Our flight school went through a period of hiring Norwegian citizens as helicopter instructors. These guys went through a rigorous training program here in the U.S. and then had the right to work for 12-18 months as “practical training.” After that, the U.S. immigration bureaucracy worked aggressively to push these skilled English-fluent workers out of our country in favor of more folks such as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his family.
I caught up with one of these alumni recently and found out that he was flying the magnificent Sikorsky S-92 helicopter out to offshore oil rigs. At the current exchange rate, which is much less favorable for Norwegians than previously, a first officer earns about $100,000 per year and a captain $150,000 per year. They work 14 days on, 14 days off. The “on” days consist of flying 6-8 hours while the off days can be spent in Oslo or anywhere else in the world. Housing near the base costs about $750 per month and is the responsibility of the pilot. Commercial 45-minute flights to or from Oslo cost about $100 (another $200 per month).
I learned that finding the offshore rig is not the idiot-proof process that one would imagine. Instead of a GPS-guided approach down to the helipad the pilots look for the rigs using the S-92’s weather radar. If they can’t identify the rig visually within 0.75 nautical miles then it is time for a missed approach. Many offshore rigs have a similar appearance and are clustered together. Therefore it is not uncommon for a helicopter to land on the wrong rig.
Related:
Phil,
How much were these pilots making while working for your school? The reason for asking is understanding why they came to America. I assume for helicopter time-building?
Is there some good reason that they eschew the reliability and accuracy of GPS? Given the low price of an iPad, foreflight, and an external GPS antenna, it would seem to be a no brainer, even if just used as a backup / alternate means of identifying the correct rig.
Anon: We pay the Massachusetts minimum wage to junior flight instructors. As you note, they came here so that they could get training at 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of training in Europe and then stayed as CFIs to build hours. A market-clearing wage for them would be $0 or even negative (we provide Robinson R44s for them to fly and superb maintenance, so even if they were paid nothing it would probably be considered a better job than flying R22s (higher accident risk)). Thus, at least at flight schools, every time the government raises minimum wage it means sending more U.S. wealth out to Europe. (Also reduces our competitiveness relative to Europe for running flight schools.)
Isaac: I am sure that they do have GPS in their S-92s. I think the problem is that the rigs move around a bit in the sea. The real solution would be GPS on the rig telling the GPS in the S-92 what the coordinates of the waypoint should be. You could do that for a drone in a few days, I’m sure, but for a certified helicopter maybe 10 years?
Here is the ATC recording of Cougar 491.
That YouTube channel seems to be the best or at least most easily browsable collection of interesting accident recordings.
When considering wages keep in mind that in Norway a sandwich costs $15 USD. I’m not exaggerating.
You are exaggerating, Joe. Depends on what kind of a “sandwich,” and served where. It is not $15 for a native (but may well be for a tourist). Here are some Oslo price examples from 2014… (use NOK8.5=$1 exchange rate). I don’t remember other Euro cities being that much cheaper where basic sustenance was concerned:
• McDonald’s meal (Big Mac, fries, drink): 87Kr or US$11.50
• Subway 6″ daily special including an apple and drink: 49KR or US$6.50
• Pre-made sandwich at 7-Eleven or Deli de Luca: 50Kr or US$6.50
• Packaged pasta salad at 7-Eleven or Deli de Luca: 50Kr or US$6.50
• Pizza for 1 or 2 at Peppe’s Pizza (chain): 190Kr or US$25 and up
• Deluxe hamburger at TGIFridays: 180Kr or US$24
• Basic pasta dish at simple restaurant: 120Kr or US$16 and up
• Fish & chips at a take-away stall: 100Kr or US$13
• Typical meat & veg meal at a sit-down restaurant: 150Kr to 200Kr or US$20 to US$26
Then there is this comparative index(?) of Club Sandwich prices (whatever that is) around the globe. I’d have taken a look at those menus, then walked away.
