Pacific Blue axing NZ domestic flights

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Postby IslandBoy77 » Tue Aug 17, 2010 10:52 am

pacblue wrote:
QUOTE (pacblue @ Aug 17 2010, 10:27 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
i am a dispatcher for pacblue.

Well, you've got a great skill-set there that will be in demand should you try to chance your arm somewhere outside of NZ, and I'm sure the various skills that you bring to the job would also suit a variety of other work. Of course, once one has worked in aviation, everything else can seem so pedestrian! tongue.gif Having been on the receiving end of the "skills" of the various organisational parts of air traffic in Central & South America, I know that they DESPERATELY need hard-working, knowledgeable, competent Kiwis over there... blink.gif rolleyes.gif
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Postby cowpatz » Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:37 pm

IslandBoy77 wrote:
QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Aug 21 2010, 11:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Well, you've got a great skill-set there that will be in demand should you try to chance your arm somewhere outside of NZ, and I'm sure the various skills that you bring to the job would also suit a variety of other work. Of course, once one has worked in aviation, everything else can seem so pedestrian! tongue.gif Having been on the receiving end of the "skills" of the various organisational parts of air traffic in Central & South America, I know that they DESPERATELY need hard-working, knowledgeable, competent Kiwis over there... blink.gif rolleyes.gif


You should definitely check with Air NZ. I know that we are almost constantly looking for flight despatchers and we are short at the moment. Many get poached for overseas positions. This would of course entail a shift to AA however I would imagine flt despatch jobs based in WN would now be virtually non existant so if you want to remain in that vocation then you would need to shift somewhere.
Should you wish to pursue this option let me know and I will check with the guys to see if there is anything currently available or on the horizon.
Last edited by cowpatz on Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Remember the 50-50-90 rule. Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong!

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Postby pacblue » Tue Aug 17, 2010 7:54 pm

cowpatz wrote:
QUOTE (cowpatz @ Aug 17 2010, 06:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
You should definitely check with Air NZ. I know that we are almost constantly looking for flight despatchers and we are short at the moment. Many get poached for overseas positions. This would of course entail a shift to AA however I would imagine flt despatch jobs based in WN would now be virtually non existant so if you want to remain in that vocation then you would need to shift somewhere.
Should you wish to pursue this option let me know and I will check with the guys to see if there is anything currently available or on the horizon.


thanks all for the great support, i am however rather fortunate that i have tickets booked to Africa in December to hunt for that ever elusive first flying job (just completing MEIR now) so was planning on calling it quits a couple of months later anyway. thank you for the support and options though.
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Postby Ian Warren » Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:35 pm

pacblue wrote:
QUOTE (pacblue @ Aug 17 2010, 08:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
i am however rather fortunate that i have tickets booked to Africa in December to hunt for that ever elusive first flying job

PAC - good luck on your mission cool.gif
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Postby Chairman » Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:11 pm

whathesaid.gif

Good luck !
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Postby pacblue » Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:21 am

cheers gents, will of course keep you all updated and offer a free scenic to anyone in the Botswana area... smile.gif
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Postby Ian Warren » Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:34 am

pacblue wrote:
QUOTE (pacblue @ Aug 18 2010, 02:21 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
cheers gents, will of course keep you all updated and offer a free scenic to anyone in the Botswana area... smile.gif

Matey keep us all posted , start a new thread .. Welcome to my new World cool.gif
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Postby Syncop8r » Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:31 am

"I Shouldn't Be Alive" has put me off flying over Africa. :-/
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Postby pacblue » Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:40 am

Ian Warren wrote:
QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Aug 18 2010, 01:34 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Matey keep us all posted , start a new thread .. Welcome to my new World cool.gif


Great idea!! will do that, at the moment my best chance is the right hand seat of a B200 doing med- flights. will start a new thread from December to keep regular updates of the journy.
cheers guys
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Postby FunkymonkeyNZ » Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:10 pm

All the best to ya buddy, have had a few mates from my intake head over to Botswana in hope of their first job! i got pretty much got laughed out of all the operator offices in the south island and just cant justify spending that amount of $ on a c-cat at the moment, so at this time i'm heading down the Plan B path of ATC....a tad more safer for the wife than Africa wink.gif Have a blast and stay safe!

Peace
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Postby FunkymonkeyNZ » Wed Aug 18, 2010 7:26 pm

HercFeend wrote:
QUOTE (HercFeend @ Aug 17 2010, 08:35 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
We freely choose to spend the money on getting our licences - what this has to do with ticket prices I don't know! [baffled]



Yeah they/we do, but don't. If you intend getting into this game thinking you're going to get rich flying for a middle eastern airline on a couple of hundred grand a year, a house and subsidised schooling you're dreaming....... Pilots (on the whole), like so many other professions, don't make particularly good money especially in the early years.......and any potential aviator with half a brain (which you'd want him to have) would know this before their first CPL lesson! Nothing p**ses me off more than someone who enters a profession knowing (or not having checked) the pay isn't great and then proceeds to whinge about it. We can make choices in life - if you don't like what you're doing.......do something else or quit whining!!!!



Tell me Herc
What other "profession" do you know of that pays $20,000 a year? I agree that before you get into the game you should do your research and make your mind up from there. But i disagree with the fact a role such as a pilot pays only peanuts. a quote from Michael More "I dont know about you but i hope that guys up the font of the plane get paid well rather than fishing for nickels and dimes out of the seat cracks". The reason why pilots are so poorly paid is very plain and simple, Supply and Demand. Even if New Zealand flight school's stopped pumping out fresh CPL's for the next 5 years we would still see and over supply of pilots.
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Postby IslandBoy77 » Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:02 pm

HercFeend wrote:
QUOTE (HercFeend @ Aug 17 2010, 08:35 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
We live in a capitalist society - that's the way it is and unless there's a revolution, which I sincerely hope there isn't, that's the way it will be!

