Jobs in Finland or Baltic
 

Anyone have information on the job market in Finland and Baltic states for helicopter pilots? Is work in this area with fixed salaries or freelance? I did my training in the US. Will this work against me?

I have an FAA & JAA CPL(H) and around 700 hours total. Booked an IR course in the UK for next winter as the North Sea (norway) is where I want to go to work.

EFHFpilot,

There is some jobs around in Finland. As the "new" duty time legislation came into force some years ago there have been alot of new openings around, especially within the HEMS helicopters.

If you go for a job with the HEMS helicopters you will have a fixed salary which is a good thing! On the other hand you will gain experience VERY SLOWLY, probaly some 100-150 hrs a year....:E

Your previous experience will never work against you!

Good luck:ok:

Thank you for your reply. Why do the HEMS pilots fly so little here? Or is it the same everywhere? Do they fly single or multi pilot and do you know what experience they look for when choosing new pilots?

Hi,

The reason is simple, all the stand-by time is counted as duty time. Even if the legislation demand at least 8-10 hrs rest per every 24 hrs, all this required rest time is calculated as working time (or duty time)...:D

This means you are able to work only two 4 days shift per month. Even if the Subpart Q was intended in the JAR-OPS, you are not allowed to do any other flying except "general aviation". Those who work in the company with some other duties i.e. Chief Pilot, Training Manager are not allowed to exceed these limits regarding to there paper work either:ok:

The only ones who doesn't have to follow the time legislation that they wrote is the FCAA inspectors who can fly full duty and then work as much as they want to for the FCAA :mad: :=

All the bases in Finland are flying single pilot except Aslak in Northern Finland who have the multi-pilot consept.

I think the single pilot bases requires 1000 hrs. helicopter experience and the multi-pilot base 500 hrs. for co-joe!

My advice is to do the whole ATPL theory package when you go for the IR-H, if your intention is to fly off-shore in Norway this is the way to go.

You can PM me if you want and I can try to help out!

rotordk,

Don't worry. The working time legislation we have in Finland is a National legislation made in Finland only for Finland.

Even though Finland is a JAA Country the working time legislation part in the JAR-OPS 3, Subpart Q doesn't excists because the member countries of the JAA have not been able to agree to a common JAA work time legislation.

Check with your own authority the working time legislation that is in force in your country.

The National legislation in Finland mainly are in line with the EU Directive, i.e. 192 hrs max work time per mounth etc.. The problem is more how this 192 hours are calculated i.e. STANDBY-TIME. Now all Standby-time is calculated as working time even if by the National legislation we need a minimum of 8-10 hrs. rest per day. This demanded rest time is also calulated as working time...

The problem for the pilots is that, for an example you fly 130 hrs a year in a multi pilot concept, so "hands-on-flying" (PF) is anly about 65 hrs a YEAR!!! Which in my opinion is way to little for a proffessional pilot in a very demanding operational environment. Also come problems for pilots who are instructors to keep their FI valid as you are NOT allowed to do any other flying...

In many European countries you are allowed for example to work as FI on your time off from JAR-OPS work. As the FI (JAR-FCL) is not a part of JAR-OPS you are able to do some flying, keep your self in shape with the flying without getting rusty, keep your FI valid (that you have paid alot of money for) and have a chance to some extra earnings within your profession.

Professional pilots, only flying 65 hrs. hands-on a year is too little, you get very rusty with all procedure and ATC communication.

Where are you EASA and a Pan-European Working time legislation (Subpart-Q)..???

rotordk,

The EU Directive states that some of the standby-time should be considered as working time when the pilot does not have other duties (not necessaraly all).

Be aware that a new (or amendment) directive is under way as for December 2006, if I remenber right!

There is also a bug in the Finnish national legislation as it demands at least 8-10 hrs rest per day (depending one/multi pilot ops), but still this by legislation required rest period is considered by the same legislation as work time?? Does it make any sense..?

It looks like the Authority wanted to restricted the pilots work time once for all. I my opinion and as a pilot it gets a lot of negative effects (and for the industry):

- Pilots gets rusty with very little flying
- Pilots not gaining experience (experience required by for example JAR-FCL 2 for TRI and TRE), that a JAR-OPS organisation needs.
- Not possible to keep current on FI, difficulties of finding experienced FE with some insight in the industry.
- Pilots not able to work with extra jobs in their choosen proffession. If the "proffessionals" are not allowed or at least very strictly restricted to work, who shall be the proffessionals? Maybe the PPL's?

I also think that alot of the guys who have made these legislation have no experience of being a commercial pilot and this might reflect in legislation that are not working very good in practice and that have alot of negative effects. I agree that working time legislation is an important part of the Aviation Safety, but still I think that there have to be a "balance" in everything!

Council Directive 2000/79/EC

Clause 8, paragraph 2 (page 4)

Nordic Rotor is a good place to connect with pilots and companies in the Scandinavian region - www.nordicotors.com.

Big Swedish companies are: Norrlandsflyg, Lufttransport and Cassel Aero
Big Norwegian offshore: CHC