Some great posts on here and very educational reading. I would like to ask the employers here an honest question but first I'dd like to paint a picture of where I'm 'coming from'. If not interested skip to the end
Currently I'm at a point in my (young) career where I believe I'm at a crossroad.
I did a (JAA) Frozen ATPL (yea I know, o oh right) back in 2008 but even before I finished the financial crisis struck and my (then) big dream of flying a classic A300 for DHL was shattered. No more hiring 195 hour guys.
I saw that coming so started researching on pprune what to do next. Africa had always been a part of my life so I looked in this direction and soon decided to go to Windhoek, Namibia to try my fortune. From Belgium I called a few operators and after getting a 'maybe' I booked myself on the next flight.
2 days after I got there I got hired by Scenic Air for the C210. Some time after the tourists stopped coming though and things got very quiet. I went back home to my girlfriend after working there for about 15 months and only getting to 550 TT.
2 years later after sending a lot of cv's and some (a lot of?) help from a friend who started there together with me and stayed there, I got an email inviting me to the interviews for Wilderness Air formerly known as Sefofane.
This is where I'm currently working flying the Cessna 210. I'm living a happy life here with my wife and 2 small kids. I'm soon reaching the magic number of 1000 TT with at least 700 PIC. But my contract ends in June and I'm already thinking about what I want to do.
I've learned many things here in Africa. Not only about flying (I agree with most what has been said above) but also about life. I'm not really interested in flying the big iron for now (not that I would say no
), I came to appreciate this kind of hands on flying. But I would like to move up 1 step in my career and make a little more money than now (I can't really say, but lets say it's below 900 USD). But oh well, surviving is enough, right
What I really wanted to ask is if I would stand a chance in Australia.
My wife is registered nurse and her current job is on the visa 457 list. We are married so I guess that implies we would at least be able to enter Australia. I also have some distant relatives in Perth.
Once there I can convert my EASA to a CASA CPL.
I think my experience is relevant to the outback. All my experience, though limited at about 1500 hours when I would leave, has been in a desert environment where careful planning and sometimes tough decision making is required. We land on (semi-)unprepared strips and deal with small and big defects in these old but amazingly capable little planes. There are only a few refuelling stations in a vast area so deciding when and where to divert for bad weather or emergencies is always in your mind. It teaches you to treat your aircraft right, think about all the little things as well as the obvious, encourages you to really know your aircraft and the geography. We also interact closely with our passengers and try to provide them with the most comfortable experience in a sometimes terrible environment. And I still have lots to learn...
But anyway, I'm starting to rant again.
What I would love to do is get my CASA CPL, travel around WT and NT and try to find a job. Obviously F/O on a small twin turboprop would be awesome but I wouldn't mind flying some more C210 or something similar to get to know the country. I also lack twin time since twin pistons are become very rare fast. My ME/IR has lapsed since there are no jobs for it and we only fly VFR anyway. I do fly a lot of approaches on the computer to keep me in the game.
Anyway, I would love to make the move and try it. I hope that employers would be interested in a profile like mine. Any ideas on that? Mick Stuped?
Thanks guys. Sorry again for the long post. Once I start writing, I just go