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Zip Aviation / Manhattan Helicopters Info Wanted


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Hey, looking for people with direct info about these guys. Hours required to get hired, average pay, when the hiring typically happens, work environment, maintenance, etc. I'll take all the info I can get, the good, the bad, and the...................You can also PM me if you'd like. Thanks!

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I could be wrong but I think Manhattan and Zip are pretty much the same company. There are 4companies that fly tours in NYC and they are Helicopter Flight Services (HFS) Liberty, New York and Zip. The pay is pretty much the same for all three plus some small differences from overtime or other bonuses and you can expect the base pay to be between 40 and 45/year.

 

Liberty has As350s, HFS and Zip have 206s and 407s and New York has 206s. All tours in the area are almost identicle for all the companies so your biggest difference between them are the ships they use and that HSF and Liberty also do charter and commuter flights as well.

Just like all tour operations, a majority of hiring is done in February so there is plenty of time to train guys before it gets busy through the summer, but like any other job, there are guys leaving mid season for other jobs so hiring can be anytime, however anyone hired mid season to fill an opening will probably need better credentials than those hired in February.

 

These operators really like guys with experience in the New York airspace since it can be a whole lot more difficult and busy than airspaces most people are used to.

 

Liberty and HFS are Tops Operators so they should have pretty good maintenance but I don't know about the other two. All of the companies have been operating for numerous years so I imagine the maintenance should be somewhat dependable.

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Thanks for the great info! So far what you've told me is on par with what I've heard, always a good sign. Reading my title, it does look a little like I'm asking about two companies. I was trying to state it as though Zip / Manhattan are the same people, which they are. Thanks again!

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I don't have first hand info about Zip, but I work alongside them in New York, and their pilots are very friendly and professional. Their helicopters are pretty new and sleek and from what I've seen firsthand and heard, they seem like a company I would recommend to anyone

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Thanks again for the great info. My wife and I went to NYC last year to celebrate getting my CFI. We took a tour with Zip while we were there and were impressed. Seemed like a place I could be happy at for a while. Since you said you work alongside them, I have to ask. Where do people tend to live while working there? Rent a room? New Jersey?

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All of the helicopter operators are based in New Jersey which is cheaper than trying to live in NYC. Many pilots still shack up together to save on rent since rent is still pretty absurd unless youre willing to live in a really bad neighborhood. If you absolutely want your own apartment in a fair or good neighborhood you're looking at around 8-900 per month for a single room.

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8-900/mo. for a 1 bedroom in a good neighborhood? Holly crap that's cheap!!! I haven't seen rent that low in almost 15 years!

I think he meant just renting a room, not a whole apartment.

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It depends on what you are used to. It would probably be exciting to live there at first if you haven't experienced that kind of place before. However, cost of living in NJ is expensive and the burbs area near NYC is the part of the state that gives NJ such a bad reputation. It smells, traffic is terrible, cars get stolen, rude people. However, the pizza and food in general is fantastic. There are a lot of small crowded towns so there can be a big difference from one to another even though they are just a few miles apart. I know some people that have flown for liberty and it seems like a good job. They are busy. Varied kind of flying with a lot of charters instead of only doing tours. They said the money was good despite the high cost of living.

 

If it's a tops company then you need 1000 pic, plus 135 minimums

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, this might cause a problem for the tour operators out there:

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/exclusive-city-drafting-bill-ban-helicopter-tours-article-1.2284878

 

Apparently, the city is considering banning helicopter tours in NYC. I was there for 9 days, and went on a tour with Zip (very impressed). I tell you that with all of the other noise in NYC, you don't even know there are helicopters in the air. They don't fly late into the evening or early in the morning either.

 

I believe they have tried this in the past as well. Does anyone think there is a chance the tour operators could get shut down?

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There have been numerous complaints over the years about noise, and every time the tour operators adjust their routes or altitudes to try to stay in good faith with the people on the ground. The article says that they're planning on writing something up, so I imagine that worst case scenario, it would still take over a year to go through all the stages of voting, appealing and arguing and any other red tape before anything really happened.

 

At the end of the day, the tours are at 1500 and 2000 feet agl and not flying over the land and anyone complaining about noise doesn't have much of leg to stand on when you add in the jobs it creates and the money it brings in. I figure it's just an empty grab to win votes in some upcoming election.

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Thanks for the response, very logical in my opinion. When I was there I knew how many tours there were, and it is a content flow. But I had to remind myself to look up and check them out once in a while, you literally don't even know they are there.

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