Safety Companies, Insurers And The Low-Time Pilot

[Darksidelogger]

Good luck Daz it will happen like I said there are always exceptions

We should start a new thread "things low timers say"

Anyway we have a candidate now and off we go!

[J Kupecz]

This thread hits close to home!

 

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And give an old guy a chance!

 

- Darren

 

Well said, Darren!

 

And thanks to the rest of you for giving us low timers some perspective on what the thought process is on the other side of the interviews. It doesn't look easy from either side.

 

Joel

[round lake]

My favourite one lately is what kind of tour am I going to have because I don' want to live there. If you want to get ahead you had better dam well want to live near your work because there is always someone else who will live there. When you get a few thousand hours you may get to choose where you live but under a thousand hours give me a break.

Why do they ask this? Would you move if you were getting paid less than minimum wage to work 6 or 7 day's a week? And only a remote chance to fly. I am sure lots of people would move if they were paid a fair wage and some sort of schedule.

[Whitestone]

Why do they ask this? Would you move if you were getting paid less than minimum wage to work 6 or 7 day's a week? And only a remote chance to fly. I am sure lots of people would move if they were paid a fair wage and some sort of schedule.

 

Would you? Well i did, my first summer i spent in a tent with a rat as a co-worker that i would have happily killed with a shovel.

 

They ask this because they can get it, this is a fact of the industry. I can't think of one job that you would get as a low timer where you would not have to relocate. Do you want it or not?

 

Not sure where Freddie is hiding these days but i last saw him a few years ago and if he is still where he was then, it's not cheap to live there. Not sure how much they are paying but if they aren't paying a wage you can live on then you have to explore your options. You can move and live with a few other pilots in a room mate situation (this is good practice for camp life). You might luck out and get a job that pays a decent wage, but good luck with that.

 

As far as basic job hunting goes you can relocate to a town that has a lot of operators find some kind of work while you wear one of them down or you can just stay home and send out resumes` and do the odd road trip.

 

Or you can just stay home and give up on your dream to fly because for every guy who won't move and won't sleep in the back of their truck for a summer there are guys who will and operators know this so they pay only what they have to which is usually minimum wage.

 

It's an adventure, get out there and live it and remember what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!

 

Good luck to all you low timers out there!

 

W.

[Vast]

 

In another life i was among other things the HR department (small company, many hats) and had to screen potential employees. You just get a "feel" for people after a while and i could pick a winner most of the time, i knew i wanted someone like me and i knew what that looked like. If there was too much "dude!" and "man" and talking like a surfer or you wore your ball cap backwards, or you were wearing those baggy rap star pants hanging half off your a$$ with the large wallet attached with a chain, or showed up in a Hummer or a sports car that screeched to a halt, etc. or if it's all about going to bars, you were not going to make the "we'll contact you" list. If all you did as a teen was party and never had to buy anything for yourself with your own money, for me that was a bad sign (ask lots of questions!). Also someone who has volunteer time on their resume` is a big plus in my eyes; there are lots of things i looked at when i used to hire. As Twin Helix said and i too, you have to check refernces and former places of work, doing your "homework" will pay dividends. Maybe hire bofore you need the guy for the season, then you won't be so rushed to fill a spot and can take your time to select a good candidate (i know, not always possible...) Again as Twin Helix said and i know to be the case a lot of hiring is "that guy who walked in the door at the right time" and not a lot of forethought or screening goes into it.

 

Some food for thought,

 

W.

You make me laugh... You're now trying to offer up advice about the integrity and quality of people that we should be looking at while twice in this thread you have suggested that they lie about their hours. I've got to say first to the "New guys", don't take this advice as much as you feel it would help. It can lead to a possibly deadly situation when you get over your head.

[mohave green]

Owners of helo companies need to share some of the blame for the gradual escalation of hours a pilot needs to land in a well site. Oil companies keep asking for more and more hours to do their boring and simple jobs. Helo companies keep giving them what they want because they want to keep their business.If the helo company would tell the customers that ask for higher time pilots that it is going to cost them more per hour or per day to have that higher time guy jockey them around, things would change. It would change for the better because the high time guy would get paid what they are worth. The low time pilot would also benefit because these oil companies are also cost concious. They will soon figure out they can get the same job done with a low time pilot for less money. When I started flying, I flew lots of hours for oil companies and got by quite well. The customer and employer were both happy.

[Whitestone]

You make me laugh... You're now trying to offer up advice about the integrity and quality of people that we should be looking at while twice in this thread you have suggested that they lie about their hours. I've got to say first to the "New guys", don't take this advice as much as you feel it would help. It can lead to a possibly deadly situation when you get over your head.

 

I did not "suggest" anything, it's a FACT that some people pad their log books in order to further their career. It is also a FACT that if you put a pilot with 200 hours into a situation where he needs 1200 hours he may not have the skills to complete the job safely.

 

As for "offering up advice" on how to choose a low hour pilot, these are my opinions and experiences. I have traveled the road, my experiences may differ from someone else s but they are valid for me. Maybe you think hiring a smoker who shows up late very day for work and never picks up a broom is the way to go and if so i wish you all the luck with that. Whether you choose to take my advice (or part of it) or call me a fool is totally up to you. For my part i have read all the posts in this thread and have learned a few new things.

 

I contribute to this forum because i genuinely care about people and want to help them find their way.

 

Am i still making you laugh? If so, that's something, you did absolutely nothing for me.

 

Cheers,

 

Whitestone.

[Guest plumber]

Keep the age under 28 to 30 Anything over they are usually unwilling to learn or set in their ways

 

Wow! Just Wow! Thought most of what you said was good right up until that.

[Twin Helix]

Keep the age under 28 to 30 Anything over they are usually unwilling to learn or set in their ways

 

Wow! Just Wow! Thought most of what you said was good right up until that.

 

 

I'm with plumber and Daz on this one.

 

Like Daz, I'm over 30 but low-time. Unlike Daz I've yet to encounter anyone who said I was too old, most have actually been pleased to have a more mature applicant with some life experience. It doesn't translate into a job search that's any easier though...it doesn't matter what the CP likes if the minimums exclude you from the work.

 

Anyone who pads their log book better be prepared to pad their crash site too, it's a gamble that's not worth taking.

 

I contribute to this forum because i genuinely care about people and want to help them find their way.

 

Am i still making you laugh? If so, that's something, you did absolutely nothing for me.

 

Cheers,

 

Whitestone.

 

I find that most of the posts on here are from similarly minded people, we all want to be safe, we all want to get a fair shake, we all want to keep improving.

 

Keep the dialogue going, keep it civil and keep hiring low-timers.

[Skidz]

Don't worry too much about the age factor.

 

I got my license at the ripe ol' age of 36. On one roadtrip looking for my first break, a CP told me (verbatim) "I'd really like to hire you, but I have a hard time seeing you do all the crap work we expect our hangar rats to do". I thanked him and moved on. Keep in mind some companies hire low time pilots with no intention whatsoever of ever having them fly.

 

I was once on a job where I was at about 600 hours on a two machine job with a 26 year-old pilot who had 2500 hours. We kept having to tell the customer that he was the senior pilot. A lot of the customer's workers wanted to fly with me rather than the "greenhorn", just `cause I looked more experienced.

 

You can't buy maturity and life experience...