A multitude of points assail the expiring brain.
If anyone is going to base their plans around working in southern Africa then they had better ensure that they have access to the right to live and work in the respective country.
As between the long term future of South Africa, Britain and Europe, the former looks a pretty good bet against the latter and against the pig in the middle there is no contest at all. That's a doomed nation and has been for many a long change of government. It's the people you see, nothing to be done about it.
In regard to SAA and work in South Africa I think the following should be emphasised. The airline pilot prospect in this neck of the woods is entirely dictated by South African Airways and its intakes. That in turn is to a certain degree dictated to by political requirements. Every intake in SAA stirs up the sludgy pilot pool from the bottom up and affects any tier of employment in the region from instruction through charter to medium jet flying. But there has not been an SAA intake of such significance as that in progress now for a very long time It's been perhaps a decade and without such stimulus the job market has been very stagnant indeed. So be warned that in South Africa there is really only one major aviation industrial factor determining work opportunities.
As a small aside, I wonder what advantage there is in SAA interview for flight crew to be able to speak an African language such as Zulu, Tswana or Xhosa? Most of the people I know who fly for Spoories can rub along well enough in Afrikaans but that's not really a structured language.
As to training, I don't think it's true to say that between Britain and SA any one 'system' is better. There are significant differences and these are reflective to a certain extent of the weather considerations and categories and congestion of air spaces. In the end the aviator quality boils down to experience and the lack of that with the commensurate lowering of standards by some airlines to accommodate less experienced pilots is of course why automated Airbus has such a good sales record.
There are surely more cowboys in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa than there are flying around European skies. They survive through the two hundred to five hundred hour period of egotistical air headedness which most of us have experienced because of their good fortune to fly in what is really a benign environment. In England or Europe these guys would have to be instructing if they weren't under the care of a line captain. Instructing carries with it its own disciplines and structures.
If you don't want to live in Britain or Europe then why bother with the JAR licence. I think jbayfan is quite correct and there are lots of South African pilots flying all over the world having converted their SAA/ATPLs according to culinary taste and environment.
There's always a shortcut. Aviation is quite a fickle mistress and planning for the future is notoriously difficult. Play the cards in your hand for all you're worth and bluff like billy ho when you get called. Toodle pip.
Last edited by cavortingcheetah; 1st December 2010 at 05:05.