Originally Posted by
Killer51883
a buddy of mine is on ioe at copa and was telling me how his IOE captain was chewing him out for asking when to tell the FA's to sit down going into jfk. From the other guys he has talked to all the captains are like that. He is a citizen of Panama and has been totally shocked by the corporate culture there. He is actually pretty upset that he couldnt get a work visa to get a job with a regional in the us. The flying he does there is difficult, no radar, bad radios, and no one speaks english on the frequencies. (He was yelled at for calling up carracas center in english by his IOE captain.) Also he was telling me that his sim partner had 300 and 50 with no instrument skills. I was shocked and disgusted to think that they are putting brand new commercial pilots into the right seat of a 737. I know here we debate is it safe and practical to put them in the right seat of a crj or saab but a 737. I personally think you can go and have one hell of an adventure with them or do the more common regional route in the US.
It all depends on who you get for your IOE, I also have a friend that is doing IOE with Copa and he loves it, he tells me that the airline is trying to implement english only coms but there are a few dinosaur captains out there that are holding out and refuse to speak to ATC in english. I think it is a problem that will go away in time, my buddy is panamanian but he learned to fly in the US so speaking in spanish on the radios for him is unnatural and he even talks in english at PTY. He tells me most Copa pilots now talk in english on the radios.
Some places, like Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Chile have very good aviation facilites, but others are very challenging indeed, it is good experience though, check out this video of an approach into TGU, Tegucigalpa, honduras.
fun, to say the least.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVAeJ661A_o
As far as their hiring standards go the minimum to get in is 250TT 10 Multi,
and yes I have heard horror stories regarding some of the new hires, but from what my friend told me they usually end up washing out, he says training was tough and a lot of people didnt make it past the sim. I guess if you pass your sim ride and IOE you are ready to fly, experience is gained over time.