How much do helicopter pilots earn?
 

I'm not aiming to make a fortune, but what kind of salary do helicopter pilots earn?

I assume it very much depends on the line of work you're in - I guess someone checking power lines for an electricity board will get a very different salary to the pilot of a Sea King Rescue helicopter.

I'm just looking for ballpark figures to get an idea.

Thanks,
Phil

check this out: http://www.justhelicopters.com/

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carpe diem

Thanks, I'll have a look.


Phil

Hi again chopperpilot,
Your right, it very much depends on the job. In Australia, if you work in the Northern Territory as a stock mustering pilot you will be paid by the hour. Somewhere between $50 and $70 an hr depending on experience. If you fly else where around OZ we have an award system that most companies adhere to (mainly because its cheap!!) and this takes into acount whether you fly over water, use an instrument rating, if you are a co-pilot, or if you fly for petroleum companies, or EMS, or if you have one or two engines. This can equate to anything between around $35000 and $70000 Australian. Obviously private owners or in house companies can pay more or less. Hope this helps (if your not in Australia, the way the dollar is, you would be better off trying for a job that pays US dollars) Cheers

Chopperpilot
In the UK as an instructor you can expect to be paid £40-£55 per flying hour depending where you fly. A free-lance commercial pilot will earn from £50-£70 per flying hour depending on experience and the type of work involved, ie. pleasure flying or pipe line inspection etc.
As a North Sea co-pilot with between 500-1000 hours you will be paid between £22,000 and £27,000 or so. These figures are approximate but should give you a rough idea as to wether you want to 'give up the day job'

With some quality experience behind you try and break into the police/hems world. Quality flying..quality salaries. Suggest starting at around 30,000+plus pension

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TC

Beer tokens are few in Rotary. If you want a career and not a life fly fixed wing!

PILOT WAGES
 

Pilots have a relatively short career.Considering it takes a pilot 3 or 4 years after graduation to the time when he/she is considered experienced i.e. employable. With age working against you alot of people after age forty-five develop
health problems that could be career ending.
That could leave a very short employment window .

What do you guys feel would be a resonable wage for ATP pilots in Europe and North America ?

£30,000 basic plus £100 / flying hour? Don't forget all the trimmings too (PHI/LOL/Pension, etc), they account for a lot...

Well it's a start !!!

http://www.gograph.com/Images-7298/A...if/redstar.gif

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Thermal runaway.

What we could really use is some type of pay scale that would take into consideration the position you would be flying. There are numerous types of helicopter operations so you would have to generalize but you would have a base pay (entry level), more for IFR and in particualar SPIFR, Spray work, long line and the list goes on.
In the EMS field, it would be reasonable to have a basic start pay, with additional dollars payed for x ammount of hours expereince in that field, additional ammount for instrument time and then a cost of living allowance depending on where you live. Cost of living is perhaps the most important. I am working in Ann Arbor Michigan making about 50k US. Sounds good until you factor in the cost of living. If you compare that 50k to say Saginaw, I would only need to make 35k.
A little rambling but I think you get the point.

Justa quickie on wages need some help, can anyone supply a breakdown in wages as for a co pilot through to Captain or any info on where I can get one, from any UK company. Have been grounded to to accident and need to find out what I could have earned.

What did you take home last month?
 

How much did you take home last month as a helo pilot? I'm in the employ of HM and took home £2000 after deductions. Just interested to see how life is in the real world!

HM Forces take a dim view of what gets said in Prune from time to time and it's not a good idea to post your name as part of your email address for obvious reasons.... Can I suggest you get a nice anonymous one from hotmail!

As to your question you will never earn as much outside as you do now, especially if you are earning top rate flying pay, the situation is likely to get worse in the very near future when freebie licences are handed out to all and sundry in the military who will promptly jump ship and depress the UK rotary wages even further.

A blonde, a couple of brunettes and one lavishly gorgeous Redhead .....

Oh, you were talking about $$$ .....

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Marc

Purple Pitot - have you heard something I haven't? Where are these people who are going to be given licences to jump ship going to come from or is the jump "ship" part indicative? I had heard that the reverse was true and that salaries should improve accordingly - eventually!

Beware redheads check the underside!

Oh and I took home a broken watch that said 29th, 30th and 31st February - until 3rd March!

"keeping an ear to the ground"

"...you will never earn as much outside as you do now, especially if you are earning top rate flying pay.."
excuse me, but not true, and it still ain't enough for what I do!!

Yeah, that 'double Leman' can be a real ball breaker! (ducks for cover).

