Flying in the South Pacific

swisspilot

Well-Known Member
After posting some pictures that I collected in the past year, flying in Vanuatu I`m sure I got a bunch of you guys interested on my story and how I ended up here.


PART 1

I`m sure many of you guys never heard of Vanuatu, it is not a very popular place as lets say Fiji or parts of Polynesia but it` s really an amazing place and maybe the last one left of it`s kind in the world. Vanuatu feels isolated but it`s not, the main Capital island has everything and being easy to reach from Australia and NZ gets everything western you may need over here, there are a 83+ Islands, on 90% of them life still goes on as it did 200 years ago and in some of the most remote villages peoples live stuck in time. For who has been to Hawaii this place looks really similar, minus the inhabitants who are a bit skinnier and Melanesian. Vanuatu is mainly famous for it`s Volcanoes, 5 are active and one is the biggest tourist attraction in the country, and the main revenue for most charter companies. We get a ton of earthquakes over here, in the past year some big ones too, while here: I felt couple in the mid 6 a 6.9 and a 7.1...nobody really cares here. The night we had the 7.1 my roommates didn`t even got out of bed, we also get pretty bad weather two Hurricanes in the past 6 month....Everybody is really relaxed here, they are all happy and friendly. Vanuatu does not have violent crimes or peoples asking for money, I never saw an homeless person or somebody looking for food. During WWII Vanuatu housed many American bases, you can see airplane crashed all over the place here, from FU4 to big bombers, they also have many sunken ships, between them the massive USS Coolige, a world class dive spot.


Civil Aviation is pretty small and young, the first real national airline dates back to the mid `70s and is not until the last two decades that they had good international connection. This days the main national airline is pretty nice, new planes and many flights to Australia and NZ. The first charter company is maybe 15 years old, the country has airports all over the place and most of them have scheduled service: from 1-2 flights a week to daily service. The main airline has a total of 7 airplanes and the charter companies, charity org. and privately operated ones bring the total aircrafts flying to 22. This calls for a really small aviation market, and being so close to Australia and NZ, two countries with massive amount of pilots (most of the low timers when they get out of flight school they go abroad: Africa and South East Asia to get bush flying jobs and come back when they meet airline minimums), all this doesn`t give much room for opportunities. But if you play your cards right there is always a chance. it`s also hard for an Employer to get somebody over here, getting all the permits takes time and it`s pretty expensive, if after a couple weeks of flying the pilot is not right for the job, then the company will have a bit of problems, since NZ and AU are so closer pilots usually come and show their face well in advance and in some cases they are friends of pilots already flying here.



So how did I got over here? well since the flight school times I was interested in the South Pacific, I knew most of the jobs were on seaplanes and after reading some articles it came clear that you needed a lot of flight time to get over here. I remember the articles I read were written by Canadian pilots that moved in the South Pacific after growing solid seaplane flying skills. The South Pacific is really big, but the accessible aviation to relative low time pilots is pretty small. Fiji has probably the biggest GA, they have many charter operators, but most of them operate seaplanes, so it was a no go. Many of the French territories have strict labor policies, and even if you hold a JAA they want you to be French or even a local to get any sort of job. This closes the doors to Tahiti and many other Polynesian countries, New Caledonia has a pretty big GA, most of the airplanes are operated part 91, personal transportation and mines, lots of planes there have N reg...but it seems that there is enough local pilots to supply the needs. Some of the other island countries I found were the Cook Islands, they have a main airline, that operates several planes, from a small 172 to a Saab, the country extends as much as Europe and aviation is the only way to go places, the main airline has a nice website were jobs are posted queit often. Kiribati has one single company, flying an Aztec, I got in touch with them and they said they were planning on getting a twin turbine and they are gonna be in need of pilots, not sure if that ever happened. Tonga and the Samoas have local airlines but due to the fact that they are small and don`t have islands spread all over the place not much taxi/charter service exist over here, fuel is also really expensive there. I was surprised to find out that this small country named Vanuatu had several charter companies, all with a nice websites and administrated by expats. I started contacting them, and one in particular got interested in my resume but at the time they were not in need, about 5 months, we were in touch all the time, they asked me if I was able to fly a contract for them in Tahiti, unfortunately they were in such a rush there was not much time to get my conversion done and the contractor decided to put one of his pilots on the plane. Not long after this an other company, operating a C206 and a C207 offered me to take over for a pilot who upgraded to a twin engine Britten Norman Islander, I took the opportunity right away and moved to Vanuatu.
 
I have been fascinated by the photos you have put up. I keep selling my girlfriend i am going to sell the business and move someplace like that to be a bush pilot. Thanks for providing some insight into how to got there.
 
I have been fascinated by the photos you have put up. I keep selling my girlfriend i am going to sell the business and move someplace like that to be a bush pilot. Thanks for providing some insight into how to got there.

Lots of opportunities out there, most places with bush pilots like jobs, like here and Africa they can work pretty well for pilots that wanna take their wife/girlfriend along, even just for a volunteer job there is plenty of stuff to keep her busy....too bad in my case my gf is too much of a city girl :(
 
Lots of opportunities out there, most places with bush pilots like jobs, like here and Africa they can work pretty well for pilots that wanna take their wife/girlfriend along, even just for a volunteer job there is plenty of stuff to keep her busy....too bad in my case my gf is too much of a city girl :(

Any of the pilots move there with wife and kid(s)?

Does she want to leave the island in favor of a city? It's paradise!
 
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