Work in China?

[Thilo]

Hi all

Does anybody know if there is any work in China, and how to contact them?

I understand that there is an altitude restriction of a 1000 meters at the moment, and due to this commercial aviation is fairly restricted.
I already applied with Heli China (http://www.helichina.co.nz), they are just waiting for the restriction to be lifted (pun...)

Any info is appreciated,

Thilo

[hueyracer]

Calculate on 1-2 years before you can get a work permit..that is where most people stop looking...

[I-IIII]

Hi all

Does anybody know if there is any work in China, and how to contact them?

I understand that there is an altitude restriction of a 1000 meters at the moment, and due to this commercial aviation is fairly restricted.
I already applied with Heli China (http://www.helichina.co.nz), they are just waiting for the restriction to be lifted (pun...)

Any info is appreciated,

Thilo
Www.helijobs.net

[Thilo]

Www.helijobs.net
Thanks I-IIII. I already applied for that job a month ago through another agency,never got a reply...:(

[GoodGrief]

There was probably no response because the jobs are for american citizens only...:=

[Fareastdriver]

No reason for that as it is a New Zealand company. The CAAC will honour most country's licences; in fact their English ATPL exam had been created by an Australian company.

As far as I am aware you are wasting your time with a CPL. You must have a Chinese national licence within six months of flying in China. They do not do an English version of the Chinese CPL exams so unless you are fluent in Chinese reading and writing you are wasting your time.

Also you have to be sponsored by a Chinese company so any helicopter company operating in China has to have a partnership with a Chinese company. It may be a sleeping partnership but nothing moves without their sayso.

Attitude, attitude, attitude is the only way to work in China. It is their country and they are proud of it so you have to go along with them. Experience teaches you the way to ease them out of bad habits but if you try and ram anything down their throats you are looking at an early exit.

Best of luck.

[gulliBell]

Whilst I have no direct inside knowledge of that HEMS job in China, I'd be staggered if the crewing didn't involve a recently minted company sponsored Chinese pilot, and they want a foreign guy with a bit of operational experience to make up a crew. Guessing also that said recently minted Chinese pilot probably did his pilot training in a native English speaking country, so he's probably competent enough at English to crew with a non-Chinese speaking pilot. Whilst said Chinese pilot probably has next to zero operational experience, he's probably OK as a pilot commensurate with his experience, and he's probably dedicated to his job and willing to learn. But you really need to seriously contemplate if you want to expose yourself to that environment, flying HEMS in often very limited visibility, amongst all those power lines that are as tall as skyscrapers.
If however it is a single pilot operation, and you don't speak Chinese, forget it. Doesn't matter how experienced a HEMS pilot you are, if you can't speak Chinese you are operationally useless.

Oh, and about that earlier post about taking 2 years to get a China work permit. Not so. My visa to travel to China took 4 days to process once the application was submitted to the local China Consulate. And after I arrived in China on that visa, my China work permit took about 10 days to process. If they want you the necessary paperwork can happen very quickly.

[Fareastdriver]

If you haven't read them here is a couple of posts I put in a couple of years ago.

http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/329990-gaining-r-f-pilots-brevet-ww-ii-211.html

Gives you as idea of what you're up against.

[I-IIII]

Pay
60k-80k
this is called working for free

[gulliBell]

In China, and NZ for that matter, a salary of 60-80K is a fortune. In the current employment market I bet it's a very attractive number to many unemployed helicopter pilots.

[Fareastdriver]

I used to get US$36K just for living expenses.

[Thilo]

Thanks for the replies. I have been looking at the China market for a few years, and I am looking at it long term. But you need to break in first...

It's a huge country with very few civilian aircraft. I believe that when the restrictions are dropped, that there will be a boom in that market.

Don't forget that their economy is still growing at 6%, whereas the west is flat-lined...

Think about the "New Silk Road", that can not be developed and build without a fleet of helicopters of all sizes.

[Fareastdriver]

Marry a Chinese girl and produce in China. Then you can be safe for life.

[gulliBell]

For anybody looking at the China market for the long term, my suggestion is spend a couple of years learning the language first. And that doesn't mean a bit of Cantonese that you might sling around at the local Yum Cha restaurant. It means Mandarin.
It will be years before those restrictions mentioned are dropped. If at all.
And for anybody intent on marrying a China gal to get residency in China, good luck. China gals tend to marry foreign guys so they can get out of China.

