@CF680E1
The first thing you must understand is that there are no garuntees in aviation .
The cadet method above and the instructor method each have their own advantages and disadvantages as well .
That being said the IndiGo Cadet program is pretty good in the sense that it removes a lot of uncertainty when it comes to having a job offer at the end of completing your CPL .
You wont have to worry about being called for an assessment ( from the thousands of applications ) , passing the assessment and ofcourse passing THE Interview ( which in case you fail , you are banned from applying to IndiGo for life )
That being said its still an LOI , not a job garuntee. While I dont know the final terms and conditions , you will still have to pass things like a sim check etc after you finish the A320 type . But thats no different when compared to a person who was recruited through the normal route after CPL
It will take you a little over 5 years to recoup your investment after joining the company as a permanent employee .
How long it takes to join after CPL or A320 type rating depends on the situation at that time .
In the worst case scenario you will be CPL holder who graduated from NFTI ( albeit a very expensive CPL ) However failing the A320 sim check after type rating a couple of times might hamper your chances for a job elsewhere .
Although to date I believe IndiGo has honoured all the LOI they handed out whether it was to non rated CPL holders or the previous IndiGo cadets who were sent to CAE Phoenix USA .
Now for the second method , flying as an Instructor in the US
I am all for building experience after CPL in small aircraft whether its Instructor , Cargo corporate etc .
However this is mostly useful only if you plan continue in the US for life. However as an Indian citizen in the US your choices are very limited .
ATP flight school is the one of the more expensive flight schools in the US similar to how NFTI and IGRUA are expensive in India .
However their program is not DGCA compliant , since they dont give 100 hours SOLO and the DGCA ( as of this writing ) wont endorse the piper seminole on your DGCA license since its not yet registered in India
However its a good program if you plan to..........let me rephrase that if you are allowed to work the in the US for a major / regional airline .
@pilotbaba & @CF680E1
While instructor method in the US sounds good on paper , its practically difficult in the long run for an Indian Citizen and here is why.....
1. Only those flight schools that are approved to issue an F1 visa will be allowed to employ one of their students as a flight instructor . 90% of the flight schools issue an M1 visa which does not permit one to work in the US .
2. The period one is allowed is to work is limited ( i dont know the exact limit but I would say a max of 2 years )
Once this limit is over you will have to leave the US and come back
3. There is no garuntee that they will hire you as an instructor once you finish the rating with them ( I think ATP is an exception but I dont know if they are qualified to issue F1 visas ). You will have to apply and pass an interview with the flight school .
4. Not everyone is cut out or has the aptitude to become an instructor .
5. Flight instructors are not exactly paid very well in US flight schools . You have a higher quality of life flying an A320 for IndiGo than you will have as a flight instructor in the US
5. Now say you do finish time building as an instructor and come back with a couple of thousand hours on single and multi pistons , the question is how many operators in India are going to value that experience ?
Even to work with an operator as a C208 first officer one has to pay for a little over 5-7 lakh to obtain the rating and get it endorsed on the DGCA license .
Even after all this experience , in the eyes of the airlines in India( majority of them ) you will still be as valuable as a 200 hour CPL holder since you dont have turboprop or jet engined experience
If you then have to apply to IndiGo you will be competing with 200 hour CPL holders to even get called for the exam and still have to pay 30,000 USD for the A320 rating
Now there are non scheduled operators out there and companies like Blue dart that do hire experienced pilots but these jobs are far and few between .
There is also a lot of competition for these jobs from retired Air Force Pilots who have a couple of thousand hours of Jet or turboprop experience and hold a DGCA ATPL
I have a friend who after his CPL went on to work as a flight instructor in the US . Came back with a little over 1400 hours . He applied for his DGCA CPL in Feb 2011 and got it issued only in Sept 2011 because he did his recency in the philippines as his US visa was rejected twice when he wanted to go back .
Needless to say he lost a valuable opportunity to get hired with Blue Dart back in April 2011
He is still looking for a job by the way .
He never applied to the IndiGO CAE A320 program because he did not have the finances to pay for an A320 type rating as charged by CAE .
I have another friend who also worked as an instructor and had a little over 600 hours . He was hired by Blue Dart in 2011 because he was lucky enough to have his DGCA CPL by Feb 2011 .
As you can see the amount of uncertainty is pretty huge even after bringing experience to the table .
If you want to go the instructor / general aviation method do it somewhere else other than the US . I believe countries like Australia , New Zealand , Canada allow companies to sponsor an immigrant visa for foreign flight instructors . Once you become a permanent resident you can always move along to better paying pilot jobs that value this kind of experience .
@CF680E1
I dont have numbers when it comes to how many pilots from the present cadet program which started in 2011 have finally joined IndiGo .
You can assume a year or more for getting the Basic CPL alone say sept 2012 , since they started in sept 2011
But i can take a good guess and say none of them have joined as of yet because all the LOI non rated CPL holders from the Sept , Oct 2011 and Jan 2012 onwards are yet to join IndiGo .
I believe only once they are inducted will the cadets from the 1st batch will be inducted ( which as of now looks to be the end of 2013 )
NFTI had some problems with respect to the amount of flying training going at a very slow pace due to the huge number of non IndiGo cadets as well .
They recently offered them to send them to CAE in Phoenix to finish off the flight training , so that they finish it much quicker .
In the long run if you join today , it will be couple of years or more before you are actually inducted into IndiGo .
Another thing you have to note is that while IndiGo does have many airplanes on order , the final decision to import the aircraft lies in the hands of the Civil Aviation Minister ( yes one single man alone )
And this year he only allowed them to import 5 out the 16 aircraft they wanted . I believe he wants more details as to where they plan on flying the other aircraft before allowing them to import any further .
For the sake of all the unemployed CPL holders , LOI holders , Cadets or other wise I seriously hope they and every other airline continue to be allowed to import aircraft as per they see fit according to their business needs .
@pilotbaba
If you think I have my facts or assumptions wrong please feel free to correct them
