TheFirstDohrnPilot

Hmmmm interesting post KAG. What's stopping westerners such as myself taking advantage of this supposed Chinese good fortune? (it's usually the other way round lol) I'm getting what you're saying about the optimism/realism, though.

cheers

zondaracer

They hire westerns like KAG who have thousands of hours and Captain experience because they need captains. They don't necessarily need western first officers, because they can easily get locals trained.

TheFirstDohrnPilot

average-punter, that's true but I was maybe thinking that language barrier would be a bigger problem?
I see zondaracer... seems strange doesn't it, that they can get their own FO's but are lacking captains... haha

zondaracer

Not strange really. You dont produce captains at a flying school. You produce captains by giving first officers a lot of experience flying with experienced captains. Air travel expanded quite quickly in China recently, lots of airplanes were purchased without having enough experienced captains around, so they hired foreign captains to fill the gap.

So, the ¥1,265,000 question is how do you get your foot in the door to get that experience? Well, the answer is a doom and gloom one.

smith

Not strange at all, the economic boom in China in recent years has led to a boom in air travel also.

New routes, higher frequency of flights between destinations, more people flying has led to a great demand of new aircraft. You can not just magic experienced captains out of thin air hence the need for experienced ex pats to fill the LHS. On the other hand you CAN just magic 200hr first officers straight out of flight school in a relatively short period of time and as long as they have all the paperwork to keep it legal, they are good to go. Looks like the economy of china is going to grow for some time and they will need a supply of experienced commanders. Eventually as the 200 hour cadets gain the experience for command upgrade the need for expats will start to slow down but just a tad.