Got to agree with TD here. I asked the question in the office yesterday and it is PIC time they want and not PICU/S. In fact the vast majority of the Japanese pilots I've spoken to don't even know what PICU/S is. As we know, they are very black and white, so how can someone claim PIC hours when he is not PIC? We know the answer but that does not compute with the Japanese mind
It is true that a guy started the course and then had to leave the Company because he did not have the necessary 100 cross country PIC hours. He'd done the type rating and his shortfall was picked up during his pre-ATPL check ride log book inspection. He'd been flying as a 744 FO for a large Asian carrier, so I rather suspect he had his fair share of cross country flying. However, common sense did not prevail and, because he hadn't specifically stated which hours were cross country and which weren't, he did not qualify for the issue of a JCAB ATPL in the eyes of the AJV management. To give him his due, he went away to the US, got his cross country hours up by bogging around in a Cessna and then re-joined the company, starting again from day one
What this question does highlight is the disparity between countries when issuing an ICAO ATPL, as required for the job. Some countries will accept PICU/S time for the issue, while others won't. Some countries accept PICU/S in the logbook after the issue of an ATPL, others don't. Some countries don't recognise PICU/S at all. Isn't it nice to see a common standard applied to a common (ICAO) licence
