From the folks I've talked to the pay is not bad....Not great either but not bad. The guys that work directly for the gas/oil companies fly well-maintaned airconditioned Cessnas. These companies do not want maintenance to be a factor in any accident investigation. Nothing is deferred, if something breaks a fresh airplane is delivered to you while the wounded one is ferried for surgery. So to spend that kind of money to keep the airplane flying it only makes sense to look for experienced pilots to break them. And lets face it, most accidents occur at or near the ground, so how many insurance claims does one need to file before one does what one's told.