Err no, we don't. Nor have we for some time. We no longer have any viable non-socialist parties anywhere in the west: they are all some stripe of socialism. How do I know? Two words: welfare state. Take a look at any "western" country, and you will see that they all have large welfare systems, so they can entrap a voter base and keep us workers poor.

You are right about revolution - but we DO need one. In fact we've already had one thanks to Labour in the 70's, then '80's, then flip - flop back & forth between socialist part L & socialist party B since then.

Perhaps you are confusing Socialist and Communism. It's the die-hard commies that try to do the "1 size fits all" - unless it suits them to do otherwise in a limited fashion e.g. China. It is true that there is an over-supply of pilots: but the socialist mantra of "equality" (lest we forget animal farm: everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others) means that many in the "west" see getting ahead and being well-paid as evil - unless, of course, you're one of the "more equal" ones! laugh.gif Which I am not.

A true capitalist society has small government, no welfare state, v low taxes, and supply and demand TRULY set the tone, not the raft of govt stealth taxes, hand-outs, subsidies etc etc which is the trade-mark of the "new socialists".

It's sad that by the time NZers finally wake up to the fact that we live in a socialist protectorate (a "gold cage"), we will also be a tribal / feudal socialist ghetto. angry.gif
Last edited by IslandBoy77 on Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Ian Warren » Wed Aug 18, 2010 10:54 pm

pacblue wrote:
QUOTE (pacblue @ Aug 18 2010, 12:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Great idea!! will do that, at the moment my best chance is the right hand seat of a B200 doing med- flights. will start a new thread from December to keep regular updates of the journey.

Looking Forward to your future postings , and hey from all here , have a fun and safe journey. smile.gif
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Postby HercFeend » Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:28 pm

QUOTE
What other "profession" do you know of that pays $20,000 a year?[/quote]
The list is numerous, essentially most 'professionals', doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers, IT Pros (look at MS & Cisco courses) and many more, are required to be members of governing bodies and invest annually in their training & education to further their career. You don't believe me look it up!

QUOTE
But i disagree with the fact a role such as a pilot pays only peanuts[/quote]
Where, exactly, did I say this was right? It's just a fact, I didn't say I agreed with it!

QUOTE
We no longer have any viable non-socialist parties anywhere in the west[/quote]
I think the US Republican Party would disagree with you, as would any centre right party in 'the west' - that fact that some of them adopt some aspects of what might be described as socialist doctrine certainly doesn't make them a left wing party! Indeed if you look up the origins of the Welfare State you will see that it was brought about, in Britain, at least by Sir Winston Churchill a Tory (right wing) MP & PM (although he was also a member of the Liberal Party for a time). You could also say that western countries no longer have any viable socialist parties either - unless you take into account the fruit loops at the NZWP laugh.gif

QUOTE
Two words: welfare state[/quote]
The existence of one, isn't on its own indicative of a Socialist ideology or state! It's mealy a component. And, excluding the public sector, our employment style and trade both internal and external follow the capitalist model without doubt! In NZ, and many countries, what we have done in fact is cherry pick from the left and right and combined the 'best' bits.......

QUOTE
tribal / feudal socialist ghetto[/quote]
It's not all bad though, I do agree with you on one point, the values of society that surrounded the welfare state system in its inception have, sadly eroded, and now, unlike in the past when people didn't want to be 'on it', society has made 'it' too good and now we can't get people off of it....... this does need to change! But then on the flip side do we run the risk of letting those who really do need the help fall through the gaps - like the US model?


This must rate as the longest off topic thread within a thread there has been........
Last edited by HercFeend on Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby ardypilot » Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:53 pm

This has been a very interesting topic to follow, both on and off topic! I certainly didn't start my flight training with the expectations of lavish pay and a playboy lifestyle- like many of my mates, we just do it for the love of being "up there". Nothing beats it, especially on a day when the vis is greater than 100kms or so happy.gif

Capitalism- A Love Story, Michael Moore's (who I love to hate) latest "doco" has a very interesting, all be it very one sided and perspectified insight to the world of poor pilot pay. A few interesting tales from the land of the USA which contradict the usual stereotype of the wealthy living-the-dream sort who sit up front of the metal tubes and steer them around the sky. Some of the Continental pilots worked double jobs at Starbucks for example, and I think it was Charles Sullenberger who quoted he didn't know a single fellow colleague would want their children to enter the industry due to the low amount of green backs vs. the high amount of hours they put in, which he even ended up arguing in front of congress!

TBH, I wasn't expecting DQ to stick around for long. Never flown with them before, will be interesting to see what they're like in October as I'm going to Cairns and back with them. I've got a few friends who've managed to hop up to the jumpseat no worries with them before.

And PacBlue- the Botswana gig sounds awesome! Will eagerly be following your progress (and maybe even your footsteps sometime in the distant future!)
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Postby Peppermint » Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:24 pm

Well they sure didn't last long.
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Postby pacblue » Tue Aug 24, 2010 8:32 pm

Peppermint wrote:
QUOTE (Peppermint @ Aug 24 2010, 08:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Well they sure didn't last long.


i agree, one would have thought that they may have toughed it out until after next years rugby world cup, and judging only on pax numbers they seemed to be doing ok on most domestic flights (however SYD flights all had VERY low pax)
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