Typhoonpilot

This may not be what you want to hear, but it needs to be said.

I understand the concept of not wanting to get stuck at a regional, but regionals serve a good purpose. That purpose is to teach you how to work in an airliner as a crew member. They provide structure and discipline to your flying. It is valuable experience that will serve you well as your career moves forward.

Some regionals have higher standards than others (others on the board can chime in who they think is best, in my day it was WestAir/Atlantic Coast). Those would be the ones to target as a first choice to get hired by. Spend a year or two there and learn how to be an airline pilot. Then go in the direction you want.

The flipside is that you get extremely lucky, or spend a lot of money, and start at an Asian carrier as a 737NG/A320 F.O. with zero time. Depending which one they might be terribly unsafe operators. Without any experience you won't know whether it is safe or not, you just go with the flow. Basically this becomes your baseline for airline operations. You get experience there then try to move on, but you keep failing interviews. You have no idea why, but all the people who are interviewing you clearly see that you never learned how to be a safe and competent airline pilot.

By going to a U.S regional with high standards your baseline for being an airline pilot is set very high. When you go to the Asian carrier you can plainly see how dangerous they operate ( and some still do, believe me ). You still go with the flow to a certain extent, but you know enough to keep the captain from killing you as you gain your experience for the next step. When you interview for that next step you are successful because you know how to show an interviewer that you are a safe and competent pilot.

It's not impossible to get hired by Asian carriers with low time, but it is difficult. Then you need to think about upgrade. There are not many Asian carriers that upgrade expat F.O.s Realistically only the Japanese contract jobs, Cathay/Dragonair, and the Middle East carriers will do upgrades. They can occur at other places, but take a long time. The Singapore LCCs might do upgrades.

You'll need to use some Asian carriers as stepping stones to others. Take the one that hires you as a 0 time F.O., but doesn't upgrade. Build time there then move to the one that hires experienced F.O.s and does upgrade.

Forget about commuting to Nepal. There is no way that is going to happen in the first part of your career. Only when you are a captain, and only if you are willing to make sacrifices, will commuting be an option.

.....The more I think about it, the more the Japanese jobs seem like they might fit your desires. Talk to The Dominican, he's got the scoop there. Oh, and to be successful at the Japanese jobs you need to be extremely disciplined.



Typhoonpilot

gcpilot

I am open to any suggestion, opinion and advice. I would consider this a privilege to be mentored by experienced aviators like you and others. It takes years of experience and hard work to get to the situation like you are in; to be able to give career guidance. I admire the thoughts and efforts you and other aviators put in this forum to guide aspiring aviators like me.

Probably, this will be the best course of action to do - spend a couple of years at regional and build time and head to other opportunities. The only reason I wanted to bypass regionals was that, I do not aspire to be a legacy captain of any US airline.

Thank you for providing me with the inside scoop of the regional airline world and showing me the right path.

What would you say that commuting would be a problem? is it because of the schedule? Would it be not possible to commute FROM nepal if I get a decent schedule like 7-10 days off in a row. Could I not go home once a month, even if I have to pay for my own ticket? Being home for a week out of the month would be fine with me.

I do have some very good suggestions in other thread from the D. I think I could handle the Japanese way of discipline as I finished my High School from Nepal in a pretty strict environment.

Thank you a lot! I mean....A LOT!!

Roll Inverted and Pull

The first thing you need to do is to find a real tough FAA doctor and get a through first class physical. Explain to the doc what your goal is. There is no sense pursuing an aviation career until you are certain that you can pass the physical exams.

rickair7777

It is theoretically possible to commute from anywhere. I have known several regional pilots and FAs who commuted from Europe, and there's a pilot at my current regional who commutes from SW Asia.

That kind of commuting is less commuting and more frequent vists home. You would need an apartment (or crashpad) in your domicile and would need to bid trips back-to-back with the minimum legal one-day break so as to load all your days off together. At a regional you could reasonably get 5-6 days off in a row, but more than that would require seniority and creativity. This assumes PBS is in use, otherwise it might be impossible to get more than 4-5 days off on a regular basis.

gcpilot

With jumpseating agreements and other provisions, commuting could be doable. i am not saying it will be easy but should be manageable. spending a week back home out of a month is fine with me.

not to get confused, i am thinking of commuting as a contract pilot AFTER i build some hours at the regionals in the US (thanks Typhoonpilot for the suggestion about regionals).

GoMountaineers

That the safe way to do it, and it's good advice.

JamesNoBrakes

Thank god you find it satisfactory.