Desperate to go overseas

[jsfboat]

I'm wrapping up my CFI, and will have my CFII by end of June, and am finishing up my last semester of college. I have just over 300 hours, and I'm desperate to go abroad for a while. Any ideas for a very low time pilot who wants to leave the US for a while?

I'm willing to go over to Africa, Oz, New Zealand, just want a change of scenery and some adventure.

[V1... Ooops]

JSF:

I am guessing that you will be looking for employment as a pilot if you venture abroad.

Be aware that it is not particularly easy to convert a pilot licence from one country (e.g. America) to the equivalent licence, with full privileges, from another country. The process can be slow, usually involves writing tests, may involve attending some classes, and will certainly involve checkrides.

If you had a particular skill that was in high demand (e.g. you happened to have 1,000 hours PIC on an Airbus 380), your prospective employer would undertake to do all the paperwork, pay all the money, set up the tests and checkrides and so forth. But, it is unlikely that anyone will be willing to do that for you, because it is highly probable that an employer can find someone with the same credentials and skill-set in their own country.

I wish I could provide you with a more optimistic answer, but honestly, unless you have some other unique qualifications that you have not disclosed (e.g. you are fluently multilingual, or you have a passport from a second country, etc.) I think you will have a difficult (and expensive) time finding employment as a pilot in another country. The only possible exception would be if someone needs an American-licenced pilot to fly an N registered aircraft in a foreign country - but even then, you would have to deal with work permits and other matters that are not directly related to aviation.

But - good luck anyway! :)

[B200Drvr]

Look at Southern Africa, not South Africa, but places like Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique.

[WDaron]

Fly to Jo'burg and do a South African licence validation. Try not to get car-jacked, mugged, beaten, robbed, or other-wise assaulted in the process. Expect to spend about a month there, with delays included in that.

Then, as noted above, try the Southern African countries like Botwana or Namibia, who frequently hire low low time pilots to fly piston aircraft and even 2 crew Caravans in the bush. Be prepared to seriously pound the pavement in doing so, following all leads. Network like crazy, jobs sometimes materialize overnight when somebody leaves and be prepared to pursue them as best you can.

Its not going to be easy, but if you are truly as "desperate" to get abroad as you say you are, you'll do it.

[V1... Ooops]

...Try not to get car-jacked, mugged, beaten, robbed, or other-wise assaulted in the process...

Daron: You missed the fine print in JSF's user profile (to the left of his original post, above). Note that he is from Trenton, New Jersey. Heck, after he shows up in Gauteng and compares it to what he left behind in New Jersey, he'll think he's arrived in Switzerland.

:E

[JTrain]

Daron: You missed the fine print in JSF's user profile (to the left of his original post, above). Note that he is from Trenton, New Jersey. Heck, after he shows up in Gauteng and compares it to what he left behind in New Jersey, he'll think he's arrived in Switzerland.

Dude - I'd think South Central LA, Harlem, inner city DC, Brooklyn, let alone Trenton NJ are MUCH safer than the Johannesburg/Pretoria area.

South Africa makes America look like a safe, crime-free place. I always wince when I go through there and read a newspaper....so much senseless, random violence. Everybody who can afford it lives behind electric fences with armed guards, trained attack dogs, and all sorts of other anti-criminal protections.

I don't blame all the South Africans I know for leaving the place....the government is just so ignorant of the problem and they don't do a thing to fix it. I read an article recently about some South African military contractor said he felt safer in Iraq than he did back home. Having spent about 3 months total there over the past few years, I can see why.