Ground Support Crew - Ag Helicopters

[rotors100]

Looking for a keen, hardworking, Ground Support person to join our team.
Low hour pilots who want to get flying, need not apply.

Please send cv with cover letter to - info@rotorsolutions.com.au

[Rotorpilot]

Posted a job ad. in
"PILOTS REQUIRED" then states

[quote="rotors100"] Ground Support person to join our team.
Low hour pilots who want to get flying, need not apply.
/quote]

Bet you got flooded with resumes

[Icefather]

Posted a job ad. in
"PILOTS REQUIRED" then states

Ground Support person to join our team.
Low hour pilots who want to get flying, need not apply.
/quote]

Bet you got flooded with resumes

It’s becoming a recurring theme. How are guys meant to get ahead when everywhere wants ground crew/aviation enthusiasts rather than guys wanting to get started. I’m sure we all have stories of guys/companies that have given us a leg up from time to time..

Luckily Drones are coming so we will all be unemployed anyway....

[BBwantok]

To be fair, there is no ground support section, and the title of the thread was "ground support crew"

If you are a low hour pilot, my advice would be to apply, let them know you understand there is no flying, and ask if you can work for a year-18 months for the industry experience.
If they take you, you are now in the industry, meeting other contacts/operators, learning and getting paid, and likely to have a good chance at a low hour pilot position later on.
Most jobs are never advertised, and your current employer is way more likely to hear of these positions than you.
Do the the right thing, work hard, and have a good attitude.
Your next potential employer will be talking to your current one remember.

[Bee3]

To be fair, there is no ground support section, and the title of the thread was "ground support crew"

If you are a low hour pilot, my advice would be to apply, let them know you understand there is no flying, and ask if you can work for a year-18 months for the industry experience.
If they take you, you are now in the industry, meeting other contacts/operators, learning and getting paid, and likely to have a good chance at a low hour pilot position later on.
Most jobs are never advertised, and your current employer is way more likely to hear of these positions than you.
Do the the right thing, work hard, and have a good attitude.
Your next potential employer will be talking to your current one remember.

Great advice! Anyone wanting a start in the industry read this post over and over.

[County]

Looking for a keen, hardworking, Ground Support person to join our team.
Low hour pilots who want to get flying, need not apply.

I can empathise with Rotor Solutions. Some of us have had a fair bit to do with junior pilots and it’s someone else turn now.

[agpilot7]

Seriously ICE Farther it is a good add. You have been told that it is not a position that will lead to a flying job. Please don't wast each others time sounds good to me.
Not sure if you understand but you will need 350 hrs in command before you can do an Ag rating and any sort of Government Ag work is going to have a 1500 hr Ag minimum.
My thoughts only but there could also be some company insurance minimums to meet also that preclude low time pilots.
The fact also that they are open and honest that it will not lead to a flying position is a win for everybody involved

[Rotorpilot]

It’s becoming a recurring theme. How are guys meant to get ahead when everywhere wants ground crew/aviation enthusiasts rather than guys wanting to get started. I’m sure we all have stories of guys/companies that have given us a leg up from time to time..

Yes I agree

To be fair, there is no ground support section, and the title of the thread was "ground support crew"

If you are a low hour pilot, my advice would be to apply, let them know you understand there is no flying, and ask if you can work for a year-18 months for the industry experience.
If they take you, you are now in the industry, meeting other contacts/operators, learning and getting paid, and likely to have a good chance at a low hour pilot position later on.
Most jobs are never advertised, and your current employer is way more likely to hear of these positions than you.
Do the the right thing, work hard, and have a good attitude.
Your next potential employer will be talking to your current one remember.

Why waste both of your time a effort.
If the job ad stated growth in the company then fair enough and 2yrs ground with some ferry later in the peice for time given.

The job ad would have been better suited to an Agricultural, country or local labour
Helicopter saftey can be tought and should be part of the Induction training of the said company for employees.

I can empathise with Rotor Solutions. Some of us have had a fair bit to do with junior pilots and it’s someone else turn now.

This is such the mind set. You im sure owe it to the industry to help and give back.

[County]

Not a mindset Rotorpilot, like I said some of us have done our share putting back into industry.

[Rotorpilot]

County I stand by my comment in your case.

