To The Dominican, and Typhoonpilot:

You two seem to have a lot of insight regarding the expatriate pilot life. At the end of October, I will have my ATP/ERJ145 Type rating, with around 1000 hours of turbine (all SIC). I know my times are quite low, but was told to never not apply for a job just because you do not feel competitive.

I have applied at Qatar (FTSO), Cebu Pacific, Air Nigeria, Copa, and looked at FO ERJ contract flying in China. Long story short, I am young, and have no attachments keeping me stateside and would like to fly expat for a while, and go on an adventure.

Do you two, or anybody else have any insight of places I might want to look at. I will not pay for a type rating, nor line training, so that limits some SE Asia operators. I have heard good things about EVA, just am a little short on the requisite experience.

Thank you for your insight.

-FlyPurdue

 

Well, I don't have the insight that TP has about the expat opportunities and he might have some suggestions, but I believe that your best bet would be EVA, most of the other places that accept low time pilots would require self sponsoring, P2F, PFT or whatever they call it. My suggestion would be to apply even if you don't meet the mins, also because a job has a requirement to pay for a type, try to negotiate a training bond instead, a while back I checked out a 777 DEC position that required to pay for the type, I told them that I wasn't going to do that but that I would accept ti sign a training bond with them for the duration of the contract and to my surprise they said yes, I ended up not taking it but my point is that you should be aggressive in pursuing some of these opportunities and not just disqualify yourself from the job, let them be the ones to say no. Try Air Asia, Air Pacific, Air Macao, I wouldn't recommend any of the Korean gigs for an F/O, there will be NO opportunity for an eventual upgrade and the working environment for F/O's is not the best. Good luck

About JetStar Singapore that was mentioned on the previous post, they are not hiring at the moment, the plans for both the A330's and the later plan for the 787 both fell through and there is no further plan for expansion at the moment, that has left them fat on pilots for the time being.

 

Thank you for the advice!

 

Air Asia has stopped hiring for the moment. No vacancies for the Capt position and the airlines in Malaysia are not allowed to hire expat FOs.
You might want to try Tiger Airways in Singapore which is hiring at the moment or Silk Air which will resume hiring sometime next year.

 

Dear Ladies and Gents,

My apologies for the delay in posting my recent interview experience with EVA, but here it goes.

Travelling to Taiwan:

EVA will fly you on their acft for free from any of the cities they operate. In my case I flew from LAX to TPE. They´ll issue an Economy Deluxe ticket, which is just slightly better than the normal economy seat (sorry no C-class). The cost of flying from your home country / base to an EVA destination is on you for which the company will "reimburse" you up to NTD 10.000 (around USD 300) in cash when you arrive in TPE. In my case it costed me around USD 2.000 to get to LAX, so quite a high cost and investment in order to get to the screening.

After arriving in TPE you´ll have to take a cab to EVA´s head quarters which will cost you around USD 10-15. Cab drivers speak very basic if any english so be sure to print the map sent to you by EVA´s HR. It will have the directions written both in English and Chinese.

Accomodation:

You´ll be placed in EVA´s pilot quarter building in a semi-hotel like small apartment which is located within the EVA training / operations / HR / Management complex. Overall quite organized, but do not expect anything very fancy or luxurious, afterall despite beeing a different country, it´s very China-like (for those familiar with the country you´ll know what I mean). The room will be OK for a 5-day stay, having internet and even a basic in-house Gym. So in terms of accomodation keeping a low expectation will result in no disappointment. In terms of eating, EVA has their own restaurant and cafeteria, but I always went out for luch and dinner as across the street there´s a reasonable little mall with a few Thai, Indian, Italian, Japanese, German and Local cuisine restaurants and these are not very expensive. EVA will pay for your breakfast and lunch only at their restaurant, but again based on my experience with Chinese Cuisine I didn´t care to use this "benefit". If you´re like me and have strict diet requirements and healthy eating habits, I recommend bringing your own cereals, bread, fruit bars, supplements, etc, as these items are not easy to find around there.

Overall as far as the company and it´s infrastructure is concerned I admit I was positively surprised and EVA seems quite organized (again, I´m comparing it to China and South America).

The screening:

First day starts with the SIM assessment. Done in the B747-400 and lasts around 45 minutes only. If you´re rated on it they´ll expect you to know the acft, if you´re not don´t worry as they´ll go through a short 30 minutes briefing before the assessment covering basic stuff such as pitchXpower, engine out procedures, how to read the B744 PFD and basic acft handling. Use your current company´s callouts and SOP´s if you´re rated. If not, I strongly recommend taking a look at the B747-400 FCTM at least. You´ll have an experienced EVA FO seating on the left seat and he will probably be always ahead of you so a big help...use him as your friend and be sure to communicate clearly.

SIM profile will be a normal take off and climb straight ahead to 3000´ AT and FD on, no AP. Clean up, accelerate to 250kt. You´ll then disconnect the AT and turn the FD off and will do 1000´/min climbs and descents, accelerate to 280kt, normal and steep turns (read the FCTM)...all in manual (AP, FD and AT off). After they´re satisfied with your basic handling skills you´ll be placed in the downwind leg for a visual landing...no tricks and no 30kt crosswinds as the Chinese airlines like to do. No take off or approach briefings are required, but remember to ask for the normal check lists and do your callouts.

A second normal take off with vectors for an ILS low visibility. Again no tricks, straight forward manual ILS approach with FD on. Full stop landing.