To add to the last though, doubtless the statement about never earning that much may be true with most onshore ops (save for a few coporate jobs) but is not true for the N. Sea. Junior Captains take home about £2200 after deductions including coy. pension.

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Another day in paradise

c

Salary AUD$11986.40/mth.
VFR SA315B AS355N onshore

Maintenance bills, hangar bills, office bills, lease payments vehicles & aircraft, wages bills, fuel bills, airways charges, and a little bit left over for myself.

Oh, I must get the GST payment off to little Johnnie. Nothing left for myself :)

When pension is taken into account a little bit more than I was getting in "Green" (including top rate). It's not all about money. Quality of life or lack of it is what made me decide not to apply to stay when my shelf life arrived. Having the ability to book concert tickets for a date next year etc because I know exactly what I will be doing shift wise and wether I need to apply for holidays to acommodate. (That is what they call them in the civilian world and they are a right, not a priviledge!!)

FFTOW
Had you better not change your Username now?
Hope all is well on the other side, sounds like it.
You miss being messed about really, now that you are a 'Civvy', go on, admit it:-)

Green Bottle
What are they going to do about your name....chuck you out?

FFTOW,
you'd better change it to "very Short FFTOW". Have to agree with your comments Re: Quality of life though. How did you enjoy your first run of shifts in the dark?

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Whilst all reasonable care has been taken, this product may contain traces of nuts.......

FFTOW,

My memories of life in a baggy green skin are exactly the opposite: at least I knew my leave dates, and could plan for next year!

Civvie life is the one where I can't plan ahead, my family is quite used to last minute changes due to work requirements. Fires, emergency relief work, charters, all tend to come when I had hoped to get a weekend off !!

P.Pilot: speak for yourself!!!!
FFOW: concur.

I loved my time in the mil, nothing bad to say about it at all. However, there comes a time when one must/should join the real world...before it's too late....
The water is fine...c'mon in.

Earpiece: recent evidence suggests that there may be the beginnings of a shortage of mil pilots in the helo world, perhaps.

The net is closing :)




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Thermal runaway.

Thanks PP. I forgot I had used that e-mail address. I've changed it now.

EESDL, you have me at a disadvantage, do I know you? You certainly seem to know me. Please feel free to mail me and reveal all (ooh err!!).
Fortyodd - Scary!!! No NVG!!!! I didn't realise that it got as dark as that though, whenever I needed reassurance there was always a nice policeman or two on hand to help.

John Eacott - what line of work have you gotten into? North sea, corporate?

T.C had a lot of ups and downs whilst in green. Got totally disillusioned and pissed off many times but that was easily outweighed by the opportunity for the type of flying and work colleagues that a lot of people will never experience. The time came giving me the opportunity to go so I took that deep breath and went. Had a very happy landing.

On the subject of names I'm considering changing it to "finals" or "short finals". Though those that know me would probably suggest that I go along with "Short!"

Any suggestions?

Regards

FFTOW

FFTOW et al,
I'm hitting the road soon after 20+ in mil RW and FW, and would be interested to hear about how things went for you guys who have already done so - little surprises that maybe you hadn't envisaged, or just impressions of how it was when you departed.
I'll keep flying, but am also gearing up to have other 'strings to my bow' - good idea, I'm thinking.
Cheers

FFTOW and others,

I'm in much the same boat as Arm - leaving on PVR after 27 years - and would very much appreciate hearing any words to the wise you may feel inclined to offer.

Oh, and in answer to the original question - (I'm RAF on Loan Service at the moment) - I received just over 4,000 pounds after deductions last month. And no, I have absolutely no stupid ideas about ever earning (legitimately) that kind of pay out in the real world. But then, the pay's not the reason I've chosen to leave after all this time.

Thud_and_Blunder without taking it out on you.

Why do you think you are worth less as a civilian pilot than you are as a military one??

This is ultimately the reason for low wages.

You will still have to work.. so why should it be for less???

And please don't tell me it's because of the pension you will be receiving to top up the pot.

Rotorbike,
Forgive me for jumping in here seeing as you originally asked T&B the question.
However, a quick comment:
Reading some of the threads here at PPrune and discussing life in general with some GA and airline mates leads me to think that to make equivalent money in 'the outside world', you either have to go airlines, or head off to somewhere where the living conditions warrant extra money for being there.
If, like me, you have made the lifestyle decision to live in a certain area, you've got to work with the jobs that you find within reasonable distance of where you live.
(This is probably a non-issue when you're starting out and willing to go anywhere to get work, but I've had it with being posted at random in the military and intend to live where I and my family want to, now!)
Given that, I'm sure the range of jobs in the local area will be such that I'll be making less than I am now.
Everyone's situation is different, true, but here's one instance where I'm going to have to take a financial hit for other good reasons.

