To The Dominican -
Once again: thanks for all the info ! (delayed response on my end). Much appreciated. Seems like you have a good crew over there at Air Japan. (you guys give an appreciated and realistic view of things - here, and on the "other forum" - I follow that thread, too...).
Tried to "PM" you - but I'm too new to this forum and don't have the privilege. Anyhow - hope I can shout you guys some beers one of these days to say thanks for all the info.
I read carefully what you said about the roster, etc... I'm currently on another "Island" (won't mention the name), doing both pax/freight with a lot of 'middle of the night' departures, etc... Only 8 days home leave and absolutely NO TRAVEL DAYS... 24 AL days are used as 'travel days', you could say... Not ideal for commuting, but my wife lives with me on the said 'Island' - so home leave becomes a series of 'mini-vacations'... Not so bad, but I have a feeling your outfit would be better. No expansion on our fleet (probably forever?)... so I'm stuck on the current seat with no end in sight... I have a little bit of Jet PIC (900 hrs MD83), but not enough it seems, to get into the 'game' on a left seat... Lots of total time and lots of wide body (5,000 on 744)...
NCA would certainly be our first choice, so I appreciate hearing what's going on... Failing that - or if nothing comes up, we're looking seriously at your outfit (provided I can pass a Japanese medical or not -). Failing all of that, maybe I've got to back to flying floats because going to the Middle East just isn't appealing... (my wife loves the "home leave" time off that we have together - can't put a price tag on that).
Again Dominican - thanks for all the info ! Great to get a perspective from an expat on what is happening in Japan and certainly all the realities that go along with those contracts -
regards,
SPN744