A third take off with a V1 cut of an outboard engine. At 400´ and when stable they´ll freeze the SIM and put you in an intercept heading for a final landing, again no AP / AT but with FD on. That´s it, very straight forward standard SIM assessment. BUT, I think it is the most important part of the screening. Overall a very relaxed, professional and pleasant atmosphere during the whole SIM and you´ll get notified if you pass or not right after...no waiting and biting your fingernails in your room!

In the afternoon you´ll do a tech exam with 50 questions covering general ATPL knowledge. A lot of WX related stuff, so study your METAR and TAF codes well. Apparently this test hasn´t been updated or checked very thoroughly so you´ll notice a few wrong answers at the end when you return your papers and it gets checked. I´m pretty sure I got way over 90% correctly, but ended up with a mere 82% success...due to these wrong answers, so if you feel wronged and injusticed it´s up to you either to argue or not with the HR people monitoring the test (remember they´re not pilots and probably will not understand half of what you´re talking about anyway). The minimum for a pass is 70%, so in my case, as I didn´t see any point in arguing, I just disregarded the obvious typos and errors in the test and pretended I was happy with the result.

On the second day you´re in for the interview. A 3-man panel with 2 pilots from management and someone from HR. First a 5 min personnal introduction, then the questions start coming. Again, if you´re rated you´ll be asked question about the B744, if not they may ask something about the acft you´re currently operating so be prepared. I´m rated and was even asked quite detailed questions about my previous types (A320)! Be prepared to answer questions about limitations, SOP´s (widshear, GPWS, TCAS and emergency descent maneuvers), as well as acft general system knowledge.

Additionally to these subjects above, my tech interview was heavily based on other issues like RNAV, RNP, CAT 2, Oceanic Ops, RVSM contingencies (WX deviations and emergencies), GO / NO-GO decisions (RTO), pilot incapacitation, weather radar operation. All these were asked from me and as far as I know from the other candidates as well. I strongly recommend studying well your current FCTM, FCOM, FOM and SOP´s as well as general ATPL subjects (and for those already asking...NO I don´t think ACE will be enough unless you already master all above mentioned knowledge). At the end they may ask you what you know about the company, so here´s your chance to make an impression! They even asked me what type I would like to be placed in (in order of priority) and when could I start.

You´ll be notified early in the afternoon if you passed the interview and if positive, you´ll have an ICAO english test, regardless of already having the endorsement on your license. Very straight foward and standard test / interview lasting around 45 minutes.

On the last 2 days you´ll go for the Taiwanese Aviation Medical, which is quite thorough. It will start early each the morning. The first day will be long and you´ll be off after 5pm, and on the second day around noon. The schedule will naturally depend a bit on how many candidates will be doing the exams, but this is pretty close to what you should expect. The medical will be held at the Taiwan International Airport, which is in downtown Taipei, so a good chance to visit the city after you´re done on the second day! EVA will drive you there each morning, but the return to the company´s quarters will be at your own expense either by bus (cheap) or taxi (around USD 30). I chose the latter is it was much faster, but public transportation seemed quite decent and organized (good subway system by the way in my opinion). For those wondering...the Taiwanese Authorities accept LASIK without restrictions...I asked at the Hospital during my eye exams as there´s a thread on another forum regarding this issue with Asian carriers, and I thought it would be nice to know anyway.

I did my screening back in the beginning of october, and so far not a word from EVA regarding course dates or medical results. HR did indeed mention to us during the screening that recruitment would be slowing down towards the end of the year and that at the time EVA didn´t have an exact course date set yet...maybe november or december the earliest.

Regarding the contract´s terms and conditions, what we received was a very basic draft contract which has already been discussed at other forums, but one thing I think is worth mentioning...training bond is 4 years and USD 60.000. Now, we all know you can get a full B744 TR at Lufthansa in Frankfurt for a third of that price, and training is done in-company at EVA (no high training costs, so not sure why such a high bond), so it´s up to each man to decide whether it´s worth signing the contract or not. But remember, you´ll get a SIC restricted Taiwanese license which AFAIK is not very well accepted by foreign Civil Aviation Authorities around the world. Just something to think about.

As soon as I receive the full details of the contract I will be sure to post them here (if I get an employment offer naturally).

Hope this helps and feel free to PM me for any other details I may have overlooked. Remember this was how my screening was done and it may have been different for other groups.

The best of luck to all!

Upspeed.

 

Upspeed, thanks for the detailed post...very interesting. I know you said you would come back w/ more info later, but how much could a new hire expect to make 1st year? Good luck and enjoy "Buffalo-Town" just don't tell the wife. Cheers...H

 

Nice write-up Upspeed


TP

 

Wow... $60k for four years for an SIC type rating. Does anyone else think that that's a hell of a lot to ask? And does anyone know what is involved in converting it to a PIC type?

 

Agreed. Four years and 60k would be too much even for a PIC rating.

 

EVA have had so many pilots leave after 1,2, and 3 years that they instituted their rather draconian bond many years ago.

A Taiwanese license is not an ICAO license. That said, it's the time in type that really matters and EVA will get you that. We have a lot of ex EVA guys at Emirates. Many who left early and paid off the bond.

Singapore has been even worse over the last few years. They required the bond and a bank guarantee. I think China Airlines of Taiwan has also been requiring the bank guarantee.

The problem with EVA has historically been very low pay for these F.O. positions. I'm waiting to see what Upspeed's offer is, but usually it's been around $5000 per month plus maybe another $1000 for housing. I really hope it has improved.


Typhoonpilot