Nigeria whats going On..!!!
 

Foreign Registered Jets all over the place..loads of more foreign crew all over the place with fat packages and the local young lads without jobs hanging about.
Who is benefitting from this and why is this allowed.
And this callsign they all use " express " whats all that about.

10% Magic
 

Sir Balewa, Long time!

Answer to your question is a certain NCAA DG who's also set up his own little outfit beside the International Terminals. Source: Grapevine Media

Express Jet callsign belongs to a gangster in the local sector, its a common callsign, no biggie there.

The biggie is the invasion of 'ethnic minorities' - evidence of what 10% can do!

On our part,the lack of professionalism,has caused lack of trust.

How many "express" ask "whats going on" on live atc?

just curious
 

do you mean "C-Express" the SA chaps?

Im pretty confident that Foreign registered airplanes like ZS, M, VP, N, OE .... these registrations come with foreign banks, foreign licenses, foreign insurance requirements etc which lead to the need for Experienced Type Rated crew who can meet simple insurance minimums. I would imagine young lads anywhere in the world and not just nigeria would have issues getting lucrative contracts and fat pockets.


:cool:

I have been involved in training many young Nigerian students. The natural ability is low. The willingness to learn - zero. There's more of a "it's your job to make me good, now do it" and to round it off, the Rayban fighter pilot look is the most important thing to most.
So to answer your question as to why you guys aren't being used - incompetence.

oompilot;hmmm,i always thought it was students job description to train himself,correct me if am wrong,and pay an instructor money to train himself.

Must be the famous jealous"airline rejected wannabe instructor" situation

You will fly a jet some day,don't take frustration out on your students.

Maybe you should get a pair of raybans,you may be able to see what they see!

As an instructor remember student fails;instructor fails!

Some students be from any part of the world just don't get it.

And what ever the instructor does they won't get to a suitable professional level.

If the student won't do the ground school and put effort in there isn't much the instructor can do about it. Learning to fly is hard work and requires commitment.

Instructing is a two way thing. And both parties need to be moving towards the same goal.

And the instructor doesn't fail if a student doesn't come up to scratch. They bank their wages and move on to the next one in the knowledge that someone that couldn't make the grade isn't being let loose in the sky.

Couldn't agree more with you mad jock,100% spot on;"Any part of the world"

Am referring to ompilot's reference to a particular part of the world.

Unfortunately certain parts of the world seem to produce more students that "don't get it" than others.

I fully appreciate it is the enviroment that they have grown up in. Nothing genetic like some would like to believe.

You may also find that its your own that are not wanting locals. This is quite common in the Middle East as well.

Yes indeed, it's not as though one were to say that one got one bunch of students from one country in Africa - or even the whole wide world - down in one other for training and that blinded by the thrills and big lights of sub Saharan Africa's dirtiest city and through absolutely no fault of their own they showed an amazing inability to work towards the task in hand and demanded that four gold bars fly through the air and land magically upon each shoulder like a tame Quaffle and that they became exceedingly upset when failure attended the absence of their efforts which was all the instructor's fault anyway because ... Is it now?
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for next president of the World Bank.

Lol ....here we go again. Typical Reject Expat comments.
And so off the point.

Hi Ninja ....so who is this local gangsta..Anyone we know !!!

Not so long ago...
 

There were more local operators in Lagos than you could shake a stick at. Where did they all go?

Let me guess; the colonial masters did away with them! Yes! They used their usual wicked tricks, wanting loans to be repaid and scheduled maintenance to be done; they were writing performance charts that meant you couldn't fly with a full load off a short runway on a hot afternoon and hope to live; they designed their aircraft to be unable to fly without fuel or to land in zero visibility; Boeing made the 727 unable to be rolled over on its back safely... There is no end to what those poor old local operators and their crews had to endure, until they were mostly gone, out of business after a series of disasters financial and otherwise.

Don't worry, Balewa. Once Nigeria gets independence (from reality) then you are sure to have a career in aviation there. Until then, I am siding with Oompilot's view for the most part, just going from what I have seen, except that I would extend his negative assessment a bit further, to the operators, to the regulators... well, to the whole darn Nigerian scene, in fact! Nigeria is run by fraudsters for fraudsters, when aviation is one thing that you just cannot fool around with in that way and not expect to get your fingers burnt. Getting your performance calculations wrong is not the same as finding out that you just bought a fake phone card.

I lost friends and colleagues there, too many to count, and came up against so many people in aviation who simply came across as 'not having paid much attention in school.' When I would snatch us out of the jaws of disaster then the guilty party would just look at me as if to say, 'You are the Captain.' In the next moment he or she would be bitching about how I was never letting my poor old put-upon FO have the chance to display what must be superior ability. I mean, literally, that I would still be shaking from the last time that I had felt the hot breath of the cat of death on my neck when it was, 'Hey, so what? Okay, I forgot to keep visual on that aircraft we were passing in descent on a visual clearance [a pure suicide attempt], but why are you so picky? C'mon, I want another go.'

