Originally Posted by
xclozano
I’ve been to Australia many times over the years and have found Australian living standards far superior to American ones.
Wages might not be as good for pilots as they are in the US, but you guys have a better healthcare system, better education system, much more liveable cities, no mass shootings, better worker protections.
I’d like to raise a family and Australia is a much better place than America to raise kids.
You got a very good point here. Was a skipper myself in Aussieland, got hired by Ansett Australia(R.I.P.) to operate their brand new CRJ's 200 back in 2000 after they bought that "bush flying" outfit Kendell(Kendall?) Airlines. Aparently only 50% of the Kendell Saab 340 drivers managed the transition to jets AND(more importantly I think) the, carefully sarcasm(^^), slightly complicated Ansett SOP. At that point Ansett hired a bunch of CRJ jockey from all around the world(had south american, US Americans, Canadians and me, as sole european, in the group). Even us they "selected" pretty well, as I had tons of hours on the CRJ(however, only 600 in Command at that time) "linetrainingselection" was still a piece of cake for me. If I remember right 7 got failed from my group alone by our Linetrainer. Easy if you know zillion times more stuff about the aircraft (especially we really used to fly the CRJ in a "proper" manner back here in Europe, No FD, many raw data approaches, visual departures out of Innsbruck, etc.) than your Linetrainer.
However, I got the feel that some Aussies actually thought they would be superior pilots(especially some Ansett and Qantas jockeys) - they werent't(of course)!
Now, around 2000 Australian Aviation was THAT desperate, they actually accepted my western european ICAO License. Never did the Aussie ATPL in over 1 1/2 years(after Sept. 11 they went belly up and this was the end to my "Australian Adventure" and I went back to Europe), even the company wanted me to do that strange(nicely said) "english examination that was supposed to be airlaw exam. I enjoyed my off day, ticked the questions without ever checking the basket full of books that we had to bring to that joke of an examination and enjoyed the rest of my off day doing nicer things like enjoying time with my wife. This happened a few times till they closed for good.
Based on my experience back in 2000 I can only assume which bs is now required to actually get a rather useless license(except for an Australian of course). As well many things in "day to day airline aviation" were very strange for a guy coming from a continent with far more traffic, slots and and and.
In a nutshell - I enjoyed my time away from aviation in Australia. The flying itself was a pain in the a.., was actually quiet happy when my contract ended by bancruptcy and I could come back to Europe.
But it is as well true that many US Americans really loved Australia. As you said, they mentioned the same, quality of life, you could walk free and safe in ANY Australian City, Education and Healthcare for EVERYONE(the big thing that is not the case in the US, but hey, a big military is of course much more important then public healthcare). I guess that is even now more true then it was back in 2000(of course you simply could come to Europe - if you qualify - as it is even better over here. Some Aussies still think that "down under" is the place to go to improve their life but they tend to forget that most likely they left in the one or 2 decades after the war, and then, indeed, Australia offered the better life quality compared to a bombed out Germany or Austria(or Eastern Europe under Russian Pressure). Things changed and now actually a lot of Australians with double passport, thanks to their parents, are actually doing the reverse move).
Not sure if you would enjoy the flying part, dealing with the aviation authority and so on. I did not.