Dear Davve
Yes i saw about 737 In Iraq somewere i don't remember, i don't have any feedback about pilots but a friend of mine that works for a reputable English Newspaper is there for 2 weeks everymonth, he told me that is dangerous but not so bad for him, he is protected from a kind of international law so the governament can't touch him ... some people and local autoities are ostiles expecially towards Americans !! Well if you live in a war area, you have no job , no family and basically nothing to loose maybe i would consider that
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However you have to consider, how much time to be ready and start flying ?? salary, amount of hours you fly every month , sometimes yes they need pilots but they don't even have the right structure to train the pilots they need !! So it will happen the same that is happening here to the poor fellow pilots in Swirijaya, they paid 28000$ upfront and after almost 1 year nobody started any linetraining !! i know personally some of them that are now back in Europe waiting for news or to have the money back !! in the mean time they still pay a very expensive rent here in Jakarta !!
With LionAir is 50&50 , some people here from more than 1 year have barely 100 hours LT , others like me did manage to make more than 500 but was not 2012 , now every LT captain has 2 trainee in the cockpit alternating for the right seat, becouse there are a lot of cadets and not enough LT Capains, most of this captains ( those that have a good English ) are leaving for better conditions so the situation is not going to improove for cadets...