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Float pilot pay

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:24 pm
by Invertago
Just hoping some people could chime in with different examples of float pilot pay. Please post the region and aircraft type thanks!

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:17 pm
by Reecered
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Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 7:19 am
by goingnowherefast
Wow, I was doing better than that 8 years ago on a 180. I thought there was a pilot shortage, guess not.

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 3:05 pm
by MrTurbine
Reecered wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 7:17 pm C185 2500 per month. Northern Manitoba.

Terrible, especially for a float driver in that part of the country. Double that would make sense.

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 4:18 pm
by goingnowherefast
Reecered, sounds like you need to start job searching, more money to be made elsewhere. Let's help him out everybody, where would a low-ish time float pilot find a good job?

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:08 pm
by FishermanIvan
I'm making a bit more than that in the same part of the country. I also have zero camp work to do; all I do is fly and help load the Otter when I'm around.

I also get real days off, and they've been good about letting me go for vacation.

If you guys know of any of these mythical $5000 a month, 500TT/250float, C185 jobs, let's hear it lol.

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:21 pm
by Reecered
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Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 8:22 pm
by FishermanIvan
We had a hell of a time finding a dockhand this year....

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 9:01 pm
by waterdog
The best job I've seen posted so far was in Fiji flying a beaver. It paid 100k Canadian per year and you needed 500hrs on a Beaver to qualify. A friend of a friend was coming home after a couple year stint, hence the opening. It was apparently a great place to work, ferrying tourists around to the islands.

Lots of jobs for float flying posted over the last year but the pay is never included so its hard to know.

K

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 11:31 pm
by bring me the horizon
2015: Super cub/180 in NWO living at camp w/food, accommodations and the occasional evening fishing trip in one of the tinners = $3000/month
2016: 185/Beaver in South eastern MB w/accommodations, the odd fishing trip to an outpost and a decent afterwork lifestyle in town = $3500/$4500 month

It's not always how much you make, it's the lifestyle that comes with it :D

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:45 am
by Floatinghog
Am doing 16000USD/mnth with Maldivian (IASL) in Maldives - skipper on a floating Hog!

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:40 pm
by FishermanIvan
Floatinghog wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:45 am Am doing 16000USD/mnth with Maldivian (IASL) in Maldives - skipper on a floating Hog!
HOWWWW DO I GET TO THE MALDIVES TO FLY?!?

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:59 pm
by Cat Driver
Am doing 16000USD/mnth with Maldivian (IASL) in Maldives - skipper on a floating Hog!
You are making almost 200,000 Canadian flying a sea plane?

And what is a floating hog?

Is it a Twin Otter on floats?

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:48 pm
by TheRealMcCoy
$5000 a month on a DHC2 with accommodations in northern Ontario in a decent town. First solo float gig, got to skip the 185 thang.
Floatinghog wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:45 am Am doing 16000USD/mnth with Maldivian (IASL) in Maldives - skipper on a floating Hog!
Heard those days were long gone? My DHC6 captain who used to be down there was doing $10,000 USD a month.

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:12 am
by WNFB802
DHC2 - $275/Day
DHC3T - $350/Day
Food/Accom provided
NWO

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 11:28 am
by phillyfan
Nobody is making $100000 Cdn flying Beavers in Fiji.

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 11:31 am
by TheRealMcCoy
WNFB802 wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:12 am DHC2 - $275/Day
DHC3T - $350/Day
Food/Accom provided
NWO
It's a fucked up world when I used to make $600/day in the patch flicking switches on a pump rig...

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2018 3:56 pm
by C.W.E.
It's a fucked up world when I used to make $600/day in the patch flicking switches on a pump rig...
Maybe it is because neither job requires all that much skill to do and flying attracts those who see it as exciting switch flicking? :mrgreen:

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 5:22 am
by WNFB802
TheRealMcCoy wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 11:31 am
WNFB802 wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:12 am DHC2 - $275/Day
DHC3T - $350/Day
Food/Accom provided
NWO
It's a fucked up world when I used to make $600/day in the patch flicking switches on a pump rig...
We were salary but changed to a daily rate. For the beaver, if they want to work 20 days out of the month, that's $5500. 25 is $6875. And the days off aren't sitting around base. Go home see your wife/gf/bf yada yada. We think it's pretty fair. Not sure why you'd compare flying to working in the oil sands....

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 5:21 pm
by trey kule
I’ll second that Fiji salary. Maybe 70k Fiji dollars.

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 1:37 am
by Floatinghog
TheRealMcCoy wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 6:48 pm
Floatinghog wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 12:45 am Am doing 16000USD/mnth with Maldivian (IASL) in Maldives - skipper on a floating Hog!
Heard those days were long gone? My DHC6 captain who used to be down there was doing $10,000 USD a month.
Ya heard wrong bubba - high time float drivers can name their rate - 16k/mnth is all in no extras - that covers txts in/out and accomodation after all that is paid I’m saving about 12-13k/mnth balls to the wall flying, after a season I’m done, need a few weeks off in Thailand to get all caught up on pussy and booze before heading back up north for the fishing season.
Hog

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 1:41 am
by Floatinghog
Cat Driver wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 3:59 pm
Am doing 16000USD/mnth with Maldivian (IASL) in Maldives - skipper on a floating Hog!
You are making almost 200,000 Canadian flying a sea plane?

And what is a floating hog?

Is it a Twin Otter on floats?
Howdy Cat, not doing the whole year - just the winter season 5 to 5.5 months long. Ya, Floating Hog is a Hog on floats, was CAPs earlire now Wips - we luv to call our DHC-6s Hogs... best ship out there for what we do... the 16k/mnth is all in incld. Accoms and txts in/out - after all said and done prob about 12-13k/mnth take home and 110hours a mnth there are a few other things guaranteed in life other then just taxes and death... 110 a month on the Hog is hard but fun work!
Hog

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 9:57 am
by C.W.E.
That sounds like a good job with lots of time off.

It has been a long time since I flew them but I do recall they were real manoeuvrable on the water, the first flying I did with them was in the mid seventies with Air West Airlines in Vancouver.

I sort of got roped into the job through a friend of mine who asked me if I would spent the winter as their chief pilot so I decided to do it and it was interesting except for the boredom of flying the same old trips over and over.

They had six Twin Otters and two Turbo Goose's that were anything but boring to operate. :mrgreen:

And of course there were the single engine machines they used all around this area.

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 2:54 pm
by letmedrive
Beaver driver in Atlin, BC was making $12,000/month with Tintina Air this season.

Challenging flying though, deserving of 12k a month I'd say.

Re: Float pilot pay

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 8:25 pm
by VintageAviator
How much float time does it take these days to make a wage worth a dam?

A Season on a 185, or more like 5...