rotorhead86 Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Looking to move to the NYC area in the near future, I will have 1300-1500 hrs, I'm a part 135 CFII, and I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on somewhere that I would be qualified for. I have some turbine time, about 30 hrs, and a lot of tour, flight instruction, photo/filming experience, and 135 charter work. Any ideas would be Appreciated!Kole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trans Lift Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Should be easy enough to get a tour job with those hours. You would want to be sending resumes out now. Look up every tour company (New York helicopters, Zip aviation, Helicopter flight services, Liberty, etc) and contact them all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorhead86 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Right on, thanks! Yea I'm planning on getting in touch this week. Mostly curious if they were 2000 hr and 100-200 turbine type of companies or not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorhead86 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 Also curious if anyone knows of any smaller heli ops in the NYC/ Long Island area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trans Lift Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 NY Helicopters and Liberty should hire at about your hour mark. Helicopter flight services usually wants more from what I've heard. Not sure about Zip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Hughes Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 NY Helicopters and Liberty should hire at about your hour mark. Helicopter flight services usually wants more from what I've heard. Not sure about Zip. What Trans said, but about 2-3 years ago HFS went off their usual higher hiring minimums and took on a few non turbine guys. They may still be doing that. It's not a bad company to work for, I still have friends there and they're happy. Liberty just laid off 3 pilots for a few months until it gets busy again. They have a habit of doing that. You might have a chance of hiring on there, if some of the lay offs end up with employment elsewhere before Liberty take them back on the payroll. I worked for them, and it was pretty ok for the most part. It's going to be difficult to get hired by any of them without either local area experience(River time), or turbine time, but it is possible. Only work for New York Helicopters if you absolutely positively need to buy food or some life saving medication without which you would die a horrible and painful death. Living off food stamps and in a cardboard box, or even flight instructing for another 20 years would be preferable to working there, for that guy. I've seen first hand how he treats and talks about his pilots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BH206L3 Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 New York Helicopters, he is a scumbag, and I don't talk about employers in this matter ever. You don't want to go there. I don't know why you would even consider the Area to begin with. The pay is not good, and you living costs are well thru the roof. Its to crowded, I would think Alaska or the Canyon would be a better bet for the first turbine job. I am from the North East and I don't even bother with NYC, heck the Gulf is a way better deal and working conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorhead86 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I actually forgot to mention that my first job out of flight school was with boat pix/helicopter academy, so I spent 7 months based out of linden airport flying all around the region doing photography, and flight instruction. It's been a couple years since I've flown there, but I do have a fair amount of experience dealing with JFK, la guardia, Newark, etc. would that be considered "river time"? Btw, thanks for the heads up about New York Helicopters... And for the advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorhead86 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 New York Helicopters, he is a scumbag, and I don't talk about employers in this matter ever. You don't want to go there. I don't know why you would even consider the Area to begin with. The pay is not good, and you living costs are well thru the roof. Its to crowded, I would think Alaska or the Canyon would be a better bet for the first turbine job. I am from the North East and I don't even bother with NYC, heck the Gulf is a way better deal and working conditions. My wife is done with medical school, and her choices for residency aren't great from a helicopter perspective... So far, NYC is the best bet with the experience that I have. Other option is spending a summer apart and doing a season of Alaska tours... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Hughes Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 New York Helicopters, he is a scumbag, and I don't talk about employers in this matter ever. You don't want to go there. While I wouldn't normally use such strong language to describe an employer online, due to this being such a small community, I can safely say that BH206L3 is fairly accurate in his description of the owner of NYH. Actually I'd say he's not even as useful as a Scumbag. A better description might be to compare him to the stuff that drips out of the bottom of the bag!!!  I am from the North East and I don't even bother with NYC, heck the Gulf is a way better deal and working conditions. I agree that the Gulf has better working conditions than most entry level turbine jobs in NYC. However, my time there was good experience, it just wasn't A good experience. If you can handle NYC airspace, you can handle pretty much any airspace. Monitoring and talking on up to 3 frequencies at once, while giving a narrated tour of NYC, and dodging airplanes in the exclusion is quite the experience. I'm definitely glad I did it, and I've made some good friends out of it too. I actually forgot to mention that my first job out of flight school was with boat pix/helicopter academy, so I spent 7 months based out of linden airport flying all around the region doing photography, and flight instruction. It's been a couple years since I've flown there, but I do have a fair amount of experience dealing with JFK, la guardia, Newark, etc. would that be considered "river time"? Btw, thanks for the heads up about New York Helicopters... And for the advice. So you used to park