EXPAT1

Obviously you don't know much about Chinese Airlines and work rules. All Chinese pilots fly 900+ hours per year. Schedulers are rewarded for getting maximum productivity from their pilots ie if a pilot flies 998 hours per year then the scheduling department will receive a bonus as they were efficiently scheduling. You can always tell how long a pilot has been flying here
by asking his total time. If he has 10,000 hours he has been flying about 10 years, if he has 15,000 hours he has been flying 15 years and so on. This is not a profession for them it is a lifetime contract in which they are indebted and obligated to fly for their entire working lifetime as an employee for their employer's training and opportunity offered. You cannot quit a Chinese airline and change jobs as a Chinese employee, you are obligated both societally, legally and contractually to continue for your entire working lifetime with your employer. It is Hotel California batman, you check out but you can never LEAVE.

frozenboxhauler

I actually know quite a bit about China ops. How long is the training that qualifies one to become a commercial pilot in China? I would think that it would take at least 1 year just to have a commercial license that still "dripping wet". I average about 700 hours a year where I work and I fly into and out of the PRC at least 3 times a month. I'm just saying that the "experience level" is not there. This Captain could, at most, only had 4 winter seasons total. This doesn't give a lot of background to call from when faced with all of the challenges that go along with operating in the mainland. I would not want to put my family on his airplane.
I'm not begrudging this guy anything. The fact that it took me 8 years and about 7500 hours to make it to a major and then another 10 until I checked out as captain is irrelevant. You can use your equation to roughly determine the number of hours that an active commercial pilot has in the US too, but it's once they're established with their employer, not from their first "intro" flight.
fbh

RMWRIGHT

i have sent cpa beijing a pm and they never bothered to reply... lets see if there is a pilot shortage..... i offer the following: holder of licenses atp single and multi engine land and sea faa , atpl canada and philippines multi engine land . type rated pic a320 b737 no limitations on atp license or ratings. flight dispatcher faa , flight instructor multi and instrument airplane faa, ground instructor advanced and instrument faa, have passed flight engineer turbojet and flight navigator faa knowledge exams, commerical glider faa, secret security clearance usa, tsa twic , r/telephone licenses usa/canada/philippines, small arms training, train the trainer, ditching, tesl, 1st class medicals, speak a number of languages, us and canadian passports, permanent resident visa chile, argentina, UK and philippines, all who shots , driver licenses etc etc so there you go , i have been sending out resumes for months and no luck (pilot shortage ?) ! if you are a recruiter who wants to offer me a real solid job please PM me and i will give you my phone number. apf members i will revert in 7 days with my results

Typhoonpilot

That sounds like a reasonable resume and experience, but I would ask three questions:


1) Do you have any time in type for the A320 and 737 ratings?


2) How much total time do you have?


3) Does your resume lack capital letters and proper punctuation like the above post?


All important. Without time in type those type ratings are not worth much. Without much total time you will need experience. If your resume is not readable or otherwise presents poorly it would generally get tossed. A good resume service might come in handy for you.



Typhoonpilot

Probe

Outside of legacy 1st world carriers, 0- Capt in 4 years is the norm. That includes some low cost Aussie owned carriers in Asia. Vietnam Airlines hired an expat 320 TRE with 4000 TT and 4.5 years experience from Air Asia.

It doesn't matter if it is right or wrong, it is what it is. The Chinese have a decent safety record the last 10-14 years. Their path to captain, while short, is very difficult. It is much more difficult than most other Asian carriers. From the time they step into the right seat they are continuously evaluated and tested. They aren't perfect, but their safety record speaks for itself. They also fly into some of the most challenging airports in the world. They wouldn't let expats fly there so I never flew to any of them.

RMWRIGHT

neglected to mention 2800 hours total, no time on type. catch 22, cant get a job without experience and can't get experience without a job.... again any job offers PM me and i will send my proper, well written CV (resume') in the queens english. no P2F scams please.

Typhoonpilot

Air Macau, has in the past, hired no time guys into the A320 if they had the type. So you might give them a try. Copa on the 737 might be worth a try as well. Watch Malaysia, if MAS goes out of business then I would bet Air Asia will hire a lot of guys quickly onto the 320.

I'd say you're going to have to start near the bottom of the desirable carriers; get experience; then move to a more desirable one. Sometimes it takes two or three moves to get to where you want to be. Some guys went Air Macau, Tiger, and Emirates in that order.

I'm guessing you have apps in at the U.S. carriers as well? Spirit, Allegiant, JetBlue, Miami Air, etc.



TP

EXPAT1

I'm not questioning your knowledge of flight ops. in China simply your knowledge of how Chinese airlines hire, recruit, train and retain their workforce. Most cadets are trained in the US and receive their Multi Engine CPL in about 12 months which includes about 20 hours in a King Air. The cadets trained in China do it through a 4 year University program so much slower and much more expensive. The stateside cadets taking their "Dripping Wet" CPL and take a written test to convert it from FAA to CAAC and then start intensive Ground School and Sim training on their respective aircraft normally a 737 NG or A-320. The young Captains may not have the experience levels you are accustomed to coming from a US Major but they are safe nevertheless. At my airline we have Boeing Instructors come and teach CRM on an annual basis. They always show a safety slide comparing the various regions of the world's safety records per hours flown. The Chinese safety record actually surpasses N. America. I am not saying it is more safe simply they have a lower accident rate per hour flown. As Probe indicated the pilots here are continuously monitored and scrutinized all throughout their career. The QAR data or (Quick Access Recorder) on most modern age jets record everything from a flight from initial start up until engine shut down. Any flying done outside of established criteria is recorded and displayed on a daily basis posted to a website. For example if you land more than 2000 feet down the runway a Level 1 QAR event displays. If you land more than 3000 feet down the runway a Level 2 QAR event displays. You are fined and punished if you have too many of these. All flying parameters are shown from takeoff, cruise, descent, landing, taxiing all the way up until engine shut down. We simply in the US do not scrutinize and evaluate our performance to this extent like the Chinese do. Like Probe said it is what it is here in China with fast upgrades. Yes they are inexperienced compared to a N. American pilot but they are safe and they are continuously monitored, tested and evaluated. In regards to flying hours, I worked for a US Major for 13 years and never flew more than 600 hours per year and averaged under 500 hours. The Chinese simply fly much much more on average. Schedulers are rewarded for efficiently utilizing their pilots right up to the 1000 hour max. limitation. If you have 10,000 hours in China you have been flying for about 10 years. If you have 10,000 hours in the US most pilots took at least 15 years to acquire this. The productivity here is much more extreme with long long duty days some close to 16 hours and massive ATC flow control. Remember the Chinese military OWNS all the airspace and can close it on a moments notice.

Probe

RMWRIGHT;
To Typhoons list, I would add Tiger and Jetstar. They both hire low time guys and upgrade. 2800 TT is probably high time compared to most of the FO's they hire. Tiger has several subsidiaries under different names like Mandala. Between the two I would take Jetstar.

One of the problems in SE Asia is there are a few thousand Indians with CPL's and types with no time. They are driving the P2F stuff.

There is also Hong Kong Airlines, HK Express, and now Jetstar HK. They will probably all upgrade expat FO's in the future.

Good luck

RMWRIGHT

Update
I have been looking for a job about a month.
My first choice was an airline, second instructor and third skydive/banner towing. So far I've had one phone interview with a small airline (heard nothing back ) and two flight schools sent me an email asking me to fill out an application. (even though my resume' states everything they ask on their forms) and nothing from the skydive people.
No PM's in my APF inbox.