It would seem that they don't make newbies the way they used to. The same probably goes for false teeth too. Having followed this thread since its inception I don't think many realise how fortunate if not privileged they've been in the information that's flowed through the site.

Hey gents!

Is there an amount of hours that is to much?

I am working as an airlinepilot, flying regulary to Afrika.
I would love to take one year off and go to Afrika.

Total ca 5000h.
400SEP, instructor rating, the rest is A320 Family and MD11.
Ca. 4600h Jet.

Any chance? Or wrong qualification?

Most look for a two year commitment minimum.
By the time they hire you, do the paperwork, get you trained, get the work permits... would only have you flying operationally for around 6-9 months.
Two years does fly by....

That is all correct I forgot to mention most of those points, I do apologise for any inconvenience

No, but as LFB says you will need to take two years off. And, then start at the bottom of the promotion list for a command I assume?

Hello gentlemen,

thank you very much for the kind information.
In my company there is from time to time the chance of unpaid leave.
I would not leave the seniority list.
Nevertheless a 2 years commitment seems a bit to long.
So I will continue to enjoy Africa once a moth with my current company.

I have read through all the previous posts, and the opening sticky, but I failed to see if my question has been raised before. If it has been raised and answered and I missed it, would you be so kind as to point me in the direction of the previous post. I have done due diligence, and looked, so please no flaming.

That being said, here is my question.

I understand there are very few C210's in Maun, but based on the similarities between the C210 and the C206, would having roughly 1000hrs TT most of which was on C210's in a different part of Africa help towards getting a job in Maun?

I also understand that the operators hire pilots they like etc, and that hours are far from the deciding factor.

I spent some time in Maun as a fresh comm, before this other opportunity presented itself, I'm contemplating heading back there when my current contract expires, and just trying to get an understanding of the lay of the land.

I have a question. Is it worth to pay for c208 tr, before going there if I have only 300h? is it possible to fly c208 with such a small experiance?

Well anything is possible..

However anyone operator with poor enough judgment to put a 300hr greenhorn CPL into a 1 million+ USD turboprop would not be anyone you would really want to fly for.

As far as I'm aware, there is an insurance requirement of at least 1000hr TT to fly the caravan for most (if not all) of the companies here anyway.

I can promise you right now that they will not put a 300hr pilot into a caravan flying into the delta.

1) You would not have seen the type of flying that they do there before. They are not going to stick you out there in the flagship aircraft.

2) There are other pilots that have been there and done their dues for a year or more. There would be a riot.
One of the companies there recently poached caravan drivers from other companies to immediately fill some positions. The pilots that were approaching 1000hrs were furious as they now had to wait nearly one more season before looking at the left hand seat of the caravan.

3) All of the companies that I know of require 1000hrs and experience in the delta as part of their insurance requirement.

Pick your choice of the above reasons. Its not going to happen.

Type rating C206, C210 & GA8
 

Thank you for the information spread in this thread. I read it all, although the "type rating" concept for small airplane is not a familiar concept to me having a FAA and Transport Canada licences (over 12,500lbs).

How do you actually get one of these? Is it the equivalent of a "Check on Type" that some flight school / FBO will sometime do with an instrutor if no previous experience on aircraft, and is really up to the flight instructor to set the criterias? or there are some specific criterias? (5hrs flight, etc.)

Where can you get that? Does it have to be in South Africa, Namibia or Botswana with a licence already converted / validated?

If I did my flight training with a C172, does that mean I am automatically "type rated" on this aircraft?

Word of Caution
 

Just wanted to pass on my situation. I am the second, possibly the third pilot who has been forced to leave the country, work permits and appeals all denied. It seems that Immigration would like pilots to come with more than 500 hours if they want full residency and work permits. I was able to work for a while under temporary permits, but I was denied the full permits. I came here with under 500 hours, and it was not enough to keep working here. Just passing on current info. As in all aviation, there are calculated risks. Sadly, it didn't work out for me at this current time. I really liked it here too.

Ah man, that really sucks!

I know of others over previous years that have had the same thing. Being classed as "Security risks" and things like that. Some of them left and then found the permits had come through under appeal but by then had already found work elsewhere.

Good luck in your endeavors!

Rmball, thanks very much for that update.

Do you know if guys with 500+ hours are struggling to get visas aswel? I've been contemplating heading across that way. Change of scenery, a new challenge etc. I have roughly 1000 hours, most of it bush flying. Before I head across that way I want to try assess the visa situation. Any feedback from the ground would be much appreciated.