right next to NYH there at Linden. The "River Time" description is a loose way of describing time spent operating in those 3 airspaces, while also bouncing in and out of the Hudson River Exclusion. Having worked for BoatPix, I'm sure you have plenty of time out on Long Island also(I remember seeing them out there a few times), which is a nice selling point for all the operators in NYC, as a huge chunk of their work during the summer months is charter flights out to East Hampton, and the other surrounding airports and helipads. Put that on your resume, along side where you note your local area experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Hughes Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 My wife is done with medical school, and her choices for residency aren't great from a helicopter perspective... So far, NYC is the best bet with the experience that I have. Other option is spending a summer apart and doing a season of Alaska tours... From a point of view of trying to maintain a marriage, I'd say NYC would be a better option than Alaska. Expect to be living pretty frugally though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle5 Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 I actually forgot to mention that my first job out of flight school was with boat pix/helicopter academy, so I spent 7 months based out of linden airport flying all around the region doing photography, and flight instruction. It's been a couple years since I've flown there, but I do have a fair amount of experience dealing with JFK, la guardia, Newark, etc. would that be considered "river time"? Btw, thanks for the heads up about New York Helicopters... And for the advice. Boatpix huh? So, how many hours did you get from that job? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorhead86 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2013   Boatpix huh? So, how many hours did you get from that job?  I got enough... The hours they took u to when I was doing it were more than it is now, by quite a bit from what I understand. Got me to the next job though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorhead86 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2013  So you used to park right next to NYH there at Linden. The "River Time" description is a loose way of describing time spent operating in those 3 airspaces, while also bouncing in and out of the Hudson River Exclusion. Having worked for BoatPix, I'm sure you have plenty of time out on Long Island also(I remember seeing them out there a few times), which is a nice selling point for all the operators in NYC, as a huge chunk of their work during the summer months is charter flights out to East Hampton, and the other surrounding airports and helipads. Put that on your resume, along side where you note your local area experience. Yea I did... I used to talk to pilots every now and then. Yea I spent a lot of time in the Long Island area and east Hampton. Good to now about "river time" so I know what they are referring to when I get an interview somewhere *fingers crossed* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trans Lift Posted January 17, 2013 Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 I have heard similar about the NYH guy but I have also had three friends that worked there and they did fine. Money wasn't awful bad but they spent a lot of hours in the aircraft. They all used it to build turbine time and move on. If it was all you could get, take it and move onto a better operator when you get your time in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vindicated0721 Posted January 17, 2013 Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 Just a heads up if you plan on staying in the NYC area for a while. A lot of the companies here will not take pilots directly from another company in the area that flies tours in the river. (i.e. Liberty, NY Heli, Zip) So keep that in mind when you are making your decision. There are other companies in the area you could potentially move on to when you reach the required hours that fly larger ships. If you are staying in NYC for the long term though, which ever company you choose at first, I would plan on being with them for a little while. I work in the river for one of those companies and a lot of my friends work for the other companies. The money is about the same across the board. There are some benefits to some companies over the other. But mostly everyone I know gets by fine and overall enjoys it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorhead86 Posted January 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Just a heads up if you plan on staying in the NYC area for a while. A lot of the companies here will not take pilots directly from another company in the area that flies tours in the river. (i.e. Liberty, NY Heli, Zip) So keep that in mind when you are making your decision. There are other companies in the area you could potentially move on to when you reach the required hours that fly larger ships. If you are staying in NYC for the long term though, which ever company you choose at first, I would plan on being with them for a little while. I work in the river for one of those companies and a lot of my friends work for the other companies. The money is about the same across the board. There are some benefits to some companies over the other. But mostly everyone I know gets by fine and overall enjoys it.  What kind of pay is it there? I figured starting around $40,000? Is it based on flight hours or on salary? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vindicated0721 Posted January 18, 2013 Report Share Posted January 18, 2013 Yep. That's just about right. It' salary. You can make a decent amount of money working OT on top of your base pay though during the summer time when it is busy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotorhead86 Posted January 19, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2013 Yep. That's just about right. It' salary. You can make a decent amount of money working OT on top of your base pay though during the summer time when it is busy. What is the schedule like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Hughes Posted January 21, 2013 Report Share Posted January 21, 2013 Liberty was 4 days on, 4 days off. I think it still is. Plan on working a lot more than that during the summer though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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