timtam

Kenny. I absolutely agree with you. I too recently returned from flying Part 121 in the USA- and all I can say is that I have had to maintain a sense of humour with the flying here in Aussie!
BTW, congrats on the gig with VB.

FlyingKiwi

Kenny etc....
Do you have any regrets about heading back to the southern hemisphere?? I'm sure each of you have your own reasons for the move, just trying to get a feel if it's something you may end up regretting.... Reason I ask, is I'm in the same boat you once were. RJ captain for a few years flying the Midwest and eastern parts of the U.S. I always umm and arr about heading home but lately I've been thinking about sticking it out over here. My gut tells me to give it another 5 yrs and if one of the "better" airlines are silly enough to hire me then great, if not I may try my luck back home.
Hope all goes well for yas.

TAILSKID

I am thinking of going to Australia to fly.
Is there anything I need to file for work visa's?
Or do I just find a job and use my USA passport?
I found one site and it said that you had to apply for a visa before 45 years of age, I have 2 mths before I hit that great age.
I am just wondering if I should file just in case?
Any words of the wise would be helpful.
thanks

KoruPilot

Ahhhhhhh. . . you're kidding right?

Yea, anyway, you'll need an Australian PR Visa for most larger airlines. Same for New Zealand. I don't think a work permit will quite cut it, but to get one of those you'll need all sorts of pre-requesites. Being a pilot is not one of them.

If you have bags of TRI/TRE time on an A320 or B737NG you might get a shot, otherwise my guess is you'll be dissapointed with the results of your efforts.

But hey, who am I to stop ya. . . good luck.

Kenny

Kiwi,

As far as regrets go, the only regret I have is that I didn't decide to start flying commercially at an earlier age. Living in the States for as long as I did was never part of the master plan, just the way it worked out. It's something I value very highly because I got the chance to experience such a wide range situations, that you simply don't face in other parts of the world, much less in Oz or Enzed.

I'm going to miss the flying but not the horrendous state of the aviation industry. It's changed and won't ever be the same. No matter how much we all wish for the days when we earn't good money, didn't feel beaten up at the end of a trip and were actually respected. I look at the UAL and USAir guys, who paid their dues in furloughs, strikes and god knows what else and see how miserable a lot of them. They should be looking forward to the end of a great career and instead they're hanging on, trying to make up for the lost pensions in the hope they can make their retirements a bit more livable. Personally, having been furloughed once, it's not something I ever want to go through again and let's face it, the chances are higher in the US than any where else.

We can debate it until the cows come home but there is a stigma attached to being a US RJ pilot. Overseas, certainly at carriers like CX and EK, we're viewed as not really knowing what we're doing and cocky little kids. No matter how seriously we take our flying careers or how professionally we conduct ourselves, the hardest move seems to be from an RJ to a Boeing or Airbus. Having done it, learning to fly a bigger aircraft is not that hard. If you can fly an RJ well, you can fly a Boeing well. If you fly an RJ badly, you going to fly a Boeing badly. The difference however, is being humble enough to admit you're going to f#$k up and learn from it.

The worst characteristic I think most of us share, is that little voice in the back of our heads that says, "If you hang on and just wait it out a little longer, you'll get that dream job, have a great career and die a happy man". If you're in your 20's, I think you've got time to see what happens in the US. If you're in your 30's, the odds are against you, unless you don't mind being in the right seat for a long time or your other half makes the money.

The money is better here (A lot) and the industry is more stable, which for me is of far greater importance than it used to be, when I started.

The Dominican

And I think that you are being a bit cheerful Koru! as small as the aviation community in Oz is, where all pilots literally know each other and with tons of Aussie pilots looking to go back home from years out in the contract scene, I doubt that even an impressive resume will be enough (taking into consideration that the Aussies abroad have impressive resumes themselves) I think that the chances for a Yankee boy to get a job there are as good as getting a job in Venezuela

Truer words have never been spoken

lear 31 pilot

So foreign nationals can come here take our jobs and then return to their country and get better paying stable jobs. But if an American tries to work in a place like australia forget it, good for them. Maybe our goverment should think about this, in a time when so many Americans are out of work, lets make it harder for foreigners to work in this country.

KoruPilot

Learpilot,

Mate, what are you talking about?

Before you give any more Americans a bad name perhaps think before you write, anything. Some cat with a couple thousand hours on the space shuttle can't get a job in the US without a green card, and if you think that's a piece of cake think again. I'll assume from your post you have never flown an offshore contract. . .

Seriously, I have seen more than one post from Americans who [edit:remove potential political argument flamebait]. Do some research before you shoot your mouth off again.

Americans fly all over the planet for foreign carriers and the companies get them the work permits. Try doing the same in the good old USA if your a Chinese/Japanese/Australian/Kiwi/Canadian B747 driver. Good luck. Most of the western world is the same way by the by.

I flew for Air NZ and I'm a Canadian by the way. More than one Canadian and American at Air NZ and Qantas, you just need to have the correct paperwork, but they don't hand it out at the border.

"Take our jobs", gime a break.

TonyWilliams

thrrrr tekk'rrr jawwbs!

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/104259

Tweet46

I had to bite my tonuge...I knew Koru would be along in short order to respond to that post much more better then I could ever hope to. BTW This American was close to landing my dream job at Air NZ before the world economy tanked. BTW I haven't given up hope.

Cheers,
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