When I was chief pilot I was approached by one of the pilots who worked for the 702 I was with about the pay structure at the company we worked for. I told him we could do something about it and still be fair to all involved. Well needless to say it got pretty heated around there and guess who the f...

Quote: "Then one sun-shiny day, he has an interview where he gets an 'opportunity' to fly jumpers for free (with 10 eager young men in the waiting room, hoping he blows his chance)." Response: Nothing can be done about low but still legal pay. However, as previously pointed out, drop zones are requ...

You are getting less than minimum wage. Take notes of how many hours you worked there and how much you got and take the cheap bastard to court! Is this a certain DZ north of the GTA that always has an ad for pilots in the COPA? Yes there are a lot of days that work out to less then minimum wage and...

yes Diver Driver. It was $85/day plus $8/load DZ:#2 So you were getting an $85 per diem and $8 a load which means you were out there for the day and if the weather was bad or you did not have jumper commitment on any particular day you were making less then minimum wage. Any money made packing is j...

Update!!! After the end of our season the pilots got together and voted on what we were going to charge the DZ for this season: -$25 a day to be on-call -$15 an hour to be on site and flying -time and a half for anything over eight hours They don't want the pilots to be "employees" so we decided to ...

Ok, I have worked for 3 different DZs in the past and here were my 3 different pay scales: DZ #1: summer contract April 15- Sept. 30 $2000/month room and board provided $1000 year end bonus +$10/tandem pack job (they trained me to pack so i could pick up some extra cash) Total flight hrs at end of ...

FlowPack, that is a nice story but how do we fix it?

You know I expected this response from the DZ, but what really did us in was you guessed it one of our own !@#$ pilots. You are not happy with the new deal? To me, this is much better than what you were getting. Am I missing something? its time to stop letting entry level companies screw the low ti...

Hey Cat I don't think Mustang06 meant anything bad by "we". I hope he is saying its time to stop letting entry level companies screw the low time pilot. He is right if that is what he is saying. I did some research on other drop zones and found some that pay as much as $20/load nothing under $10/loa...

Well here is what has gone down at our DZ. This motion was voted on and passed by the DZ members The Motion The BOD makes the motion that the pilot pay for the 2009 year be increased from $5.00 a load to $7.00 a load, and the pilots be paid a mileage rate for travel to and from the dropzone based on...

consider this approach/ season is MAY 15/TO SEPT 15/ employer offers to pay xxx amount / you accept/ here is the difference he agrees to put xxx amount for the season into a escrow account to be drawn down monthly there by he gets your services for the full season and you get fully paid. this is th...

Couple of quick questions and comments, 1: if the pay is not what you expected why can't you just find a job elsewhere? 2: Is this a privately owend skydive outfit or a non profit? 3: Is flying your chosen career or just a hobby? Which goes back to the first question. I guess I am wondering if you ...

Guys, Slow down. I am sure there are some good and some bad DZ's all over. Problem is industry standard for pilot pay has been bad for a long time at all of them. The pilot compensation issue is just as much our fault a theirs. By the way the DZ we fly at is one of the good ones. They don't compromi...

[quote="mag check"]If you aren't on contract, and you say you are using the term employee "loosely", then what are you? [quote] :smt014 :smt040 Thanks again for all the posts. As I said earlier, what we presented to the DZ seems to be inline with most of the advice on this thread. Even you mag check...

Ok, so I would take that to mean that you are NOT an employee, ie: the employer is NOT taking taxes and cpp and such when you are paid. This would make you a self employed contractor in the eyes of the law, and would require YOU to be responsible for all your income tax obligations. This would also...

[quote="mag check"] Ok, let me try a different way, are you an employee, or are you a pilot on contract to them? If you are an employee, then by all means, demand at least minimum wage. If you are contracting to them, then "suck it up buttercup". quote] It does't matter either way. But if I were a "...

Are you kidding? So you are saying that a dz that would now have to pay their pilot in accordance with some grand scale based on what a pilot is "worth" won't affect their bottom line, and more than likely push them out of business? AC seems to think that their pilots are "worth" about $150000 per ...

Good post. Let's say you run a gas station and you need a weekend pump jockey. You get a 32 year old married man with 2 kids and he says he needs $20/hour to support his family. Then a 16 year old student comes along who says he'll work for free on the weekends because he loves to be around cars. W...

Like I've said before and I'm sure I will say again, unions exist to protect pilots from each other, because they are their own worst enemies. If pilots refused to work for free, operators would have to pay a reasonable wage. If you want to know who the problem is, look in the mirror. This is so tr...

Cat Driver wrote:Are there restraints for each jumper such as seat belts or single point restraints?

Yes

Giveitago,

I have sent you a pm. Looking forward to what you have to say.

OK Guys, Lots of discussion but we are starting to digress. Our proposal seems to be pretty close to the discussion going on. This tells me that we are not asking for anything unreasonable. If anybody has anything new to add great but it looks like most everyone is pretty much on the same page. I wi...

185, 182, 206's are not going to carry enough, and I've never seen one do 3 trips to altitude an hour. :smt040 Altitude for first jump students is between 3000 to 3500 AGL. A 182 or 206 can easily do a load in under 20 minutes (airframe time). It can be done, I am not talking total time or downtime...

Four jumpers per load and three loads per hour is $405.00 per hour for a 182 or a 206. I'm thinking that that is a better hourly rate than a school would be able to get for the same type of airplane. If most of the people who are operating the jump club are volunteers there should be room in that i...

I'm a bit confused. If you have only jumpers who are regular jumpers they pay $45.00 each? How many jumpers do you carry in a load? We take a maximum of 4 jumpers in a load whether its 4 regulars, jumpmaster with 3 students or two tandems at the same time. The way I understand it is $45 a jump stil...