cost effective? or location?

[creightz1051]

Hi im 21 from the UK and Im looking to relocate and work as a helicopter pilot. I have flying expirence in the military navigating jets which helps for Airmanship but I have my heart set on flying rotary.

I can get a 150 hour commercial helicopter course FAA in the states for $35,000 Aud and convert it, or I can train with an Australian company which will cost more, for less hours but will be in the country I want to work in training in the weather and airspace I will be working in.

I'm looking for your opinion on what is the best road to take, being a forigner I expect it to be difficult so I need to set myself apart, will my employer prefer more hours in general, or more hours in Australia?

[skypig]

At last, an easy question.
A
If you want to work in Australia, train in Australia.
(For the reasons you mentioned)

(Work "permit", immigration, etc - a whole different question)

Sky "Drive on the left" Pig

[Bionic_kid]

Hi,

as a fellow pomme who's currently studying for my CPL(H) over in aus atm I thought I'd share my thoughts about job prospects.

When I started the visa's were a little bit more lenient but they've just changed it and according to my school a pilot can only get his residential visa sponsored if they have at least 5 years experience (or basically to meet with the visa requirements the employer has to pay you as if you have that experience) which puts me in a difficult position. I will have an aus license and apart from my working holiday visa I have no way of using it. I'm currently exploring the possibility of going and working somewhere else to build up that experience so i can come back.

Apart from that I have had a brilliant time over here learning and flying and would hate to discourage you from looking at coming over but have a seriously good look at easier routes to your first job to get your hours up somewhere else in the world. I know the UK aint that great for low hour pilots but dont just limit yourself to australia as other countries may have an easier route to your first job and be a building block to coming over here

Personally on retrospect I would have looked at going and getting a JAR license in South Africa or Dubai as it can be used in more countries around the world and should you wish to convert it to FAA, CASA or the Canadian one, just the theory would need to be done.

If anyone knows of any routes around this dilemma I'm sure both of us would appreciate the knowledge.

[creightz1051]

ah, that kind of puts a downer on the plan. Will having a CASA license not make you a skilled worker?

[Bionic_kid]

from the horses mouth:
http://www.visabureau.com/australia/pilot-jobs.aspx

if i've missed something there please point it out.... i read that whilst kicking myself....

[creightz1051]

dear oh dear, that really sucks! I cannot get a visa for America or Australia, if you don't mind me asking how old are you and how much are you expecting you license to cost?

[skypig]

I understand training costs around A$500/hr in an R22, so 107hrs (or combination of FW and RW) x $500 = $53500. Ad in Theory, equipment, fees, medicals you'd be pushing $60 000 + accomodation/living expenses, or the cost of a second hand HSV Commodore.

$ky "It never seems to stop costing" Pig

[aaron]

Hello,
Have you considered New Zealand, could be an option, Can easily convert to Aus licence afterwards, and you get 150hrs for about $80000nzd
Good luck

[Queestce]

Yea, as Aaron said NZ is cheaper "bang for buck". But I do wonder, everyone always talks about how operators don't like it when people come to their hanger with a freshly converted CPL and have trained overseas. Surely if you seemed a good potential employee with the right attitude and had at least 45 hrs more than most Aus trained license holders and mtn, sling, and low flying ratings people will look past the fact that you didn't train up the road?

[skypig]

......and mtn, sling, and low flying ratings people will look past the fact that you didn't train up the road?

Those trained in Australia should know that there is no such thing as a mountain or low flying rating in Australia, and anyone with less than 1000hrs is unlikely to get a job involving sling loading.

Sky "reinvent the wheel, or follow the well troden path" Pig

[Bionic_kid]

dear oh dear, that really sucks! I cannot get a visa for America or Australia, if you don't mind me asking how old are you and how much are you expecting you license to cost?

I'm 27 and i budgeted about $70k for the whole course.... but have financial backing atm so am trying not to think about the cost of it as i dont want to get tooo depressed.... i'll pay them back once i'm employed somewhere after this!

[creightz1051]

ah I was looking at around $40/$50,000. I know PHS charge $440 and The Helicopter Group charge $420. I'm still considering the US route, I'm here at the moment on a learning development visa working with children in a summer camp so i've whitnessed the life style and the company I'm considering training with http://www.flyoft.com offer a cheap course with accommodation included. I could then convert in OZ after and still use my 2 year working holiday visa to build experience there.

[Bionic_kid]

ok.. with that plan it sounds realistic but you have to consider 4 things:

1: You wont walk into a flying job immediately. How are you going to afford to live once you get here plus find the time to visit and meet all these prospective employers. The industry's slow at the moment and i know of a lot of new pilots who are working at coles waiting for things to pick up.

2: you can only work at one company for 6 months on that working holiday visa so likelyhood you'll never get out of hanger rat status

3: to extend the visa to 2 years you have to work on a farm picking fruit or doing something like that.. It may be your ticket into the mustering industry or cherry drying in Tazzy but you can take 3 months out of your hunt to do that.

4: conversion: if you have to do ALL the exams again and badly fail a few can you afford the month to wait to resit it? (have a look at onlineaviationtheory.com and i'm currently using this for all my revision. It is made by Ron Newman @ PHS and includes a lot of questions that are in both the FAA and CASA exams)

I'm seriously not trying to put you off coz i LOVE flying (having just done low level last week) and am half way thru both my hours and exams but it's a LOT of cash and i would hate to see someone else be in my shoes and be looking at spending all that money for something that may not be useful.

[Schweizerlovin]

Im with skypig on that one

[creightz1051]

looks like I'm going FAA route then, I can't afford to do the training and not get the visa's or opertunity to work. The CAA in the UK make everything complicated and expensive, and the rest of the world doesn't want a low hour forigen pilot.

[Bionic_kid]

best of luck to you but dont write australia off. have another look when you've got your hours up and are a catch to some of the employers over here.

[skypig]

looks like I'm going FAA route then, I can't afford to do the training and not get the visa's or opertunity to work. The CAA in the UK make everything complicated and expensive, and the rest of the world doesn't want a low hour forigen pilot.

Or, according to "Word":

Looks like I'm going FAA route then, I can't afford to do the training and not get the visas or opportunity to work. The CAA in the UK makes everything complicated and expensive, and the rest of the world doesn't want a low hour foreign pilot.

It might be worth using spell-check when trying to convince the rest of the English speaking world that they do want a low hour foreign pilot.

Sky “Without spell-check I’d appear even dumber” Pig