A wise man once told me that although life rarely runs to plan it is important to at least have one. What was yours?

The only people who know your capabilities are the people you spent a ton of money with doing your CPL, if they won't give you work or hours I suggest the best option is for you save up and do the 50 hours and then do the FI course or do an IR and try to go offshore.

Other than that your options are limited unless you get a top tip of work somewhere , I agree with your man "epiphany", i.e. did you not think this through before?

Good work on getting your CPL. I would agree that you need an FI rating to get some work and start to build your experience.

If I were you I would be looking at schools you would like to work for and try get some non-flying work to get a foot in the door. This should help carve a future in the industry and hopefully I would have thought bring some positioning flights etc.

I would say in the current market throwing the money at the 50hrs and then a FI course would just allow you to join the endless queue of newly qualified FIs outside every school. You need to think of a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd and I feel getting experience in a school will help both financially and also in getting your first job.

Good luck and whatever path you decide just try to keep current in the meantime.

Weekends off?
 

Weekends off. SAR. :ugh:Oh how I laughed! :O

Hallo everybody, i have just a question for rotary pilot.

I am 39, JAA fixed wing almost 2000 TT with 1500 IR.

Since no fixed wing job, i am thinking about an FAA CPL-IR-H add on after converting my JAA fixed wing in an FAA one.

Does thereafter my FW experience valuable for a copilot offshore position or it is absolutely useless?

Thanks

Liftman

Not absolutely useless, but very nearly. The fact that you have TT presumably as a co-pilot will help you to appreciate that an offshore heli job would involve a few more years in the co-pilot seat, but won't count for anything when applying to the large heli operators for an offshore job.

The heli world is VERY separated from the FW world and even if you were to invest huge sums of money in a CPL(H), you would be at the back of a very long queue of hopefuls trying for a job. At the moment the offshore market in the UK is buoyant and recruiting, but in all likelihood by the time that you could be holding a new licence, the large operators would probably be laying off pilots in the next downturn.

If I were you, I'd persevere in the FW world, which is more likely to need more pilots world-wide in the long term.

Colibri many thanks for your answer, apprecciated! :ok:

Global Market for Low-Time Pilots
 

Hi,
I'm looking for advice from those of you willing to help out a low time pilot (~250 hrs) get a break in the industry. I'm a Canadian with my CPL(H) working on the ground for a Canadian-based heli company unable to bring up a low-time pilots into its full-time flight line. As it seems no sensible future is here for me, I'm looking elsewhere; all around the globe. Can you please provide some company names I can contact that you know do actually bring up low-timers and get them going? :ugh:
I would imagine that the outfits in the southern hemisphere will start getting busy towards the end of this year. ?
Any other suggestions?
PM or public responses are much appreciated.
Thanks!

Over this side of the Atlantic there are many people in the same situation as yourself. The market here has contracted considerably over the last few years.

Good luck on your hunt and loose your hope... because low temp pilots its a thing that will always be in excess!! And low temp can be what you want! From 200 to 1000 hours!!

What's the state of the helicopter pilot job market?
 

Hi guys,

I've had around 20 hours of flight training and love it, to date i've only done it as a hobby but have recently been left some money and would love to do this as a career! This wasn't an option for me before.

I was just wondering if people could tell me what the job market is like for a newly qualified commercial helicopter pilot? the courses i've seen cost about £50,000 so it's a lot of money!

What kind of work can a newly qualified helicopter pilot expect?

In UK, not much. In Canada, most companies are hiring. But these will be experienced pilots. Your problem is not so much getting the licence, but the minimum hours to be employable, typically about 500.

Plus immigration of course. :)

The industry will always need new pilots to replace the old duffers as they retire to the bar, so my advice would be to go for it, get an IR while you are at it and start by applying at the top (North Sea) and work your way down the list of heli companies.
Don't waist your time listening to the Nay-Sayers, get on with it .....even on a bad day its sooooooooo much better than working.

good luck:ok:

Hi Loudoun,

I'd echo Indetrees post; go for it. The industry goes up and down and there's frequently a need for low hour pilots to fill left hand seats on the North Sea.

Go into it with your eyes wide open though. If you go offshore you'll need an IR which will take the total cost of training to near £100,000 rather than the £50k you've seen advertised. The training is hard and time consuming and many fall by the wayside during the journey.

But on a positive note....best job in the world. Good luck! :ok:

Hey Inditrees - happy new year! :)

The old duffers are starting to retire, and given the average age of the industry, over the next 5 years there will be a major crew change so your timing is good at least. My previous remarks were related to the charter market.

phil

Sorry but this is a ridiculous statement, there are always pilots retiring, no more than any other time.

Schools were saying vietnam pilots were retiring 15 years ago so there will be loads of jobs, and guess what??? they are still spinning the same old yarn - why? to get your money

Listen - the average age on the Gulf of Mexico was 57 two years ago. It's a no-brainer. Already the N Sea guys are recruiting, and most companies in Canada are hiring. one of my instructors gets 2 or three job offers per month.

That's with the last dregs of the later Vietnam guys still around and at least one pilot in Canada flying at 72 years of age with diabetes. Experienced guys are hard to find right now.

Kindly wind your neck in until you know what you are talking about.

phil

In some markets not so hard to find...I know of several pilots in their early 40's with 5-10,000 hours twin/IFR experience who are out of work and have been looking for work for many months.

Regrettably it's just as tough for many of them to land a job as it is for the 200 hour aspiring-to-be co-pilot.

23 years in this game & it was damn tough then, in the middle & still today. If You wanna make money forget Rotory. If its just fun challenging flying then Rotory is for You but landing a job........hmmmmm that's another story. Good luck :=

VF

I know what i am talking about, how dare you!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you assuming because i only have 5 posts that i don't have a clue. Well you know what they say about making an assumption.

I have been a heli pilot for 16 years.

Phil - BITE ME