You were lucky someone gave you help to start.
Also you owe it to the industry for other reasons.
Regardless of your inabilities to see the need to upskill and provide an avenue future pilots -





Times are rough for jnr pilots, more so now than ever before. Insurance minimums, drones and vet fee help are all doing their bit to chip away at a prosperous future for Helicopter pilots.
Throw in covid and it sure has gone to mud.

Legitimate questions:
Where are jnr pilots to get their experience then?
Where are they to learn the "right way" in their profession?

What other industries give you a licence, then have no guide/structure/path/mentoring on becoming a professional? And keep asking for money for the privilege of gaining said experience and ratings/endorsements.

[Gardiner]

I get more hours working in transport and paying for my own flying than getting fed scraps from ground work. I end up broke either way but at least I'm garenteed time this way.

[rotors100]

Recently we listed a post for a pilot who was experienced in AG work. MANY pilots applied for the job, MANY of whom had zero hours, zero AG experience and were just pilots looking for work. However we had some great conversations with some great pilots, many of whom still may be of assistance to us in the future.
Sometimes you never know who might apply. Some people are also on here as genuine 'chopper lovers' who would love to make a career out of loading and can't or don't want to fly for many reasons.

In a heavily regulated industry, I am sure you can understand what needs to go into getting any staff member ready and fit for work.
Sometimes is runs thin, paying for a staff member to become fully certified for their job, including their Heavy Vehicle Licence, a DG Licence, a Bobcat Licence, Spraysafe, First Aid and more, to then have them leave because they decide "AG actually isn't for them", "its too much hard work than they thought it would be", or bugger off elsewhere to do their rating because they "can get a loan and go mustering" or even leave the country.

While on top of this when you don't operate piston aircraft, the horrific extra charges the insurance companies are charging now, it isn't worth it anymore. To allow a low hour pilot to only ferry turbine machines, costing upwards of an EXTRA $10,000.00 a year on insurance, (and we already sit in a position paying extra for our current lower hour pilot, whom we did give a leg up and a gave a chance to get going, giving him his ag rating and flying job) but with no guarantee of longterm commitment.

We pay pilots and loaders the award for the industry, no carrot dangling or 'scraps' off the floor. If people work hard and show they deserve it, then they should be paid for it. (Something that many operators don't understand, it does also lead to staff retention.)

Working your way up from the bottom is the way it should be in AG, however, but paid in the correct manner. These days, most, not all, but most young people have a sense of entitlement to everything they do, just because you can pass a pilot exam, doesn't mean you have the hands or feet for it.
Pilots will have no sense of how hard the job is, how hard the work is or how challenging dealing with chemicals, customers and environmental conditions are unless they have done the ground work to experience it all. Pilots need to have a mutual respect for their loaders, to ensure everyones safety but also understand how hard the loader works for them, they are a team at the end of the day.

Yes, the industry is missing a beat for new pilots, insurance is definitely a major factor in this now with premiums at all time highs. But as an AG operator, when there are so many rules, regulations, massive internal industry flaws, bad operators, cowboy pilots, and an industry so reliant of the bloody weather, its hard enough to make a dollar sometimes as is it. Maybe they should put that in the first page of the theory reading and see how many people want to stick around!

[agchopper]

If your management style and treatment of staff reflects this disrespectful, demeaning and self serving rant it might be worth while engaging your company in a quality control audit to assist in identifying the numerous issues clearly stated. As it reads, your company are clearly difficult to work for and struggle to keep people on board. As the saying goes ‘it only takes one bad apple to rot the barrel’. Perhaps that apple is you?

Stuart Hall

[County]

Certainly not a disrespectful, demeaning and self serving rant Rotors 100. Truth hurts a lot of folk these day.

[Agbandit]

Pretty rough taking aim at staff (past or present) in a public forum though isn’t it?

[AS350Driver]

I back County and Rotors100 on this. Good comments.
Newly minted pilots have the advantage of some knowledge of what’s going on with the working pilot. But they always state “I know this is not a flying job” to get the job. But after a wee while become dissatisfied as they are not getting enough flying. Eventually you get over this cycle and just employ crew on the ground with other skills they bring to the job.

[Rotorpilot]

viewtopic.php?t=14265

[Bee3]

I would happily work for him. Sounds like an honest straight up operator.