I have come across quite a few low-hours fixed wing pilots when roaming around the country side. Young blokes (it’s more than 99% blokes) from cities who’ve ended up in the bush flying fixed-wing aircraft, usually single-engine Cessnas; doing fence and bore runs, store runs, and ferry work etc on cattle stations. These pilots are usually like a fish out of water. They are out in the dust and heat only until the very minute they’ve racked up the bare minimum requirement of hours to clear off and don a fancy uniform, working as a glorified bus driver for a large airline. Recently, Cathay Pacific seems to be the employer most aspire to work for. Next time you fly overseas, bear in mind that the pilot may well be someone who racked up their first thousand hours flying over turkey nests on the Barkly Tableland, in a ‘Toyota of the sky’ – a single engine Cessna.
By contrast, helicopter mustering pilots usually like flying the machine they’re in (most often, an R22), like the sort of people they are around, and these days they all have on-ground cattle station experience; in fact many grew up on the land. These blokes fit into their surroundings and they speak the same language. And they are in the aerial mustering business for sufficient time to become very good at what they do. In fact many mustering pilots are more familiar with the local climate, landscape and specific behaviour and habits of the cattle on the stations they muster on, than those living on the station. Because the pilot has often lived in the region for a longer period of time than the station residents, from the manager down.
Maria Langer’s website has a helicopter job market discussion that began in 2007 but has continued on, because it is so topical. And most aviation information sources (magazines, books, websites etc) focus on the fixed-wing side of aviation, not helicopters. So websites featuring helicopter information aren’t all that common; other than those run by flight training businesses, who of course are mostly going to tell prospective customers (trainee pilots) what they want to hear, rather than reality. Whereas Maria calls a spade a shovel – which is of course ultimately far more helpful.
I’ve often heard it quoted that there are around 1,000 pilot jobs in Australia but about 10,000 pilots. No doubt these figures were just dreamt up by someone who exaggerated wildly to get the message across about the overabundance. However there is no doubt that it’s tough finding the work to get the hours up, once all the cash has been coughed up to obtain a pilots licence. Just as there are far too many art school graduates and would-be photographers around; life as a pilot seems to conjure up romantic visions of an easy, fun-filled, over-paid travel job, with prestige to boot; thus attracting an overabundance of aspirants.
At least it takes many tens of thousands of dollars to get a pilots licence – if this were not the case, there would be many more unemployed, disillusioned pilots around. The upfront cost weeds out anyone who is not sufficiently keen to start with. There’s a comment from someone on Maria’s blog, along the lines of: ‘I don’t like to discourage anyone from following their dream’. I actually believe it doesn’t do anyone a favour to encourage them to believe in something that is difficult or even impossible to achieve, due to circumstances beyond their control – which may be the job market or aspects of their personality. Would the world be a better place if everyone told their kids that yes they could grow up to be an astronaut or a famous pop star? Or would we just be encouraging them to set themselves up for years squandered in frustration and depression? I think its far better to spell the facts out. Because in reality, a good dose of actual facts doesn’t actually deter those who are most determined at all – they will stick with their dream anyway. Realistic assessment of the difficulties and obstacles, only deters those who don’t have the grit to see it through to the end anyway. For every successful pilot, actor and photographer, there are scores of disappointed – and sometimes very bitter – people who never made it. A lot of them would have been much happier and financially better off if they’d headed in another direction from the start. Those who make it in highly competitive careers are those born with a thread of determination running through them that is like a thread of steel. And it’s not a matter of them choosing whether or not to pursue their particular career – it’s more that they can’t stay away from it. Usually it is something they’ve wanted to do since they were very young, and nothing else has been considered (although they may have initially headed into a career they perceived to be financially more secure or ‘sensible’, before trying what they always wanted to do).
Interestingly, though Maria Langer is American, the magazine that she says is the best helicopter-specific publication, is Australia’s Heli-News.
I don’t know why, but I most admit most of the pilots I have met over the years have spiders in their pockets (short arms & long pockets). Maybe it’s because spendthrifts are unable to save up sufficient money to obtain their pilots licence. But I very much doubt that a large percentage of working pilots buy industry magazines.
Tags: Rural jobs