The flash was always there in Nigeria, but the substance was often lacking. I remember so many guys who needed those Ray-Bans, not to be blinded by their own bling, while they were usually blind to their own lack of ability, to that need we all have to self-assess and continue to learn. Not always, and it's too true that many ex-pat losers tend to settle there like sludge, but it was a truism that you just never knew what you were going to get with Nigerian aviation; that went right back to the way modern Nigeria has gone steadily downwards ever since 1961.

I ended up in North Africa for a while, after too many years in Nigeria. The desert was a terrible place, but the locals were so much easier to work with that you would not believe that. As in, you give them a job; they do the job. Finish palaver!

I met people from all over Africa there, except for one place everybody seemed to be down on: Nigeria. I would try to tell them that Nigeria wasn't so bad, when they would just look at me as if to say that I must have spent too long out in the sun without my hat on. You tell me why, but people are just down on the place and its people. Other Africans besides those nasty Boers, I mean! That might be why even the Nigerians with the bucks don't want to fly with their own local operators.

BALEWA,
Are you referring to the expats that worked in Nigeria as rejects??
If so, it doesn't say much for your standards there, does it?

What is the point, by the way?
If you are serious about addressing this and not engaging in expat bashing, you need to speak to the NCAA because, after all, they allow it to be thus.

He probably does not have enough money to talk to the NCAA.

Why does every thread have to degenerate into a locals vs expat slanging match?
There are good and bad examples of both in Nigeria.
As professionals if that is what we really are then all we can do is try to exhibit the high standards we should all strive for whenever we strap on our airplanes and helicopters with our passengers in the back.
This fighting needs to stop, we are all united in our desire to earn a safe living while we roam the skies as we fly to and from our various destinations.
When you take away skin colour and attitudes, as pilots something drove us to earn our living doing what we do.
People are different, always have been and always will be, whether they are born to the same family, tribe, or country.
We have to be able to get along when we share the same cockpit, it shouldn't be that hard to share a drink after a hard days work and continue to extend that courtesy to one another.
Enough with the bickering, please, it's really sad to read! :sad:

April Fool!
 

Very funny parody of a racist rant, that one! I was almost fooled, until I checked the date. I just hope everyone else takes that as a joke.

There are plenty of people in Nigeria with ability. After all, there are about 150 million of them there, when they cannot all be losers.

The problem is that, all too often, it is some total muppet whose daddy made off with a lot of money, or whose uncle is in the ministry, who decides that Ray-Ban look is the one to go for. They show up all tricked out with a US FAA licence that isn't worth the paper it's written on, after having wasted everyone's time in some crummy little flight school in East Podunk, Alabama. Then they get a Nigerian ATPL.

Those licences are, legally, just as good as your own. Nobody can tell the diffo between the local who really has his act together and the one who wants to kill you through sheer lack of ability, plus, often, an arrogant refusal to learn. In the same way, you can be looking at a very pretty aircraft, when nobody knows that its engines are timed-out and that its last inspection was just pencil-whipped, if it even was done at all.

A lot of the locals who were good took the chance to go abroad, just another aspect of the Nigerian 'brain drain.' Next time you are flying with Virgin Atlantic, say, try telling one of the flight crew that he's not qualified to 'operate heavy machinery.' Maybe you can get an upgrade to First Class that way!

Ancient Geek,
Therein lies the root of the problem. As long as control is for sale to the highest bidder, things will continue to be a mess.
The issue is not the dodgy people in the business, it is the total lack of application of the Regulations that allows them to be there in he first place and the often complicit support from the authorities that is causing the most damage.

Before i continue writing, i have to say that i have seen 1/2 disgusting posts since my last post on this thread to earn some people the kind of ban i got last year but eh, different strokes .... remains to be seen what the umpire does to me hereon.

@ oompilot: You are simply a racist with stupid comments about 'natural ability'. My word, no one was ever born to be a pilot, not the Wright brothers, NOT EVEN YOU, you weren't fing born with any natural ability if you've been deluding yourself. You play computer games and that gives you natural ability, pls, pls. Fyi, the most expensive Global Express XRS ever made by Bombardier has been crewed for the last 18-24 months with 3 fing Nigerians with an expat to supplement their additional Challenger 604 which they are equally rated on.

Also, the Nigerian presidential fleet comprises of the most modern jet you will probably dream of flying - 3 of them brand new in the last year, G550 and 2 7X; these and many other machines (12 in total + a new Hawker 4000 en-route) in the fleet are being driven by about 35 black fing Nigerians.

