Africa

[JohnnyP]

........

Enjoy your time in DXB (shouldn't you be doing things other than posting on FI) and then your week at the beach. I'll think of you while I'm schelpin' my therapeutic milk and vaccinations around the DRC.....

jt

What can I say, posting here is just part of my morning/breakfast/newspaper routine. Its a disease. FI is evil.

 

[woutlaw]

I'll think of you while I'm schelpin' my therapeutic milk and vaccinations around the DRC.....

jt

That sounds like the perfect job for me. Caravan, the odd dirt strip, low pay, Africa, doing some good along the way.

Only 800 more hours to get to AirServ's SE captain mins. Sigh.

 

[JohnnyP]

.......

That sounds like the perfect job for me. Caravan, the odd dirt strip

JTrain, correct me if im wrong, but arent most of the strips you guys hit dirt strips?

Side note-----I saw some of DC's pics of the places they were taking the BE20 into, and even they looked fairly "muddy" and unimproved for a KingAir.

 

[JTrain]

That sounds like the perfect job for me. Caravan, the odd dirt strip, low pay, Africa, doing some good along the way.

Only 800 more hours to get to AirServ's SE captain mins. Sigh.

Hey, it ain't that bad.

Both myself and the recently-retired JohnnyP were way over the Air Serv hour requirements when we were brought aboard, but the important thing to note is that we are here because we WANT to be here, helping out in the humanitarian air links that Air Serv provides.

Don't come to Air Serv if you're just a timebuilder, there are far easier ways to get yours hours, god knows the regional minimums have fallen to rock bottom numbers.

I flew for almost 6yrs for a regional, this job is much more demanding, but rewarding in ways you can barely imagine until you experience it.

If Air Serv is a place you want to be, get ahold of the pilot recruiting folks at the home office. They are really nice people and if this is a place you want to be, show them that, and I'm sure they'll slot you in for an interview.

Just make sure this is the kind of place you want to be - read up on the Air Serv website about what the company does, what it stands for, the demands and stresses that will be placed upon you.

If you have any more q's about Air Serv, feel free to PM me.

jt

 

[JTrain]

JTrain, correct me if im wrong, but arent most of the strips you guys hit dirt strips?

Side note-----I saw some of DC's pics of the places they were taking the BE20 into, and even they looked fairly "muddy" and unimproved for a KingAir.

Yes - they do take the King Airs into a lot of dirt fields in the DRC. I only got about 50hrs flying it around here, but I've seen pictures of it caked in mud.....

But, I returned to my senses and came back to the Caravan. King Air flying is boring in the Congo - punch up to FL250, and cruise for 3hrs. The Caravan, with lots of legs, short, challenging, rough field landing strips, lots of loading/unloading, and of course lots of MSF hotties to be hauled around, is my kind of airplane

jt

 

[JohnnyP]

and of course lots of MSF hotties to be hauled around, is my kind of airplane

jt

Lucky Bas***. The days of me getting a load of cute ladies in the back was few and very far between.

 

[JohnnyP]

Hey, it ain't that bad.

Both myself and the recently-retired JohnnyP were way over the Air Serv hour requirements when we were brought aboard,

jt

They didnt even roll the fire trucks for my retirement flight, can you believe it???

 

[woutlaw]

If Air Serv is a place you want to be, get ahold of the pilot recruiting folks at the home office. They are really nice people and if this is a place you want to be, show them that, and I'm sure they'll slot you in for an interview.

jt

Thanks for the encouragement.

Yup, it's the perfect opportunity for me. No interest in the regionals and no interest in just building time. It's the humanitarian aspect that appeals along with the locations. Might as well do some good with what piloting skills I have. And I love flying off of dirt.

Posted here a while ago wondering about NGO opportunities and AirServ came up then too, along with some good advice from JohnnyP. I've been really impressed with how straight forward and supportive you guys have been.

As an aside, if you're interested in Africa, check out "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Baeh. It's a pretty remarkable book about his experiences growing up in Sierra Leone, being displaced by the civil war, fighting as a child (I think he was 13 when he started) soldier and ultimately being rehabilitated. I read it in one sitting yesterday.

Thanks guys, I'll stay on it.

 

[JTrain]

They didnt even roll the fire trucks for my retirement flight, can you believe it???

Somehow I can.....

 

[dhc8drvr]

"Long way gone" was a great read. Makes you cherish everything we take for granted in the western world.

 

[414Flyer]

My copilot last year got malaria, but that just goes to show why you should take it seriously and not slack off on the pills. This was in west Africa, Mali.

There were white women to look at, from Ukraine that worked in the bars. While I am sure some of them took the opportunity to make extra cash on the side, it probably would not have been too hard to score for free with them, if one is willing to go out with them at 2am when they get off of work, and stay out with them until 6am when they actually go home. Unfortunately I worked every day while I was there. I still recommend that to take plenty of porn and you start considering "going native", that you watch computer porn and then go to sleep afterwards, saves yourself a lot of potential problems.

Mali contract actually paid well, although it is not a cheap place at all to live. Lot of south africans working there, actually anywhere in Africa as a pilot, you will run into South Africans.

I knew some of the MAF guys in Mali last year. I think they are gone now, but then I moved to Idaho last year, and well my neighbor is MAF, turns out there HQ is here.