Rmball, not sure I ever got to meet you, but I'm sorry to see you leave. You're the second that I know of.

There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern to the permit rejections (but did we expect there to be?). From my knowledge, pretty much every pilot has been rejected this year. Some have been successful on appeal, including some low hour guys (300-400 hr), many others are still waiting for the appeal decision to be made, quite a few of them have 500+ hours. And then there's the two that I know of who have been turned away a second/ final time.

The case I'm more familiar with, the letter is said to have come from the minister himself and clearly specifies that the decision cannot be appealed- but the company is trying.

There are two rumours I've heard in relation to the work permit issues;

First, that there is a disgruntled local pilot looking for work who has contacted the labour dept. Word on the street is that two companies here have already employed him, but then let him go for not meeting the standard even after extensive training.

Second rumour is that the Bush Pilots show caused a bit of a stir in immigration for not featuring any local pilots. It also highlighted a few not-so-legal labour/ immigration things happening with the pilots.


As for CAPSLOCK, anything is possible. 1000 hours should work in your favour, but no one knows what the government departments will think or do.


But there's always hope... I got a five year work permit issued, first try, just 21 days after submitting the paperwork.

I know that most charter companies employ agents to apply for work permits. From successful experience I am convinced that you are better off doing it personally. We spent many months at the department of 'irritation' and are now good friends of some of the officers. The personal touch is the way forward. Agent's files go to the bottom of the pile.

Wear a tie and look 'impotent' arrive at 07.30 attend their office church service and you will be 50% of the way there :ok:

Only talking from experience.

Safe aviating guys we will be back with you in 2 weeks. Make sure that beer is cold.

They got a church service, ha ha. I guess putting forward a prayer request, and a heartfelt testimony will go a long way in that.

mkenya it is called getting into their mindset how ridiculous it may sound. I have been operating in these sort of places for over 30 yrs. The only place my system doesn't work is India - no further comment.

Zambia?
 

I emailed a company in Malawi recently who wanted 500TT with 25 hrs on type for 5 seat aircraft.

I suppose thats an improvement on the Wilderness Air quoted 800TT. Can someone confirm a similar hourly requirement exists in Zambia?

After reading the entire thread I am speechless on two fronts. One, the clarity of information provided by a select group of considerate users, and two, the sheer cheek of the rest of you. I shall refer to the two groups as seeders and leechers respectively.

It amazes me at the amount of people who just straight up lie about reading the thread. You either have incredibly poor information retention skills or you're lying plain and simple. I'm going with the latter. It took me well over a week of reading this thread for about an hour a day and I found all the answers to the ridiculous questions littered in this thread.

To the leechers, ask yourself why you can't find a job? I'm going to give you the best piece of advice you'll ever receive in your life. Do your homework. Research everything! (and if you actually bother to take the time to read the thread, you'll find that this was already presented to you by other users!)

To the seeders, the information you provided was nothing short of fantastic. Hats off to you guys!

Whoa, hoss! Some people aren't that fit and their lips get tired after an hour or two of reading...:E

@Turbopropulsion

I agree with you but sometimes if you just read the thread and take the information there without asking some questions you might be dwelling on old information. As we can see on the thread, things change over time and what used to be 2 years ago might not be today.

That is true, the minimum requirements have indeed changed since liftboy created this thread. However, I was referring to the 50+ people that posted with questions starting as follows-

" hello there, I am a 220 tt cpl license holder.......

Evidently these people didn't read any of the thread. I hate unnecessary flaming online but my rant was well justified. :mad:

Luckily, a lot of the people who are too lazy to read it all are also too lazy to fly out here to check things out.

On the flip side, unfortunately many of the people who decide to visit don't appear to have done any research at all. Unbelievable in this day and age. Everything is just a quick google search away. Less than half of the guys that show up have type ratings. I wish I had a dollar for all the times I've heard complaints about how 'Maun used to be the paradise of fresh CPLs, 500 hours is ridiculous. No one told me that things had changed here. How am I ever meant to get that many hours?!'. Then there's the guys who expect to get a job in the two days they're here.

As for my favourite job seeker quotes from the last six months (may not be word for word accurate but it's how I like to remember them)...