Talking about attitude and willingness to learn is acceptable but don't nationalise it, are you telling me all Boers and your fellows all have natural ability? Please, go drink some SA Miller with Nigerian Palm Wine and speak no more.

The topic certainly didn't warrant your stupid rant about incompetence, what's happening to SAA today? Was it run all these years by Nigerians? I didn't think so; go sleep my friend! Your attitude as an instructor probably stinks, i hope you're no longer an instructor because i won't send my child to your school, my child won't go to SA for training anyway when good old Oxford where her Nigerian father got a good old CAA licence awaits her!

Would you like me to tell you how your fellow 'naturally able' countrymen (engineers) almost ruined a brand new 604 on a routine inspection, it cost that SA company the biggest individual contract they could ever get, i can't stand condescending lots like you.

@cavortingcheetah: i seriously didn't get any of your 'parambulations'!:ugh:

@Balewa: identity isn't wikileaks type of story, its common knowledge na, its all there at GAT.

The other reason i hear why these machines are not crewed by locals is that the businessmen/govt officials/politicians don't want both flight/cabin crew to be privy to their dodgy dealings in-flight, they prefer to 'use' the expats as accessories to their dubious activities. Have you seen these expats 'beg' for money from these dodgy pax, you will see how desperate they can be and why they will only keep mouthing off but they love working in Nigeria, without it, they earn peanuts!

@Captain Magic: You should be banned by the moderator and i wait to see how they react to your barbaric comments in April 2012. Judging by the time since you posted, not much of a reaction from them to be honest. I wonder what ship you got on from because your old titanic-style ship sailed long ago, you seem to have this 'colonial masters' mentality in your previous posts, people like you should be the guinea pigs for Ahmadinejad's latest project! People like you if empowered would rename South Africa 'Whiteland'.

Ninja as I said before its they way folk are brought up and what they think is acceptable thats the main cause. Mind you that can apply to alot of things. So there is an element of truth in the posters that say there are issues in general with home grown. There will be a few utter stars who step away from the mold.

In my experence the Nigerians that have been brought up in the UK with parents that are educated can be taught to fly the same as any other kid. Some have it some don't. Although I must admit thier parents almost go to far with them applying extreme pressure to them, and I quote "your not ending up like those other lazy (n word)" which is what one dad said to his son when he failed a exam. He was a British educated Doctor.

I might add he was also the most rasist person I have met in relation to asians and indians etc.

So its horses for courses. SAFA's can be racists pains in the arse I will agree, but not all of them just like not all nigerians are lazy thick fraudsters. I have flown with some very pleasant ones and some utter dickheads.




:ok: just to piss everyone off.

No no no, oompilot
 

Common sense dictates that not everyone amongst a sample of any nation can be that bad. oompilot, you're a cheap racist, period. And oh, if you're not white or other colored, you're an idiot.

Mad Jock, your points are well noted and i have no issues with any race.

As it goes, i have 2 very nice white South African friends. One heads a SA company in Nigeria with a fellow white South African, and my friend can't stand the other guy simply because of his 'colonial mentality', my friend happens to be married to an Indian lady as well. But he believes, this colonial guys are just a little minority of less than 5% who think they are the best thing since slice bread!

Trust me, Nigerians might joke about Indians but i struggle to believe it in the racial sense. I am not arguing for this Doctor man, there are exceptions in any type of case.

Now, do i generalise all South Africans as being racist? That's what some white people can't ever fathom into their atom-sized brain that people are not the same.

I've just noticed CaptainMagic has done a Houdini on this thread!

ediks, YOU mean well, those idiots dont
 

In fact I detect bitterness in the words of some of them but what's interesting is, they may not even have visited Nigeria, to start with. And it's nice of you to try clear the air, sir

You are correct in saying there is bitterness in some of the posters here.

A lot of the Nigerians are bitter that jobs that should be indigenous are being given to expats, but they also fail to address the actual reason it is happening.
Blaming the expats is easy, because they are an easily identifiable target.

The expats are bent out of shape because by and large, they are treated with disdain by the Nigerians who resent their presence doing "their jobs and chopping their money".

What is the real problem here??

Whatever you choose to answer, the expats are the perceived problem in most cases, not the root of the problem.
The actual issues are almost taboo to discuss, because of the high emotional quotient they generate, but sooner or later, they will need to be addressed.

Wrong, its not taboo, see my posts
 

Hi unstable load,

I think you are incorrect in saying its a no-no to discuss the issues in Nigeria or the issues raised by the convener of this thread. This is because i have already written in this thread about what i know as part of the underlying problems and the 10% magic is nothing new worldwide, however its being disguised.

The main issue is the non-conformance to regulations/laws, its not the stupid rhetoric that some white idiots have been posting on this thread.

Having read the story below (see link), would i now classify all white British people as scammers or fraudsters? := But hey, if it were a Nigerian, it would be bigger news than Bin Laden's death!

