Where else other than North Sea?
 

With things not looking to rosie in the North Sea, what other options are there? Any jobs joing on the Bristow operation in Kazakstan? CHC in Den helder? Is Brunei still looking for pilots, I understand there may be work coming up in the Black Sea, Romania? Turkey? Malta?

Any suggestions welcome, North Sea Captain, 225/332L2 and S76.....

Apply anyway, just grow a mustache for the interview.

Hi Ed,

Yes not a good time for anyone at the moment....especially for new IRs....I thought you had sponsorship from Bristow though with a job at the end?

I find it hard to be sympathetic to this view, anyone who has done any research knows that going the IR route is/was a high risk. and you can mitigate that risk by also getting the FI to ensure you keep flying.

in the 3 years before I joined my former company on the north sea they hired NOBODY, in the year I joined I was just about the last of 40 to join in a year, then it shut down again completely for a while.

the North Sea has always been cyclical and right now we are just in another cycle, thats just how it is.

Are Bristow back in Kazakhstan? They got booted out a few years back.

Camp F, I believe that this time we are seeing a "Game Changer" with the falling oil price. Even if it will rise again, the good days are over and will not come back. Personally I doubt that the barrel price ever will pass 100$ again, but the oil companies is now finding out how cheap the can get an acceptable service for. And that is what they will go after in the future - low cost with lower salary and different/worse terms and conditions that we are seeing now.

Still have 20 years until retirement, but I don't believe I am flying to the rigs in 10 years from now, but also too old to go airline. I still se a future in corporate/VIP and onshore flying in general. Maybe I am too pessimistic, but that is the future I am planning on.

Ed and others, redundancy programs tend to target the high earners, close to retirement as it suits the companies to retire a high seniority, high earner and promote a baby Captain to replace him at bottom scale and everyone else moves up the ladder one notch. That makes room for newbies like you. This is a good business model that has prevailed since Icarus.

Of course the senior pilots targeted will claim "LIFO" until the offer meets their expectations. Most of the time this system works to to each stake holders mutual benefit. Sometimes of course it does not.

You are in a strong position because you are the future and for a while you will be cheap.

The safest place to be is in the middle. The people at the top scale have their heads above the parapet and the people at the bottom have their ar*se hanging out the window! Get in early on a recruitment drive. Try to survive the savagery of initial cullings until you make the middle. Once there enjoy a couple of decades of immunity before you head rises above the parapit.

The world needs oil. Lots of it. And a significant amount is offshore. Be patient and it will happen provide of course you can fool the psycho tests and you remain healthy.

Ignore the doomsayers! They speak with forked tongues.

Ed,

I don't think it was that Bristow had nothing to offer. Maybe the reverse....

LZ

You won't find much sympathy for the big-earning N Sea pilots from the onshore pilots (police, air ambulance, instructional etc).

Oh dear Crab is that all you can muster? Why don't you take into account the living costs i.e house prices etc in the area's where offshore pilots have to relocate them selves too............ You have already had the door shut in your face in civSAR so if you ever fancy swapping your 365 for something bigger then climb back into your box! :rolleyes::ugh:

Ed Barrett.
PM sent🚁

Oh dear chcoffshore - bad day at the office??? Another one who thinks I should be bitter and twisted about being ignored for civSAR:ugh:

There are plenty of police and AA pilots who either have to do a lot of travelling or live in places at least as expensive as Aberdeen and most of them on £50 to £60K.

my response was supposed to be realistic rather than sharp, especially as you didn't pay for your training.

I don't believe this to be true, the oil price has fallen before but it will come back.

as a general rule though I think its a lot harder for everyone now than it was in previous years, not just in this in this industry but in all industries.

There aren't many Crab, in fact, only 3 other places which I assume must all have air ambulances and police air support units in the city centre :ok:

The Scotsman has reported that Edinburgh and Aberdeen are now the second and fifth most expensive towns or cities in the UK to buy property, a Halifax report has revealed.

Edinburgh has become the second-most expensive place per square meter for property, outside the South of England, with an average price of £2,214 per square meter. Aberdeen also made the top ten with an average price of £2,125 per square meter.

in the local training organisation to me in the UK, 2 of the instructors have IR's but no north sea job, and before that another had an IR for a good couple of years before he eventually got in at Aberdeen.

the point is they all got FI's to keep flying and get some money coming in, but obviously that means paying more money out first.

my suggestion is that is what you should do and in due course it will come good with the IR (probably).

With the FI there is a chance of some work, without, nothing. I know of several people that took jobs in ops, front desk, fuelling, pushing aircraft around etc. that led to positioning flights here and there, which led to CPL and safety pilot work, and eventually FI. As with everything, it's a matter of timing, having a face that fits, a willingness to muck in and do whatever is required, and a personality that fits with the ethos of the organisation. You may also have to cast your net fairly wide to get a job. One approach is to find a couple of people who want to do their PPLs and bring them to a school?

Don't discount any of the bigger operators in the ops approach either.

Unless you get very lucky, (and it does happen), you are going in at the bottom of the totem pole with zero experience. The opportunities that are available to you reflect that. It's always been tough, it's just even harder in the current climate. The IR should be money in the bank somewhere down the line though.

Blimey johni, you're a real kind of glass completely empty kind of guy. Even for someone located in the good ole U S of A. It's always up and down, knocks and opportunities and sometimes making your own luck. But it's not the end of the world. Chin up pal. :)

I think that Blueway in Norway is looking for EC225 rated drivers.

did Bristow ask for their money back for the CPL then Ed? :ugh::ugh:

Ed, aged 22, faces adversity, hardship, possible failure. For which schools so adequately prepare young people entering the real world ...