers to £90k but it is too little too late and they are not filling available slots.
Trawl the numerous HEMS charity websites and you can see what and where priorities are but the ratio of corporate staff to frontline crew, those in the south east with ridiculous volumes of cash are serious offenders. Purchases of new shiny airframes with claimed needs that are unsupported, transitions to multi crew where it benefits nobody except the few pilots who want to continue past 60, lengthy lists of clinicians who average so few shifts a month they are mere passengers throughout are all contributory factors.
Most of those who have happily returned offshore from the hems arena regurgitate the same frustrations: ‘great job but the charities and operating companies are all as bad as each other’.
Those with shiny new red H135’s and royal connections had at least 3 captains vacancies recently having lost some of their newest recruits, 145 NVIS captains getting £1200 a shift from another as most resigned within weeks of each other, and operations in the midlands with a turnover of freelance crew that is inexplicable save abject incompetent management and controlling behaviour. Recently departed toxic Scottish hems management have taken their attitudes to sunny sandy places, meaning an impending exodus there.
Conflicts of interest are also abound such as charity post holders getting contracts without due process for their own private companies or being given type ratings in return for temp contracts should be investigated.
Though hems in the Emerald Isle is just as bad. That’s more an issue for the regulators than the public purse.
Remove the characters at fault, force charities to publish full accounts and aircraft purchase costs for the last 12 years whilst being transparent, pay crew appropriately including contractors, stop demanding they commute long distance without accommodation and mileage and you may begin to reduce the incessant movement.
Experienced reliable crew will go where terms are best. If they keep leaving hems then hems is where the problem lies.
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 1,184
Likes: 541
From: Lost again...
I don’t think the race to the bottom is a uniquely HEMS thing although as the major onshore pilot employer it is most obvious.
T&Cs everywhere are being eroded and I can’t think of a company right now ( onshore or off) where people are saying “this is a great place to work and the management are doing an ok job”.
certainly there are issues with charity politics, priorities and attitudes and I’d certainly like to see more scrutiny, but I don’t see U.K. HEMS being any more challenging from an employment perspective than any other rotary job.
the good old days are long behind us in all the jobs I fear.
T&Cs everywhere are being eroded and I can’t think of a company right now ( onshore or off) where people are saying “this is a great place to work and the management are doing an ok job”.
certainly there are issues with charity politics, priorities and attitudes and I’d certainly like to see more scrutiny, but I don’t see U.K. HEMS being any more challenging from an employment perspective than any other rotary job.
the good old days are long behind us in all the jobs I fear.
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Joined: Jul 2017
Aviation Qualifications: Spotter
Posts: 840
Likes: 236
From: UK
After speaking to a friend who is an bog standard Easyjet captain recently (14 years service, he's not a TRE/TRI/Trainer etc), I have realised that UK rotary salaries are TERRIBLE.
Rotary onshore twin/IFR/HEMS captains getting £80-£90k, I used to think that was good....
....until my friend tells me he's on almost £200k a year, for working about 210 days a year, and no night shifts, with a fixed roster etc. New 200 hr FOs start on £70k+
UK HEMS have only themselves to blame, they impose ridiculously high job candidate selection requirements, crap Ts&Cs, and they wonder why they struggle to get pilots.
Rotary onshore twin/IFR/HEMS captains getting £80-£90k, I used to think that was good....
....until my friend tells me he's on almost £200k a year, for working about 210 days a year, and no night shifts, with a fixed roster etc. New 200 hr FOs start on £70k+
UK HEMS have only themselves to blame, they impose ridiculously high job candidate selection requirements, crap Ts&Cs, and they wonder why they struggle to get pilots.
