Madridista

Hello,

I've introduce myself in the other forum but I will do it again. I am a student at Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University. I have obtain my private pilot license as well my instrument rating. Currently I stop flying because I am still doing my general education courses and I didn't want to mix flying with general ed courses. However, once I complete my general Ed courses I will return to 100% flying to obtain my CPL, CFI/II, as well as MEI.

I currently have 200 hours of flight time and obviously it is all single engine.

I am looking for an honest advice. What shall I do to get to the airlines? My goal is to work for a foreign airlines, but I don't know any foreign airlines that hires FAA-based pilots. I am trying so hard to bypass the regionals in America. Is that possible?

Thanks!

JamesNoBrakes

Sure you can bypass the regionals, but most likely you'll have to endure equivalent experience, such as flying air cargo in a beech 99, metroliner, or similar aircraft, and then possibly moving up to some corporate or 135 flying in a bigger turbine aircraft. In 99.99% of cases, you'll have to endure years of flying at very low pay amounts. That's the way the industry is, and while it has moved "faster" at times, this is extremely hard to predict and a matter of luck. If your goal is to fly for airlines, you've got to get on one of the "paths" and put your ticket into the big lottery, hoping that you'll get lucky sooner rather than later. The one thing you have going for you is that you want to do foreign flying, which is an area where there truly might be some "shortage" of pilots, but remember when they say "shortage" they mean shortage of experienced pilots for the wages they pay. The wages thing usually isn't as bad with foreign, but you have to see past the vague "shortage of pilots" stuff. Make the career center give you names and times (how many years) of the prior grads that have "made it". Then compare against the class size, etc. You'll have to convert your FAA stuff over, but that shouldn't be a big deal, the bigger issue is to see what the general requirements are for the airline/region you are looking at and make sure that you target towards that during your time-building/experience years.

Madridista

Thanks for the respond! This make perfect sense. I really want to work for Cathay or perhaps Qantas. That is my ultimate goal since I was a young boy. Is it expensive to convert my FAA ?

rickair7777

It is not cheap to convert FAA to JAA, and it is not a short process either. But plenty of schools in the US will do it.

You also need to figure out where you want to fly...the path is different depending on that. Very generally...

US: You will probably need to fly for the regionals, or do 135 ops to get the time to get into business flying. From there you could go to US major airlines.

Asia: Many Asian countries (including the middle east) hire foreign pilots, either as permanent or contract employees, but you will need at least US regional experience and in some case previous major airline experience. Most take JAA or FAA. There are also opportunities in places like Africa and South America, but probably not as good deals as say Emirates or Cathay.

Western Europe: You can get hired with low time in some cases but it's competitive and you'll need right-to-work and possibly local connections. In some cases (especially national flag carriers) your odds of getting hired are low unless you're a native. JAA required.

You need to do some research and figure out what's realistic based on your citizenship and where you're willing to live.

gcpilot

You will have to make choices based on your target airlines/countries/region. If you want to fly for airlines like Emirates, they REQUIRE you that you have some 121 experience while other airlines don't care much where you come from. Freighters have hired 121 pilots but very few airlines will hire into the passenger side of flying without any 121 experience.

From people on different forums I have known that it is almost impossible to fly for Qantas if you do not have Permanent Residency. Maybe you can try for second officer program with Cathay but the time to command will be VERY long based on current situations going on.

I am no expert by any means but I have done a lot of reading on different forums and have had the opportunity to know about foreign airlines through some very committed and supportive members of this forum.

Lots of good reading on "foreign" section of this forum and very good honest people that will sure put some light on the matter.

Good luck anyway!

Madridista

Alright so for say I do go into the regionals route in America. How long would that take me to be qualified enough for Cathay or Singapore Airlines, or even Qantas. It doesn't matter to me about where to live, since I've moved to 4 different countries when I was a young boy. Mostly what I care about is being a member of international "foreign" airlines; again like Singapore, Cathay, or Qantas.

gcpilot

You can log in a maximum of 1000 hours a year but realistically 7-800 hours a year would be average. In order to be qualified for the above airlines, you will need to find out their exact requirements. Different airlines have different requirements in Total Time, Jet time, turbine time, time in type, weight of aircraft flown etc. So you need to keep and eye on the airlines that you want to fly for and work towards meeting its target.

I am guessing you want to start out as a FO, so the minimum requirements would be at least 3000 Total time with some jet time in 121 operation and preferably some international flying experience. Be prepared on spending 4-5 years in the regionals to build time and be qualified for international airlines.

On the other hand, you may want to build hours with some other international airlines like Eva as a stepping stone to jump ships to the big boys like Cathay and Singapore.

As suggested earlier, there is a lot of valuable information on "foreign" section of this forum.

SeamusTheHound

I have a similar question as the OP, but in a different field:

I am a student in acting school. I am just staring out learning acting, but I would like to be a big star.

Currently I am working as a stage hand and playing small roles (for no pay) in local plays at the community senior citizen center. However, my goal is to skip straight to Hollywood, as I would really like to have sex with Dakota Fanning and/or Kirsten Dunst, preferably at the same time.

Could anyone please recommend an easy way that I could skip all of this mundane thespian monotony and go straight to Sunset Boulevard?

Your immediate input is appreciated, as I am in an obvious rush to make it big.

Thanks,

Don Quixote

bcrosier

THAT was brilliant! Nicely played!

JamesNoBrakes

Absolutely. Get on American Idol.