Hi all! I recently came across the Cathay Cadet Pilot scheme and got quite excited. You see, I always had an interest in planes and piloting but forced myself to move on after I learned you need to either join the air force or pay a lot of money train yourself.
I know a lot of you have bad things to say about the scheme, but from the perspective of a wannabe with 0 flying hours who is not so young and doesn't have the money to pay for their own training, it looks pretty good. I live in HK and earn less than a second officer so no need to relocate and I am sure I can handle the payrise and other benefits which I do not get right now
My main concern though is that the long haul lifestyle will be hard on my wife and the kids we plan to have within the next few years. I am quite a family-orientated guy and dread being away at the office for even 10-12 hours a day while I have a baby growing up and saying its first words etc. It does sound as though long-haul pilots get a considerable amount of full days off which does sound attractive though. I'm pretty much wasted every evening when I'm home from work so sometimes it feels like they have no benefit at all.
Can anybody give me a good idea of the kind of roster a Cathay SO would have. I have read all extremes on here and have even less of an idea now. I have read some people saying the layovers are far too short (meaning shorter trips away?), and I have also heard about being away for 2 weeks at a time? I guess a trip 'away' can consist of multiple short layovers, is this what is implied by the comments I've read? I read somewhere else that the average days away from base are 13 for a SE, 18 for a FO, and 15 for a captain. Any truth in this? 13 doesn't sound so bad. Even if it is all done in one 13 day trip, the idea of 2 full weeks off per month to be with the family and kids throughout the day AND evening sounds amazing.
As I am concerned about the long-haul job nature, I have also looked at the DragonAir/KA cadet programme. But I still have a few years (5) to wait before I get permanent HK ID, so I cannot apply for the KA/DragonAir cadet programme yet and it sounds like the future of KA as an airline is quite up in the air (no pun intended - in fact it would surely be the opposite, as in 'potentially not up in the air'). I will also be getting on age wise by then and probaby have kids which would make Adelaide harder.
Can anybody help me get a clearer picture of the SO lifestyle?