Back Ground Checks on all Chinese Pilot Cadets
Hi ... I worked for Beijing Panam for over 1 year. The fact that your friend is over 21 years of age should not be a problem. Some of the students there are in their early to mid 20's.
The other thing to consider is that they do a very thorough back ground check on all potential students. Not only do they have they have to have a squeeky clean behaviour record ...... SO DO THEIR FAMILY!
If any family member (Right back to Great Grandfather) has been arrested "OR SUSPECTED" of being involved in any criminal or politically criminal behaviour then you will not be accepted. It even goes to the extent that if extended fmily have been sent to prison then you are also out. I know that one day when I was working at Panam my students had to take a couple of days off so they could go and pledge their alleganc to the communist party. This increases their chances of promotion once in the airline.
The medical is also very strict. If you have any type of allergy then you are out. Any slight eye defect even if it can be corrected by glasses ... you are out.
One thing I suggest your friend may want to look at is this ..... Do his PPL overseas. Then once he has that try to negotiate with a flight school n China to sponsor him for the rest of his training. Then at the end of his training he is "Marketable" and can be "SOLD" to an airline. I know that Panam is doing this with some of the Chinese air force pilots they are doing military-civilian conversion training with.
I would advise your friend that if he decides to go this way that he really does his home work on the flight schools in China. I know that at Panam they say the course is meant to be 14 months from start to finish ... PPL to graduation with ATPL .... But things take WAY longer. At Panam some students have taken more than one year just to get their PPL. Since February 2004 Panam has only graduated about 8 - 10 students. Some of the first class that started in October 2004 have still not graduated.
Another way to do it is to do all his training overseas then return to China and convert the licence. It is not difficult to do .. CPL and Commercial exams based on FAA .. thn a flight test with the CAAC. He should have no problem getting his licence issued ... its only foreigners seem to have that problem.