Originally Posted by Ludicrous Speed

Are the Cathay pilots on strike? No. If they were on strike, then we wouldn't cross. However, there is no strike, so there is no valid point in your post.

Atlas pilots will not cross a picket line, as was recently demonstrated during the ABX strike.

Originally Posted by TiredSoul

However ABX is a US company.
Why would that carry over to a foreign based carrier?

Originally Posted by Aurora8

Just to make you feel more confident: one of the guys was flying as CA in sim training with 5 FO's where they were briefed (no surprises) the CA would be incapacitated on approach into HKG. All 5 crashed into the ocean... did it again, and 4 out of 5 crashed into the sea, and 1 overran the runway.

Originally Posted by Pirep

I completely understand the problems that Cathay is having with of some of their FO's. I like many these days trained Chinese pilots as a CFI. We would screen them in China but the people who showed up were not the people we interviewed. Of course according to their airlines all of them could speak perfect English (which was not even remotely the case). It adds a whole new level of fun when your student has literally no idea what you are saying when you tell them to fly towards a lake. Or to reduce power. Or to go around. There are so many horror stories about these students that I can't even begin to describe them in one post. Lets just say that I would NEVER fly on any Chinese airline.

Originally Posted by NEDude

I had a friend in China who was from England. He had a very proper British accent. The Chinese told him he needed to work on his English.

I had a Chinese FO hand me a bottle of water when I asked for the before start checklist.

Originally Posted by Braniff DC8

"BEFORE START CHECKLIST" can sound like "YAT CHI SOY" which is a bottle of water in Cantonese. I know it may not seem so but with the right inflection and speed of voice it can. Just saying.

Originally Posted by Braniff DC8

"BEFORE START CHECKLIST" can sound like "YAT CHI SOY" which is a bottle of water in Cantonese. I know it may not seem so but with the right inflection and speed of voice it can. Just saying.

Originally Posted by Typhoonpilot

Fixed it for you



True story. Years ago I am out with a friend in Dubai during Ramadan. Bars are all pretty slow then because, well it's Ramadan. So we walk into a bar in Bur Dubai that has very few people in it and sit down for a beer. A few minutes later an older gentlemen gets up from a table nearby and starts heading for the exit. My friend sees him and calls out his name. The guy comes over and they exchange greetings and make introductions for me. The guy is an A scale Cathay 747 captain on a layover who just happens to live in Thailand where my friend does (small world). Anyway we get to chatting and they get around to the topic of my friends brother. My friends brother (American by the way) was at Cathay for 8 years in the 90s and early 2000s. He was not successful at upgrade on the 747 fleet and left Cathay because of that.



When I say not successful, it's not that he failed any training events. He went through training fine, in fact very well by all accounts. So this guy we are talking to, a British 747 captain relates what he knows of the story. Back then (and still now, I don't know) all upgrade decisions went to something called the Star Chamber which was a group who decided whether or not someone would be blessed as a captain after their training was finished. So my friends brother's file gets there and the decision is made not to allow him to be a captain. The reason, now relayed to us by this guy sitting across the table is that the (British) 747 fleet manager/chief pilot said, "I will not have an American as a captain on my fleet".

Originally Posted by Cruz Clearance

As the Brits say "rubbish". I have a friend there (American) who upgraded on the 747 years ago and is still there.