[Thilo]

Does anybody know anyone who is working in China at the moment, or has recent experience in that country?

[gulliBell]

@Thilo

Yep. Me. I don't really have much more to add than what I said above.

[Thilo]

@Thilo

Yep. Me. I don't really have much more to add than what I said above.

Hi gulliBell
Thanks for your replies. I have been trying to learn Mandarin from books, CDs and online, but it doesn't help much. I live on my sail boat, and considering dropping my anchor on the Chinese coast somewhere and communicate with the locals and learn the language that way.
But the question remains of how to get a job in China?

[Fareastdriver]

I live on my sail boat, and considering dropping my anchor on the Chinese coast somewhere and communicate with the locals and learn the language that way.

You will certainly have a lot of time to learn the language. Not much English in the Chinese prison system.

[gulliBell]

@Thilo

Far more practical just to dial your internet radio into a Chinese language radio station if you're that keen to learn Mandarin.

To be clear, I'm not aware of any helicopter pilot flying jobs in China for non-Chinese speaking foreign helicopter pilots. I'd be very surprised if that situation were to change any time soon. But I have been wrong on occasion before, so tune in your internet radio and start listening.

Finally, I suggest not parking your sail boat within canon range of the China coast, for the reason Fareastdriver alluded to at #18.

[Thilo]

I don't indent to learn prison slang.... there are plenty legal marinas where I can stay with a tourist visa. I already checked.

[gulliBell]

I'm no expert on China visas, but as far as I know, for tourism, you either need to travel with a tour group, or be invited by a Chinese resident, or apply for visa-on-arrival at one of the SEZ ports. In which cases 6, 30, or 3 day visas are the options. Visas for study are also available, but you'd need to be sponsored by the institution where you intend to study.

So the tourist visa option doesn't give you much time to learn the language.

Another thing to contemplate, in China foreigners are taxed on their income at about 45%. So if you see a salary mentioned anywhere, that number is not even close to what lands in your bank account.

China is very welcoming of foreigners. But make sure all your paperwork is in order first, because the Chinese authorities just love paperwork. I've worked in many less favourable places than China, and not wishing to dampen anyones enthusiasm for coming to China, but there really isn't much opportunity if you want to be employed flying helicopters in China, especially if you don't speak the national language. And I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I just don't see any possibility for employment success by rocking up in a sail boat at a coastal marina armed with a tourist visa, no matter how much ambition drives anyone to try.

[R.OCKAPE]

https://web.archive.org/web/20141109044817/http://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/

here's a clean website with text and audio files for Putonghua and many other languages..

Pleco is a very good app probably the best out there for Chinese and can be downloaded from google play store and apple ...and its free

[Fareastdriver]

Thilo. I don't know your age, matrimonial status or educational qualification but if you are that keen why not get a job teaching English in China.

English is a compulsory subject in China and those wishing to continue their education overseas have to pass what is called TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). This is test of both grammar and conversation. To avoid their students learning what is known as Chinglish they employ foreign native English speakers in colleges to teach correct pronunciation, grammar and the differences between through and threw.

You have to get the qualification first and you can search that on the internet. You will have competition with university students on their gap year and if you are successful you may end up in the back of beyond with no western people or food in sight. If nothing else you will have to learn Mandarin to get around.

It's a suggestion. I know a few that do it including a Kiwi but I have lost contact with them.

[Thilo]

Thanks for all the advice above, this is much appreciated.
BTW, I am 57 today and just short of 10000 hours, mostly in utility & survey work.

[Fareastdriver]

Forget it. I was shortlisted as number one for a simulator job in China and I was unsuccessful because they would not issue new work permits for anyone over sixty.

Unless they had been there before, as I was, who continued until I was nearly sixty nine.

[gulliBell]

Unless you are a highly sought-after Internationally recognised specialist surgeon or similar profession that is in high demand in China you have zero chance of getting a work permit in China at age 60.

Unfortunately, helicopter pilots don't fit in those categories. @Fareastdriver is correct. Forget it, China is just not an option. This is the brutal truth.

[Thilo]

:sad: Bummer!