Slow Season?

[helidoug]

Just wondering how everyone is finding this season shaping up so far.

 

Is anybody out there finding it very busy?

[Skidz]

Dead slow.

[twinstar_ca]

and yet there are some out there working.. is this a product of cutting rates just to keep the blades turning??

[southoftheborder]

Don"t know what part of the world your in, (actually I do) but I'm flying four to six hours a day, making good money and very challenging flying. If you want work, and your qualified, there is lots of overseas stuff going on.

[sirlandsalot]

It is busy for some, I am doing very well so far this year with overseas work. However I have lots of friends that are doing nothing, many of which are good pilots and want to work.... Exploration has stoppped, seismic is slowly rolling and it is pissing rain on our fire season.

 

If you are busy, you are one of the few, consider yourself lucky, I am. And if you think "I don't know what anybody is talking about I am busy" then you are really not in touch with the rest of the industry, and there are probaly lots pilots that can do your job just as good or better hanging around waiting.

[Skidz]

Day VFR work is very slow in Eastern Canada right now. The company I work for has next to nothing, and I live near the main base of a competitor, and most of their machines are parked in the yard and haven't moved in weeks...

 

Unless the fire season takes off like crazy, I think we're going to see some operators go bust by the end of the year...

[shakey]

This is the reason there should be ZERO work permits right now in our industry!

[Coastal]

SOB, Sirlandsalot: what country you guys working in and what type of work? Thanks.

[pilot5]

The VFR industry in Canada is by and large a seasonal employment gig. Unless you are in Mgmt or work for a company that pays and keeps crews year round. Very few. It's pogee for most. It would be nice if most companies kept crews on year round but given today's many small mom and pop ops and the ongoing rates plunge it's getting harder and harder for even the larger companies to support year round employment. Add to all of this a fickle exploration market driven by junior and medium sized ex companies that still have a hard time to get credit post economic wipe out 2009-2010-2011 it's still a bleak out look. And yes there is the foreign worker issue based on misleading employment rates specific to the market and driven by industry to assure a market supply for crews requiring the least amount of effort and cost to the bottom line.

 

The only plausible solution today is to assure you have a non Heli based job to fall back on, and what ever you do don't believe anyone who triies to sell you on the idea that its a career. It's going from job to job and getting the work when and if you can find it.

 

Or go international there are various ways to achieve this but it's becoming more and more difficult if you don't already have the ATPL. In this case you need to seek out an effective plan to get there.

 

P5

 

[redliner]

Hard times for some I guess. I thought there were lots of jobs out there right now. Keep your chin up P5.