Originally Posted by
AirbuzHamster
Hi guys!!
Wow!! What a lot of pages to go through and what a lot of different stories!!
So how is it really now and the next 5 years??!!!
The Good
-Out of the three options in Vietnam, VNA is probably the best overall
-Good chances of getting your 5 year contract respected
-Working atmosphere is quite relaxed, as long as you’re a “standard pilot” and follow SOPs, you’ll stay out of trouble
-Quite reasonable food served on every sector, so generally no need to worry about taking your lunch to work
-If your plan is to commute, they have decent working rosters available and a business seat on their network to catch a flight to wherever you’re heading to.
-If your base is Hanoi, and live in Tay Ho, a 25 minute -traffic free- ride on taxi or bus will get you to the airport.
-Vietnam is not cheap, but also not as expensive as other cities where we have options to work at
-Vietnam is safe -low crime rate- and with a proper mindset, also a cool place to live in
-Locals are generally nice guys to fly with, specially the recently released
The Bad
-Workload has increased lately. Safety Exterior Inspection, Preliminary Cockpit Inspection and Exterior Walkaround are always perfomed by CM1. Additional to that, checking/filling the logbook, signing multiple forms before flight, briefing the cabin crew and performing the emergency intercommunication system check adds to your cockpit preparation and briefing if you’re PF. Transit checks/refueling is now being implemented on various destinations, so you can also add that. Expect multiple change of aircrafts, so be prepared to do again everything mentioned above, once again on every change of aircraft. It gets to you, believe me...
-If weather is ****ty, you’ll do the flying, FOs are not allowed to do so when Xwind exceeds 15k and/or raining.
-FO’s practically only program the MCDU and fly when weather is CAVOK, Captains do everything else.
-If the weather is ****ty (again) you’ll also might have your last minute change of service. Local Captains don’t like to fly into wx and will call roster to fly anywhere else with better wx
-Unless you are wiling to pay 35k + a 20k bond, the upgrade to the 350 is out of the question
-Not the place to plan to be for more than 5 years, locals will eventually fill in the spots
-Pollution in Hanoi can get severe, traffic in Saigon is insane
-Out of the three options available in Vietnam, VNA is the lowest paid
-If you are considering moving with your family, bear in mind that schools are pretty expensive. One kid-ok, two-maybe, three, head to Qatar
The Ugly
-Weather in summer, it gets nasty, expect +TSRA everyday
My point of view, hope it helps... ;-)