You missed nothing except trouble and problems
The moral of the Pilots on all Types is going down as the situation within the operation changed quickly. Some A340 Expats did not get the contract renwed, some B777 Captains got a notifcation that they will be terminated due to age now 63 and not 65. Other Guy´s having now Visa issues and got terminated immidiatly.
The A320 / B737 guy´s hardly get home on a regular base and the ID90 deal is over after one year, so the gate is open and with the drive of the devaluation of the TRY against the USD,EUR, STG or other mayor currencies the flush is accelerating people out. You will see 35% loss between January and August after exchange your wages into other currencies.
Yes there are more Airplanes on order and yes there are more Pilots to be qualified to turn the Metal around but the organisation and the cooperation internally and externally is not in a row and that is cost incentive and needs to be straightend soon. If not even a legacy carrier can face problems that hurts him seriously.
Administration is a obstacle for itself, you get nothing done in a short time and time is not money for them, yet !!! It is something that is not in the deep consideration of all involved.
Is the Turkish DGCA a JAR member ? How come they still demand validations for the Jar-Licnece holders? How come they still demand medicals from Turkish AME´s and do not accept others JAR-medicals?
I know from serious sources that especially F/O´s from A320 / B737´s are looking somewhere else as they do not see a carreer path and upgrade will be questionable. There are +300 Turkish F/O´s waiting for line training and alot are also ready for upgrade. So if you would have joined you would have the bottom or below.
Going home to visit the Families in between flights is almost impossible for the A320 / B737 Pilots. So you either take the risk and move all to Yeshilköy, Ataköy or Floriya close to the Airport and far from the education opportunities, you have a shorter commute daily, or you look for a residence further into Town and take the longer daily commute instead.
There are alot of other obstacles you face, daily. Roster? Something what changes like the bid on the stock market, you can get call´s a few times per day for the next day and you dont know where you ending up flying to exactly until you sit in your plane. Publishing is two or three days before and of the Calender Month, theoretically, don´t bother what it states, it will change anyhow, so stop making plans.
Good things: Sure there are really good things, the food on the plane is outstanding, carefull you can gain weight weekly. The climate amongst the Cockpit - Cabin Crew is nice, good fellows to fly with, relaxed and layed back. If there is a problem it will be solved with the statement: No problem, we fix it somehow. One helps the other.
The only problem: The real problems are not taken care of, that´s a problem.
Fly safe and land happy
NG