"Where are all the twins parked? It's just single engines parked on this apron"

"You land on dirt? And you say the strip is how long?" "I landed on a 1500m runway once. That was pretty short"

"How many airstrips are in the delta? 5? 10? Doesn't it get complicated with all the control zones overlapping?"

"I can't stand VFR flying. IFR is where it's at"

"Who needs a map? And why are you learning the runway headings? Just fly the approaches on the GPS to every strip and you'll be fine"

"I've never seen any of the pilots use a check list. How do they know how to start the engine or do run ups?"

Overheard in a conversation with a chief pilot: "I'm only willing to stay for a year. I might stretch to eighteen months at the most. And how long until I fly the caravan, I'm not interested in piston time". (The guy had 220 hours).

"I've been here a week already and I can't believe nothing has happened!" (200 hr, no ratings)

Brilliant! That made for some quality reading. Out of curosity, what were the age ranges of the poor sods who made those comments?

People need to realise they are nothing but a weighted number which is inevitably going to be made less significant by the person who arrived at the same time as you who is significantly more qualified/experienced. I think it goes without saying that if you're not prepared to spend at the very least 3 full months searching for a job then don't bother making the trip down there. It's never going to be easy!

I think that ludicrous TV-show on Discovery inflated waaaaaay to many egos, including your and your chief-pilot's, babe!

Is that annoying woman with her even more annoying voice, bragging and preaching about how this nationality is more efficient at work than the another, still in the company?

Inbound - please make sure the beer is cold guys :cool:

8 hrs on a ship and three flights :eek:

@PilotInPink

HAHAHAHAHA!!! That was some fun reading! :D

Botswana memories
 

Good to read your memories, AMM. My Botswana flying was also definitely the best of my flying career. Great place, great people, great work

Will never forget it~

They say its not really bush flying and that its not really that "hardcore". Moving from there to the mountains of Papua wasn't really too much of a step up. It taught me the basics and taught me them well.

This thread is getting rather long and also a tad long in the tooth.

Is it maybe time for an updated version so that the newbies dont have to trawl through so many pages of outdated information ?

Best flying
 

Hi Chap/Chapess's
I also flew in Maun from 1989 until 1993 and agree with AMM, it was the best flying on my career.
From Aer Kavango/Northern Air.
i think people need to moderate their actions and keenness to achieve, remember we are all out to achieve the same result..A living in Aviation!
Having flown the 76/75/74/77, I would dearly like eventually to return for my retirement but only if its a liveable Salary..Please don't sell your soles too quickly, no matter how keen you are?
Happy flying guys and stay safe!

Costs money. Won't happen.

There are mind boggling numbers of flight school products who may as well be in a wheelchair for all the use to which they put their feet on the flight deck.

Hi all,

First up thank you to everyone who has contributed information to these threads! Pretty much every question I've had has been answered by reading through these pages!

I do have one question regarding the type endorsements though... I'm from Australia and have a few hundred hours in 200 series piston aircraft, however with the licensing system down here I am endorsed to fly any Single Engine Piston Aircraft <5700kg, therefore don't have a specific "206" or "210" endorsements. I've not yet been able to find an ATO willing to issue such an endorsement either.

So my question is: will the hours I've already done be considered even without the specific type endorsement in my logbook?

Cheers.

Hi Big Jon

I would recommend going past an aeroclub or the like and ask for a competency check on the 210 or summat, this way, it will be signed in logbook as competent.

have you had a dig around in the law? NZ recognizes foreign ratings as long as specific hours are met and the book is signed by appropriately rated instructor.

Ebola
 

FYI Our company has just received this notice.

Any other tour operators here please check your client's itineraries.

Thanks bonzaii, I'll have a look into the competency check option!

I've not been able to find any information regarding hours translating to endorsements or such; but that said I don't currently have anything signed in my logbook specific to flying any 200 aircraft!

Thanks again

Good news- a few months ago CAAB started to recognise class/ category ratings.

Pilots holding an EASA/ FAA/ CASA licence no longer need to figure out how to get a type rating that technically doesn't exist in their home country. South Africans and Kiwis still have to have the ratings prior to arrival.

However, this is Africa and you never know when the authority will change its mind. In my opinion, I'd still say it was worth it to get a couple of hours on type and your logbook signed by an instructor along the lines of "Joe Pilot has demonstrated competency in flying a Cessna 206 aircraft".

Is there any truth or has anyone had any experience related to the previous post about CAAB starting to recognise class ratings etc.?