I can second BillTeasedales comments. I worked for them for several years, and multiple SA contractors before that. I've Been in Africa 10 years. They're good people at SAS and it's a safe operation all things considered. Of course the real litmus test is are they continuously improving and striving to do better, and the answer is yes.
As for the F/O pay, there aren't many options out there for a low-time and freshly-minted pilots, but SAS is one of the better ones. Yes, the pay is $500 a month, but they provide training, airfare in and out, and send the f/o to South Africa for a few weeks for license validation (if they're not from SA that is) They also provide housing and a car. One might say that some SA operators offer a better deal, IF you can get on with one and IF you end up on a contract where you actually get to fly more than 30 hours a month. When F/o's leave SAS they are generally a bit burned out (from the heat of Mali more than anything else) but they all leave with 500-1,000 hours more than when they got here (6 mos or 1 yr contract depending) and they all seem to immediately go on to bigger and better things. In other words, they experience they got here qualified them for something "better". It's a stepping stone, and a good one at that. Those who moved on generally all report that the experience they got at SAS was second to none. I'd have done anything for such an opportunity when I started in aviation twenty years ago.
Like anywhere else, SAS also makes the occasional hiring mistake and ends up with someone who thinks he's God's gift to aviation, is a drunk, a misfit, or just can't seem to get along with people. Maybe FuzzyLager was one of those, or maybe he's never even been to Mali and just got his information from someone who was disaffected or didn't know what he was taking about?
Either way, I can tell you that he's way off base on this one.
Last edited by NG Driver; 17th May 2010 at 14:39.