Lion Air isn't the answer
A guy I know who was living in the Middle East (Indian passport holder) finished up at Lion Air a couple of months ago(Eagle Jet scheme). With his line training and one year employment he has clocked up around 1800 hours.
About two months before his contract expired he started sending out CV's and contacting agencies.
KAL-No hope as he doesn't have a 2 year college degree or better.
Hong Kong Airlines-No response
Air Hong Kong-3000 TT required (Not hiring now anyway)
SIA Cargo-No response
Qatar-Not hiring
Gulf Air-Not hiring
Safi Airways-Not enough experience (only response given)
Fly Dubai-2500 hours TT required
Yangtze River Airlines-3000 TT required
You get the idea.
He was told by one agency that most of the clients wouldn't interview someone from Lion Air. Even if they were locals and didn't pay for a job. The standard is just too low and the pilot would have to have considerable remedial training to get to a standard required by most more reputable airlines.
My friend is now worried that his 50K USD will have been wasted. The fact that he has an Indonesian licence and an Indian passport doesn't help (DGCA does not recognise Indonesian quals and hours). He fears it will take months to get the DGCA to issue him with an Indian licence and transfer his 737 type rating (Type rating done in the US but not sure if its DGCA compliant). His Australian licence isn't current and would require him to fly to Australia and spend around 3K AUD to get that current and then he could transfer his type to that licence which wouldn't be too difficult. It would take a while though with lots of paperwork. After all this is sorted out he will be out of the 90 day to six month window for currency that most companies ask for.
In true style he stated that "I probably should have done P2F on an A320, I would have had many more companies to choose from!". I fear that even if this was the case the response would be the same.
So for all you guys and girls out there that have a friend who knows someone who heard about a guy who did P2F and is now working for (insert airline name here) be very wary. Most of the stories are myths made up by people trying to justify to their mates about the decision they made to do a P2F scheme. These threads are littered with ex P2F people who still haven't found employment. A guy on the Bizjet forum a few months ago wrote that he had just finished at Lion Air was now willing to pay for another type rating to get into a biz jet!
Last edited by pilotchute; 16th Sep 2012 at 04:04.