7th year pilot and the award

General stuff that gets thrown about when Helicopter Pilots shoot the Breeze.
nuffsaid412
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7th year pilot and the award

Postby nuffsaid412 » Thu Apr 19 2012, 02:55

Imagine if all the companies started paying the award. No more, no less.

7th year of service - $47228

http://www.fwa.gov.au/consolidated_awar ... frame.html

Be careful what you wish for newbies.
Mag seal
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Re: 7th year pilot and the award

Postby Mag seal » Thu Apr 19 2012, 03:03

By the time you've done 7 years full time flying and have good all round experience you simply wouldn't work for that. I'd rather go do something else than work in the Helicopter industry doing what I do for 50K. Employers know that and know they won't get experienced pilots to fly on their contracts which sometimes demand high levels of experience. That's why they offer more than the 50K you've posted. If they didn't they'd go bust because they couldn't hold down their clients.
Last edited by Mag seal on Thu Apr 19 2012, 03:47, edited 1 time in total.
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cassidy_copter
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Re: 7th year pilot and the award

Postby cassidy_copter » Thu Apr 19 2012, 03:32

Nuffsaid412 wrote:
Imagine if all the companies started paying the award. No more, no less.


Would you work for that?

Reality check:

Assume a pilot pays $800/month apartment rent
$800/year car insurance
$250/week for car payment
$130/week for groceries
$450 every 3 months for electricty
$185 every 3 months for water
$172 every couple months for phone and internet
$450 to renew his Medical every year
Super Fund contribution
et cetra

At the end of the year, if he is paid award, what is he left with? You do the math. Part of the reason Aviation has one of the highest divorce rates is the financial stress pilots are under trying to get ahead in Aviation whilst trying to maintain a relationship.

The government and folks with your mentality should never wonder why people would rather sit on their asses at home, drink beer, smoke pot and collect the dole.

The FWA specification should be taken as the minimum award and not the maximum.

How much can any operator afford to train and retrain, because the operator cannot keep pilots whom move on for greener pastures?

One more consideration is that Insurance companies dictate who flies what, based on meeting certain minimum experience criterion.

When operators cannot get the kind of experience they need walking through their door, and they end up with hot starts, blade strikes, and bent metal, they might consider offering more money.

Pilots with low hours and a fresh Commercial Pilot Licence are entitled to at least receiving the government mandated award (pay) rate and nothing less, or the employer should write a contract specifying a period of time a new pilot must serve to work off his training costs and the cost of higher insurance premiums, but to pay less and expect a new pilot to just accept it, because he is desperate to build flying hours, is unethical.

Pay peanuts, get monkeys.
Never take "No" for an answer.
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bellslapper
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Re: 7th year pilot and the award

Postby bellslapper » Thu Apr 19 2012, 16:58

nuffsaid412 That’s still better than companies, businesses and the back yarders are paying right this moment nationwide, and not only in aviation, years ago I had the boss say to me he would like to pay me more but he was concerned about the tax I would pay, I told him “I would worry about the tax I’ll take the pay rise”.... no pay rise and left shortly there after, just typical bull s#!t an employer tells you to justifies their own authority.(one shouldn’t generalise employers as I am one and have worked for some great ones as well).

Pilots with low hours and a fresh Commercial Pilot Licence are entitled to at least receiving the government mandated award (pay) rate and nothing less, or the employer should write a contract specifying a period of time a new pilot must serve to work off his training costs and the cost of higher insurance premiums, but to pay less and expect a new pilot to just accept it, because he is desperate to build flying hours, isunethical


TC
you hit the nail on the head, unethical, should be written in a few Ops manuals around the place.

The wages were an issue 10 years ago and will be for a another 10 years unless changes made to the award in 2006 and then 2010 enforced, imagine the tax the ATO is missing out on right this minute and for the last 10 years not just with Aviation but with every other industry here in OZ that thinks they are above the law, now that would bring the Government back in the black. :wink:

This is where I kind of contradict my previous paragraph :twisted: it’s not all doom and gloom, as it is sites like Bladeslapper and printed media that is informing the green pilot out there, so the culture will slowly change as the approach to safety has over the last 20years, weeds are weeded out.

Fly safe and work hard for the money YOU are entitled tooooo!!!!!!!!.
:)
BS

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