Don't know about the UK, but in Australia you will definitely earn less as a civilian pilot than you did as a military one. It's not just a question of being prepared to move wherever the more highly paid jobs are, the simple fact is I don't think there are ANY helicopter jobs in the country that pay as well as the military does.

I'd say there are plenty of heli drivers jobs in Oz that pay better than the military. $100k, or close to, is expected for SAR specialists, and a few offshore drivers. Although the south pacific peso is plummeting daily, the cost of living is such that you can live extremely well on that, thank you.

Me, I operate 2 twins, 2 206's and 5 f/w, in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane. Filming, photography, traffic reports, fire fighting, snow ops during winter (40 landings/day at 6000 ft in a 117), sling loads, VIP and general charter. Keeps us busy!

My earlier message was more of a thought provoking moment than a civilian V military pilot confrontation.

I understand how after spending X amount of years getting sent around the world without notice how this would provoke you to drastic measures, especially when you now have a family. Amazing what baggage you pick up along the way!! I'm just asking, now you have all this experience why you feel you are worth less.

From the other side of the coin a civilian pilot works his way up and that low paid job you are considering is going to be his top.

Doesn't seem altogether fair.

[This message has been edited by Rotorbike (edited 17 March 2001).]

Rotorbike,
Yes mate,
I know where you're coming from.
Speaking for myself, I certainly don't think I'm worth any less than someone of similar experience etc.
It's just simple supply and demand - I'm sure that if I was prepared to go hunting it, I could make good $$'s, but you have to be in the right place. Having fixed my location, I'll work within its limits.

As for any civil v military slanging, I don't buy into it. My hat's off to anyone who has shelled out to get their qualifications, although on the same token I know I've worked hard to get mine too.
There are people in both areas who get worked up about rash generalisations, but I prefer to judge people by their own actions.

Looking forward to seeing how the 'other half' lives soon, anyway!

To John Eacott-you are no doubt more in touch with the salaries than I am. I've been out of the country for a couple of years. Before leaving Aust I was one of those SAR specialists you mentioned: multi-engine, single pilot IFR, but not earning anywhere near 100k, and I don't think any of the other EMS/rescue pilots were either. The military pilots were earning in the low 70's at that time but I believe they've had some big pay increases to take them up to around 100k. Any military, EMS/rescue, offshore pilots care to comment? I'm genuinely interested and sincerely hope the pay situation has improved since I left. If it hasn't all us Aussies in Macau and Hong Kong will never come home, especially the way the Aussie dollar is going.

Mark Six,

Going by your where you work, you at one stage probably enjoyed the wonderful lifestyle on Hamilton Island. (Some truth in that, it wasn't all tongue in cheek.) If you were still there doing IFR Marine pilot transfers you would be earning around AUD$65,000. It is still the award so there is nothing special about it. How does that compare to what you were getting over here in the early days? (if my assumption was correct).

Cheers

Rotorque, actually I enjoyed the wonderful lfestyle of Lismore flying the Westpac rescue helicopter (Dauphin). A great job but undervalued considering the qualifications required and the type of work. I think the other EMS drivers (at least in that part of the world) would agree. The pay was close to the figure you mentioned, but may have changed since then.

Rotorbike,

Absolutely no offence taken - I understand your point entirely. If I were to cherry-pick some highly desirable job yearned after by a young up-and-comer and win it because I was prepared to take a lower salary, I would deserve the misanthropy that came my way. Notwithstanding the paramount need to look after my family properly, I think I have enough fellow feeling for brother (and sister..) heli aviators to make sure I don't widdle on anyone's chips.

My comments were in part aimed at informing the other UK military aviators who read this thread that it is possible to be quite well off and still work for Betty. Bear in mind I'm being paid (I don't say earning...) double what the originator is currently getting. They might also like to bear in mind that for the period of time spent on Loan Service they are unlikely to be hoofed around anywhere near as badly as they are back on the Mudbank. I've only had 2 days away from home on duty in the past 2.5 years, for example - even the SARboys do more than that, for Pete's sake... Oh, and my post's up for grabs in September - read those SRO notices fellas.

Now, as one of the replies stated earlier, I'm looking at finding work in a part of the world of MY, not the RAF's, choosing. Don't know precisely where yet - off on a couple of job-hunting trips over the next few months. Inhabitants of the Brisbane/Melbourne area can expect the odd enquiry while we're there in May...

<asks innocently> Isn't Melbourne where John Eacott now lives ?

[This message has been edited by The Nr Fairy (edited 18 March 2001).]