Rex to look overseas for pilots trainers and maintainers

[mnewbery]

http://www.australianflying.com.au/latest/rex-to-search-overseas-for-pilots-and-instructors

 

...sounds like nobody learned from what QANTAS went through in August 2008. Skills shortage Visa laws and lists haven't changed since then.

 

Before @fly_tornado chimes in about having mates in the right places, this is John Sharp we are talking about. You don't get more well connected than that

 

 

[facthunter]

The biddings pretty high so they won't come cheap. They will only get people who can't qualify for the bigger stuff, and when they can they will jump ship for bigger pay/ bigger planes. Nev

 

 

[dlegg]

Pilot shortage? Is there any pilot jobs available anywhere thats not with the airlines? I just don't see the traditional small charter operators any more. Where would a new CPL with low hrs even get a job flying a small twin etc....

 

 

[mnewbery]

Where would a new CPL with low hrs even get a job flying a small twin etc....

 

Local instructors where I am are either semi-retired or flat out busy. One works weekends only but he is a long haul pilot so he could be away for long periods.

 

When the un-flyable weather comes, a log-jam of people trying to catch up on missed lessons is what follows. I wanted to do casual lessons recently and it was a three week wait. It could have been a lot longer. Christmas is coming up so instructors will most likely go on holidays for a bit. Plus it's very hot and very bumpy over Christmas typically.

 

This isn't a criticism, it's an opportunity. The work is there but not advertised and pilots who hope to do the work in an expectation of moving up to bigger hardware typically need to bring a lot more to the job than they will ever get paid for. The company owners know an hour in a new pilots log book is worth a lot more to the pilot than they will pay the pilot and act accordingly. It doesn't stink, it's the free market in operation (till the market doesn't operate)

 

There are plenty of places where you can fly a light twin or something like a C206. It's just that none of them are within a day's drive of decent coffee (plus a bunch of other unattractive stuff about those jobs)

 

Most of the C208s used for skydiving on the east coast are owned by the same company. 

 

I think someone is chucking meat bombs out of a Bandierante somewhere near Canberra.

 

Crop dusting pilots are all getting old and crusty but the work is seasonal.

 

Glider towing might suit.

 

Over on PPRUNE there are many examples of people moaning about loading up on debt then getting paid less than a living wage for commercial flying. At the same time there are loads more chucking poo at the moaners for comparing their remuneration to that of a roadside worker.

 

So be it. Rex aren't the only show in town. I just wish airline owners stopped acting like they were all a monopoly. AIPA went head to head with QANTAS which resulted in a company lockout. Virgin said "Hey cool, come work with us if you are that unhappy. We pay a LOT less than QANTAS and our pilots aren't complaining"

 

Is this where it's heading?

 

 

[Student Pilot]

Over on PPRUNE there are many examples of people moaning about loading up on debt then getting paid less than a living wage for commercial flying. At the same time there are loads more chucking poo at the moaners for comparing their remuneration to that of a roadside worker.

 

So be it. Rex aren't the only show in town. I just wish airline owners stopped acting like they were all a monopoly. AIPA went head to head with QANTAS which resulted in a company lockout. Virgin said "Hey cool, come work with us if you are that unhappy. We pay a LOT less than QANTAS and our pilots aren't complaining"

 

Is this where it's heading?

 

To the bottom, the gloss has well and truely worn off.

 

Pay and conditions are still going down in this country. With the recent change in work Visa's there are more foreign pilots being employed when locals are unemployed. 

It's not just aviation, wages have been stagnant for over 30 years, the bulk of Australians are worse off.

 

 

[Litespeed]

But fellas there is a massive skill shortage. Just ask any business, they try and get staff but Aussies want to be paid and have those commie things like work rights.

 

So we fill up on  often low skilled, underpaid visa staff or do one better like Jetstar and claim the flight is a international sector flight. So use massively underpaid cabin staff from Asia on Asian rates but working on local routes.

 

Australia, the lucky country one day, and a morally bankrupt tax avoider the next.

 

 

[facthunter]

 How do you compete with people who don't pay the correct rates? Some specialist coffee shop brand tried to do it by the rules in Melbourne and went broke. Low paid workers spend ALL of their income. Starve that section of the economy of money and you will get a recession. Isn't that what's happening NOW? Restaurants pay such low rates their staff could never eat out. Nev

 

 

[turboplanner]

 How do you compete with people who don't pay the correct rates? Some specialist coffee shop brand tried to do it by the rules in Melbourne and went broke. Low paid workers spend ALL of their income. Starve that section of the economy of money and you will get a recession. Isn't that what's happening NOW? Restaurants pay such low rates their staff could never eat out. Nev

 

What was its name?

 

 

[Litespeed]

Or the most expensive restaurants  ripping of millions in wages and then claiming the laws are unfair, too hard to read and understand.  So justify stealing from wage earners.

 

But it is not theft. Just good business practice.

 

Steal $50 go to jail.

 

Steal $5 million, blame the greedy staff you steal from and the unfairness of system, get away with it.

 

 

[mnewbery]

http://www.australianflying.com.au/the-last-minute-hitch/the-last-minute-hitch-15-november-2019

 

Are we seeing the first burning signs of aviation's very own climate change? Regional Express this week announced they had been given permission to import pilots, instructors and engineers ... and this is an airline that has its own academy! Surely if you want more pilots, you simply expand your academy and make more places open to students? Well, no, the problem isn't a lack of students. Students get nowhere without instructors, and that is where the real shortage lies. New regulations introduced with Part 61 and the impact of FEE-HELP positions at schools have had a beaver-dam affect on the flow of new instructors into the industry. Before the government-funded short-cut to airlines was introduced, new CPLs got themselves an instructor's rating (IR) and spent time teaching in schools, building hours whilst they waited on their chance to impress the airline recruiters. That's not the way it happens any more; those CPLs are going straight to the airlines without passing through the GA stream first. 

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/the-last-minute-hitch/the-last-minute-hitch-15-november-2019