Helicopter Training

[Daz]

Well as I see it Darren you seem to be OK with work visas being handed out like candy, so in a sense you are shooting yourself in the foot when it comes to where you are going to build your time. I've now adopted the attitude of "its not my problem anymore seeing I have several thousand hrs and work for a great company". I sure wouldn't waste my money today on training but that as well is not my problem. Well gotta go flying in circles taking pictures for a client who wants 2000 hrs minimum pad to pad.

 

*sigh* I remember that thread. Let me see if I can clarify what I really meant...

 

I`m not welcoming the ``furriners`` with open arms. What I was trying to convey was that I don`t feel like they`re taking my job away when my 240 hours precludes me from the 2000 hour minimum jobs that they`re filling. I don`t blame the work visas as I see them as a reactionary response to the real issue, which is ever-increasing pilot minimum requirements for jobs that would be suitable for low time guys.

 

I have no doubt that limiting the work visas would eventually open doors for us newbies (and I`m all for it, believe me), however I think it would take some time before clients and helicopter companies came to an agreement on what constitutes realistic minimum requirements to fly certain jobs.

 

In the meantime, I`m genuinely curious where lowtimers actually are flying these days. Carry on with the beatings...

[Twin Helix]

I think for the most part it's traffic copters and sightseeing these days...otherwise most are reserved to maintenance runs and training flights...of course there's always buying an extra 400-900 hours through a flight school...don't all low-time pilots have an extra $200k to burn?

[flyguy13]

Quite a few low timers are getting their start with oil companies doing pilot/operating with R44's. The only thing is that they get used to the schedule and the money and continue on with it without doing anything else in the industry. Also there's pipeline surveillance that allot of them are getting their starts doing tech work in the co-pilot seat then after a year they become the PIC and actually fly quite a bit once they get going. But there still are some oil companies that have a low hr requirement to fly their operators around, not many though.