Frankrike/Paris – 191,-
Sveits/Geneve – 188,-
Norge/Oslo – 176,-
Japan/Tokyo – 158,-
Italia/Roma – 138,-
Finland/Helsinki – 131,-
Sverige/Stockholm – 128,-
Australia/Canberra – 114,-
Danmark/København – 109,-
Storbritannia/London – 108,-
Hong Kong – 105,-
Sør Korea/Seoul – 103,-
Tyskland/Berlin – 103,-
Brasil/Brasilia – 101,-
USA/New York – 98,-
Nederland/Amsterdam – 96,-
Russland/Moskva – 95,-
Spania/Madrid – 94,-
Canada/Toronto – 93,-
Irland/Dublin – 90,-
Singapore – 85,-
Kina/Beijing – 84,-
Colombia/Bogotá – 81,-
Argentina/Buenos Aires – 62,-
Mexico/Mexico City – 59,-
India/New Delhi – 56,-
Phil the AOPA hoverpower blog had an article by Markus Lavenson not too long ago about radar approaches in the Gulf of Mexico. http://blog.aopa.org/helicopter/?p=1247 Did you see that one?
@ianf: as a resident of Oslo, I can tell you those prices are ridiculously wrong. Typical meal at a sitdown restaurant 200 kr? Only if you consider a cheap kebab place. Typical restaurants are much closer to 500 kr. There’s absolutely no way that a subway sandwich with drink and dessert will be less than 100 kr. Overall, I think your Oslo prices are wrong by about a factor of 2. Joe’s remark is quite accurate: a sandwich will cost you about $15.
Mick: I hadn’t seen that. Thanks. Fortunately we don’t have to do this much work to do an IFR approach to Hanscom Field (which tends not to move very much!).
Or, as I put it when in Oslo last summer; “I can afford to spend $6 on a can of Coke in a 7/11…but I don’t *want* to spend $6 on a can of Coke in a 7/11.” While admittedly I was limited to the high street around the train station and vicinity (circa 10-15 blocks; I was actually traveling to London and when I ended up with a cheap fare combo on Norwegian Air decided to spend an afternoon and evening at the Oslo stopover since I’d not been to Norway before), as I recall every price I saw was significantly higher than equivalent in the SF Bay Area; offhand at a minimum double. (OK, I didn’t look at rents).
I’ve never been in a helicopter. I think they are quite amazing machines, but I can’t help thinking of them as death traps. I mean, if the engine fails, or the blades hit something, it’s my impression that you are SOL. At least in a plane if the engine fails, you might glide down for a rough landing.
It’s sort of like when I see people on motorcycles (ie. donorcycles). Things I would never ride in: single engine Cessnas, helicopters, hot air balloons, and motorcycles.
Things GermanL. would never ride in: single engine Cessnas, helicopters, hot air balloons, and motorcycles.
I actually feel quite safe on single-track vehicles, pedal- or motor, in urban low speed traffic, but then I NEVER ride one in rain or in the dark… bikes do not kill people, other people kill people.
Have not had opportunity to fly in a helicopter (the noise inside would feel v. stressful to me), and my one-time Cessna ride left no lasting impression. What WAS SCARY was a flight in a two-abreast Ultralight, when I suddenly realized that, as we were climbing at what felt like a 45 degree angle (may have been 15?), THERE WAS NOTHING BETWEEN MY DANGLING FEET AND EVER SO SMALLER DOLLHOUSES ON THE GROUND (it was piloted by a Boeing 767 pilot getting his monthly fix of flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants [Philip knows]).
However, were it not for the fact that recreational hot-air ballooning amounted to 100+ hours of being ground crew on the balloon club’s weekly countryside excursions for each hour in the air, I wouldn’t mind keep doing it (the club takes up paying passengers @ $200 a head for 30-60m “bucket experience”).
In particular, I fondly remember once witnessing a hot lift-off in snowy conditions during a World Cup event—with the envelope blowing at >30 degrees off the vertical and the basket-rig tethered to a 3-ton van that was nearly dragged by it until the pilot chopped off the rope with a knife. Also experienced a “crash-landing” on a frozen lake with the basket being dragged by the momentum on the surface for a while, then the balloon regaining lift and shooting up in pendulum fashion with the 3 of us as ballast. It’s not every day that one gets to feel like the tip of a drumstick striking an enormous drum’s (20-30cm thick ice) membrane, and the lake vibrating in anger in return ;-))