Aeroflot or South American jobs?

[PeteCO]

Anyone know what Aeroflot's requirements are, or if there are any trash haulers in SA flying 727's looking for people?

 

[rumpletumbler]

I think you have to drink a couple of litres of Vodka a day to work for Aeroflot. You also need to have your own socket set to tighten your seat down etc.

 

[cherokee]

Perhaps you should get a commercial pilot certificate and multi engine rating before you look for work in the third world. Oh, and 1200 hours too.

 

[vetteracer]

Are you one of those 727 PFT’ers. There was a post a while back about this company you pay to sit in the right seat of a 727.

Mark

 

[PeteCO]

Ya think?

The reason I ask is that I am probably going to go the ATP route, since I've decided to take 1 year off work. After that, my wife and I want to travel abroad, and spend up to 2 years in either South America or Russia. I'll be rapidly building hours as of next month, when I begin my leave. I will have the luxury of pretty much being able to build as much time as I want, and I only wanted to know what the hiring situation is in those two regions, ok?

 

[bobbysamd]

Back in the USSR, you don't know how lucky you are, boy . . .

But not in the case of pilot hiring. Generally, foreign countries hire their own nationals first and turn to foreigners only if there is a shortage of qualified nationals to fill the positions. By qualified I mean tons of time, tons of turbine time and probably tons of time in type. It would not appear that you will acquire any of these credentials any time soon.

I do not have any first-hand knowledge, but I suspect that there are plenty of qualfied Russian pilots available for any available pilot jobs, especially Aeroflot, and that Americans would be far down the list of expats Russian companies might hire, if they hire American expats at all. Not to mention that the process of converting your certificates to Russian licenses is sure to be as byzantine as the Kremlin.

South American companies hire American expats, but you run into the same problems of nationals being the first to be hired, with only well-qualified expats being considered only if there are no qualified nationals.

Good luck with your efforts, but maybe you should consider some other kind of work while you're living abroad.

 

[typhoonpilot]

Bobby has got it right. These are not two of the areas that are known for hiring expats, in fact quite the opposite. You would have an easier time in Asia, the Middle East, or Africa. There is a looming pilot shortage in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. In fact there was an article about that in Flight International this week. You might look at Tiger Airways, Valuair, Air Asia, Thai Air Asia, One Two Go, Phuket Airways, Orient Thai, etc. If you are in the region and show up at the right time you may get lucky. Most of those are 737 or Airbus 320 operators. You would probably need to convert your U.S. certificate to one from the applicable country and also offer to pay or be bonded for your conversion. Still I suspect your time and expereince might not be good enough yet even for those carriers. You might start with some African bush operators, especially Kenya and Tanzania. The UN charter deals based in Nairobi might be a good place to look. Falcon Express, a Beech 1900 operator, in Dubai is another place that hires low time pilots. With them you get the extra excitement of flying into Baghdad .Typhoonpilot

 

[PeteCO]

Thanks

Thanks. It seemed like kind of a long shot, but I was curious about it anyway. I'm going to buy a twin soon, and from what I have learned this afternoon, dealing with customs, airspace and all that stuff might be just as difficult. Looks like Russia is the more likely destination, and we will be flying our twin over there and using it during our stay. Hope they have 100LL over there in quantity.....

 

[PeteCO]

Hmm

Phuket Airways ?????? Wow.

 

[YaMama]

My guess is that your biggest obstacle would not be the hours or the beauracracy, but the language. If you really want to do this, be prepared to throw yourself into several months of intensive language study, after you pick a region of course.

 

[pilot_guy]

flying your own into Mother Russia???

Man, you got some big sack...

I would have numerous concerns about this trip. Fuel quality being the first one.

Second, as a former military man having spent time in Russia, be advised that things are quite different in the way of airspace systems.

If you're looking for an English-speaking controller, good luck, unless you fly high altitude throughout your route, and unless that "twin" is a King Air, I know that ain't gonna happen. There are no "Centers" as here in the U.S. ATC is centrally located in Moscow.

Even if you wanted to do it all VFR while in Russia, tower and ground controllers most likely do not speak English, and technical Russian isn't something that can be learned overnight.

One last hurdle. Now, I haven't been there in three years now, but last time I was there, foreign pilots flying around in Russia had to "hire" a "navigator" (read out of work Russian pilot.) to ride right seat while flying in Russia, due to language constraints and flying through their whacky airspace system. If you wanna fork out the cash, then more power to ya, but I think the other two factors would be enough to deter me, as these people have a hard enough time getting real necessities, so Avgas is pretty low on their list of priorities.

Take care, and good luck. If you go, drop us a line and let us know how things turned out.

 

[PeteCO]

Man, you got some big sack...

I would have numerous concerns about this trip. Fuel quality being the first one.

Second, as a former military man having spent time in Russia, be advised that things are quite different in the way of airspace systems.

If you're looking for an English-speaking controller, good luck, unless you fly high altitude throughout your route, and unless that "twin" is a King Air, I know that ain't gonna happen. There are no "Centers" as here in the U.S. ATC is centrally located in Moscow.

Even if you wanted to do it all VFR while in Russia, tower and ground controllers most likely do not speak English, and technical Russian isn't something that can be learned overnight.

One last hurdle. Now, I haven't been there in three years now, but last time I was there, foreign pilots flying around in Russia had to "hire" a "navigator" (read out of work Russian pilot.) to ride right seat while flying in Russia, due to language constraints and flying through their whacky airspace system. If you wanna fork out the cash, then more power to ya, but I think the other two factors would be enough to deter me, as these people have a hard enough time getting real necessities, so Avgas is pretty low on their list of priorities.

Take care, and good luck. If you go, drop us a line and let us know how things turned out.

Ugh yuck. I have only begun to research this, and have not yet looked into the russian airspace, licensing, etc stuff. Thanks for the heads up. The twin will be a Seneca or Baron.

 

[pilot_guy]

no problem.

Like I said, I haven't been there in three years. When I was there though, all the foreign pilots had to hire a "navigator". I guess it was a way to keep their own flying. Not a bad idea if you ask me. If we did it here, it would make the foreign pilots think twice about coming over to beat us out of work.

I tried to get into flying down in Cent. and S. America. No dice there either. Taca and Aviacsa, etc. only hire their own nationals. I then contacted some operators in Belize, and same thing. A couple of the chief pilots down there are American Expats., and yet they both said, "I don't like to hire Americans." Talk about turning your back, right? I mean, someone gave that guy a shot. Too bad we don't do that here.

Oh well. Anyway, if you do go to Russia, enjoy it. The people are friendly, and the dollar goes pretty far. Besides that, it is a very beautiful country.

Take care, and be safe.