Paradrop pilot's salary

[airdude]

Hi there,

I am working on a project to gahter data and comparing paradrop pilot's conditions across the country.
I am intersted in data concerning:

Are you paid per week, per month, per slot or per flight?
Are you considere an employee or a freelance?
Do you work full time or part time?
Do you fill other positions within the company? (tandem master, dispach, mechanic...)
How much do you think you can make during the season?

I will publish results when report is complete.

thanks!

[iflyforpie]

If you pay for Skydive Toronto's 'wide body' Cessna 182 paradrop course and actually impress the owner enough to get 'hired'... you might be looking at a break-even scenario by the end of the season.

[co-joe]

I think a buck a jumper is pretty standard. Really not sure though.

[crazy_aviator]

That MUST be the bottom of the barrel !

[2R]

Do you get paid any extra if they are jumping naked ?

[Anvil Pilot]

I spoke with Joe at Skydive Toronto. If you pay for the course and are selected to be a pilot your first year is not a paid position. If you come back the second year you are paid. To reiterate, after you pay for your commercial license ($40-50k) you will pay another $1250 plus HST for a POTENTIAL position as a pilot and remain in a negative cash flow for another year.
I do not think this is ethical, respectful or professional. Being a person who believes in karma I do not feel that people involved in skydiving should treat others in this manner. It is a high risk activity.

[andy_mtl]

Where I work with the previous owner it was 10$ a Cessna load and 15$ a Navajo load .

Now tho with new management I m on a salary and its Navajo only

Caravan pilots normally run for 20$ a load unless on a salary

Andy

[Masters Off]

Re: Anvil Pilot "it's a risky activity",

Unfortunately I have to defend the skydivers I know and respect and say it's a rumour. It's not a terribly risky activity, and for thousands of people a year, their tandem, static or PFF/AFF jump course goes fine. Even Joe Chow at Skydive Toronto is very safety conscious in this regard. Many of the accidents that do happen are do to neglecting the importance of following specific instruction (twisted ankles, broken wrists, etc.) or complete over confidence (typically very experienced skydivers.) Of all the accidents I know, only 1 was due to a main and reserve partial failure resulting in light back injuries (mechanical). So to say it's a risky thing, I unfortunately disagree. To say it attracts a certain personality that may have overconfidence issues, or has a high volume of first jumps where people neglected the instructions, absolutely.

Come jump if you would like proof, it's really not all that bad...

[loopy]

I believe the thread was about pay and conditions for the pilots. Last entry was confusing. If your lucky, at some locations, it's all the bad coffee you can drink.

[CPLMike89]

N.S.C in southern Ontario was 2000/month plus a trailer to stay in at the airport. Season went from May-Oct and you work about 6 days a week in peak season. You can expect just about 300 hours flying the Cessna and a little less for the Navajo.

[Big Pistons Forever]

If I saw a resume with Sky Dive Toronto time in it I would immediately bin it as any individual that doesn't have enough sense to reject the terms of this "job " would not be somebody I would trust to fly any airplane I was responsible for.

[notpaying]

If I saw a resume with Sky Dive Toronto time in it I would immediately bin it as any individual that doesn't have enough sense to reject the terms of this "job " would not be somebody I would trust to fly any airplane I was responsible for.

Good thinking. I hope other pepple that are in a position of hiring take up this attitude as well...

[SpyPilot]

I think a buck a jumper is pretty standard. Really not sure though.

I made a dollar a head...in 1987. Is it still only a buck?

At 7 jumpers a trip and two loads an hour that was pretty good coin 26 years ago for a 250 hour wonder. The big money was in the afternoon student loads when I could turn 3 or 4 trips an hour.

Walked after a year with 800 hours and many fond memories.

[Anvil Pilot]

Master off...
...for the record I have 11 jumps and am very safety conscious. Scuba diving, sky diving, base jumping, bungee jumping and more are high risk in the sense that if the s$%^ hits the fan you will have a limited amount of resources/time to deal with the situation. The reality is that we are out of our element and do not have a fail safe in place. The point I was supporting was that if you are jerking people around you should be careful because karma may get you in the end. Participating in the above noted activities may provide an opportunity...
...and taking that course was the only potential opportunity I had to fly this year...which I am not pursuing.

[airdude]

Hi guys,

Talked to 16 pilots form 10 dropzones across canada (BC to New Brunswick)
Although rare are the answer on this posts that were actually complete, some good infos came through!
Here's what I gathered from this forum and other sources...

Conditions:

All paradrop pilots I have contacted are seasonal workers.
90% of them are considered freelance (not an employee of the skydive business)
Most of them have no other task within the company, 10% do.
70% will only do one season.
Only 2 dropzones had full time pilot employees that made enough hours to have full benefits and collect unemployement during the dead season.
Most dropzones will assume training costs...but one in particular seems to charge for the type check (sadly!!!)
Most pilots are not paid during training.
Most dropzones pay only when the pilot is flying (per drop/perjumpers)
Some dropzones have fixed based payscales which pays the pilot wether he flies or not.


Salary:

Most dropzones pay per drop (from 15$ to 35$ a drop)
Some pay per jumpers (1$ to 3$ per jumpers)
Very few dropzones pay per week/per month (550 to 750$ per week)

Overall:

There is a great difference between dropzones. Any pilot should ''shop around'' and see the conditons and salary offered by the employers.
The worst dropzones seem to be in Ontario. The best dropzones (for salary and conditions) are both located in Quebec.

Thank you for your help!