I am one of the Austrians in our company. Don't know whether I am the strict one, referred to in one post.
Before anybody makes some unqualified remarks about our retarded attitude I would suggest you imagine yourself in the shoes of an operator, which is quite different than being in the pilot seat. We are one of only two operators in Malawi. We fly tourists, business clients as well as VIPs. And yet, in a year we fly less than Sefofane flies in Maun in a month. The challenges in a mountainous country with a diverse weather system are quite different from many other locations. We operate from airstrip between 1500 - 7700 ft AMSL and there are 4 tar strips in the whole country. All aircraft on the Malawi register are about 25 and this includes everything, except military. Out of these there are 8 aircraft used for charter!
When we recruit pilots, then we get applications from guys with 150-7000 hours and generally within 2 weeks we have over 100 CV's. Should we raise anyones hopes and tell we recruit low hour young pilots, and then disregard them, just to fulfill whatever human right requirement that "Carrier" thinks there is? We run a professional operation and a number of our pilots move straight on to very interesting jobs.
Quite regularly we have been asked to provide crew details when we fly film teams, VIPs and others. Pilot age is one of the more common questions and concerns.
The Chieftain has been purchased and will be here shortly after refurbishment is complete. And there will be other developments in the near future.
There was some talk about pay. Don't come to Malawi to get rich. If you fly here for a year, you have a very diverse experience, several hundred hours in your log book and walk away with a good amount of cash. And if you intend to stay longer, then there are interesting opportunities.
The Austrian
