Any pilots here flying in Asia?

[ksna]

I was hoping to get some input from pilots here who are flying in or through Asia. I am in the process of lining up an interview with a company in Hong Kong and have concernes on how hard the language barrier is? Also, if any of you actually work over there could you please enlighten me of any other concerns/problems I would face over there coming from the states. Thanks so much for your time.

 

[fareview]

I was hoping to get some input from pilots here who are flying in or through Asia. I am in the process of lining up an interview with a company in Hong Kong and have concernes on how hard the language barrier is? Also, if any of you actually work over there could you please enlighten me of any other concerns/problems I would face over there coming from the states. Thanks so much for your time.

pm me,

fareview.

 

[typhoonpilot]

I was hoping to get some input from pilots here who are flying in or through Asia. I am in the process of lining up an interview with a company in Hong Kong and have concernes on how hard the language barrier is? Also, if any of you actually work over there could you please enlighten me of any other concerns/problems I would face over there coming from the states. Thanks so much for your time.

They speak the Queen's English in Hong Kong. Other than a few strange words, like boot and bonet and the ever annoying tendency to pronounce Z as Zed I think it should be pretty easy to get by.

Flying in that region is all in English. Going into mainland China the Chinese controllers and pilots will speak to each other in Mandarin, sort of like flying in Quebec or Mexico. A little loss of situational awareness because you have no idea what they are saying to each other, but not too terrible.


Typhoonpilot

 

[ksna]

typhoonpilot-

Thank you. I have done a trip through Europe so I know the feeling when people are speaking their native language. Is it really that easy? I'm really just worried about mistaking ATC's instructions.

 

[VABB]

typhoonpilot-

Thank you. I have done a trip through Europe so I know the feeling when people are speaking their native language. Is it really that easy? I'm really just worried about mistaking ATC's instructions.

You will never get violated for asking for too many repeats on ATC instructions. When in doubt, ask them to phoenetically spell the fix for you if they haven't done so already.

Also, when you change frequencies it is a good idea to know the fixes at the FIR boundaries. Sometimes they want to know your estimate, and sometimes they will then clear you direct to it. Knowing it ahead of time makes the comm much more easy to deal with.

 

[Cpt. Underpants]

ksna...I am in HKG with Cathay (17 years now) and I love it here. I presume you're looking at Oasis? I have my doubts on their long-term viability, but if all you're after is a B744 type rating, go for it.

TP: apparently, you're all on notice...

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
1. You should look up revocation in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up aluminium. Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour', skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix ize will be replaced by the suffix ise. You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to respell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.
Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up vocabulary. Using the same twenty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up interspersed. There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary then you won't have to use bad language as often.
2. There is no such thing as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.
3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney,upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents - Scottish dramas such as Taggart will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is Devon. If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become shires e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.
4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as Men Behaving Badly or Red Dwarf will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.
5. You should relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.
6. You should stop playing American football. There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American football is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays American football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders,your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called rounders, which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.
7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called Indecisive Day.
9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time,you will go metric with immediate effect and conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.
11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.
12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer,and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. The substances formerly known as American Beer will henceforth be referred to as Near-Frozen Knat's Urine,with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as Weak Near-Frozen Knat's Urine. This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in Pilsen,Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.
13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or Gasoline, as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon- get used to it).
14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.
15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.
16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).
Thank you for your co-operation and have a great day.
John Cleese

 

[ksna]

Cpt. Underpants-

Dragon Air. What are your thoughts on them? The base would be Hong Kong- Any thoughts of it? Thanks

 

[Cpt. Underpants]

Dragonair is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cathay Pacific. The buyout was quite recent and there are a lot of changes coming with Cathay managing the show. They (Cathay) have publicly stated that there are no drastic changes envisioned for five years, but clearly there is a larger agenda - less than a week after the buyout, Cathay trimmed Dragonairs' workforce by 700. Dragonairs' maintenance is already switched to HAECO (owned by Cathay) and so has all their flight-planning software - rational, I suppose. We (CX) now also use Dragons' simulators as ours are full-out (busy).

It's all speculative, but the general feeling here is that rather than a "merged" company, Dragonair is destined to become Cathay's answer to Silkair (Singapore Airlines' regional carrier) and a response to JetStar, Tiger and Air Asia, all regional LCC's. Whether there will be growth, shrinkage or no change in fleet size is unknown. Cathay has stated it's intention of laying it's hands on Dragon's latest three A330-300 (ETOPS) aircraft for it's own fleet expansion, so in the short term, shrinkage is probable. The up-side is that staff turnover is higher than in "regular" airlines, so promotion is fairly rapid - about 3-4 years to an A320 command, 5-7 years to an A330 command...at present rates. Salaries are not bad, about 15% less than Cathay's B-scale. I expect that there will be some change to salaries in the short term, likely marginally increased (Cathay's salaries are going to be adjusted upwards in the near future - somewhere between 15 - 18%).

There is no doubt that whilst Dragonair will be a better-managed company than in the past, it will be more impersonal and profit-orientated.

Hong Kong as a domicile is not for everyone - do your homework before you come here. Air pollution is a troubling issue, you will be flying into some seriously third-world destinations, with basic ATC. And although taxes are low, the cost of living is high. The flying is great though, and if you're a single man, the opportunity to hook up with a neat LBFM is good.

This is not the USA, and labour protection is minimal. HR leaves a lot to be desired, and you will not enjoy the same sort of scheduling that someone flying for an equivalent airline in the USA will. BUT...if it's adventure you're after, you'll love it.

 

[typhoonpilot]

TP: apparently, you're all on notice...

Luckily my house is in Utah :smash: .

Funny, I just spent yesterday re-writing a document originally done by a Kiwi and had lots of fun changing all the ise's to ize's and eliminating the u in words that it didn't belong in .

At EK we use original Boeing documents on the 777. Naturally they are written properly. The Boeing motto should become, " Teaching the world proper English, one airplane at a time "


TP

 

[ACT700]

Capt. Underpants,

that quote was hilarious!