Ian & Ofir jolly cocked up the scam:D
Britons arrested on Nigerian visa fraud charge

To dash 200, Thank you Kind Sir.
If everyone was as reasonable and gracious as you the world would indeed be a better place.
Unstable Load, contrary to what you think, there are very many Nigerians I know who are only interested in working to earn an honest living.
Not everyone wants to "chop money". I certainly don't resent expatriate pilots in Nigeria, on the contrary I welcome them and would try to show them that even though there ARE problems in the country, there are many nice and wonderful people within and a few nice places to go to visit and unwind after work. :ok:
I flew for a very multi-cultural company, we had very many expatriates and I would happily share a cockpit with almost all of them again given a chance to.

mad jock that was real funny, it's cracked me up so hard, guests in this hotel must think there is a nutcase in room 3427, that was a good comic relief on such a highly emotionally charged thread.:}:D

Guyz relax, take a deep breath and be level headed about your contributions on the thread;)

ediks,
I never once implied that there weren't lots of Nigerians willing to put in a good day's honest work.
The rest of your post is a welcome change from some of the comments that have been made on this forum over the years.:ok:

I have actually found most SA folk haven't heard of Tom Sharpe books. And they have all loved them.

He has a set of characters in three books based on the South african police force

Konstabel Els, Lieutenant Verkramp and Kommandant Van Heerden.

Being a well balanced chap he also wrote a series of books taking the piss out of the English lifestyle with Wilt and Poterhouse Blue etc.

Well worth getting them on a kindle if you like a good chuckle down route.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tom-Sharpe/e..._athr_dp_pel_1

In another life, I taught at a school in Mexico. There were many American teenage children at the school. These American children were the sons and daughters of American diplomats and American ex pat millionaires, oxymoronic as that might be. They were a really delightful lot of Americans but all were spoilt,inherently lazy, and inattentive being much given to the Mexican habit of tomorrow is another day. Inevitably I failed the entire class on a Shakespeare project which I had given them and for which they had all had plenty of time to prepare.
He who would call me a racist for relating that true story must surely be a bigot and one furthermore much addicted to playing fast card games under the bed clothes with a flashlight.

Unstable Load, I do apologise.
I misread this comment "The expats are bent out of shape because by and large, they are treated with disdain by the Nigerians who resent their presence doing "their jobs and chopping their money".
I thought you meant to infer that Nigerian pilots resented the expatriate pilots because we wanted to chop the money instead. :)
Happy flying!!

mad_jock,
Love the work of Tom Sharpe, if ever an author lived up to his name it's him. Razor sharp and very few punches pulled.:D
ediks,
Think nothing of it, sir!:ok:

Got thrown out of South Africa for sedition, I believe, Tom Sharpe. Something he said or did must have upset the blue-noses there. That set him on the road to fame and fortune, making fun of people for serious money. I can only hope to do something similar.

The Dutch Reformed Church took serious exception to Constable Els's aged mistress injecting his penis with novocaine in order to delay orgasm. A similar result can be achieved with a little cocaine powder applied in the appropriate place. This is all becoming slightly digressive as the mistress in question wasn't even a Nigerian.

And they didn't have an issue with wiring all the Constables bollocks up to the mains and then applying an electric shock when a picture of a black woman was shown to them in the nude to try and stop them raping the locals? With the unfortunate fall out that it turned them all gay so started raping the black blokes.

I am sitting in tears of laughter and have just followed my own link to get the books to read again.

Els's fight with a guard dog !! my sides are starting to hurt now.

Balewa,

I am a local flying corporate in Nigeria.Read your post and want to clarify some issues you raised.
Yes there is an increase in the number of private jets in Nigeria but most of these jets are here on ACMI and most of the operators signed a 6 months or one year lease contract for the machines.So the issue of employing locals does not arise IMHO.
There are about 5 major charter operators in Abuja and Lagos Triton/Hanger8,Izzyair,Prime Air,King air ,,vista jet,ACE.About three of the operators I listed don't have an AOC yet but are in the last stage of securing one.Those without AOPs normally use their registeration as call sign.
Express and C-express are two different entities.And both are used differently but most people think it is the same operator.
Some of the jets are here for short term contracts and I know a company in Abuja that leased 2 jets on ACMI for a year for their company ops.
Thanks

Nigeria, whats going on
 

I dont know why the usual suspects always come and derail Nigerian threads with their usual drivel:mad::mad::=:ugh::*.

Aero
Possible imminent mgmt take over by AMCON due to their massive debt. Rumor has it the fixed wing section may be closed down and merged with Arik. They currently seem to have trouble keeping the B737s in the air due maintenance. The rotary side is a shadow of its former self thanks to Caverton, etc.
Lost most of their first officers to Arik, the working environment there's "old school" and doesnt seem to be condusive for young people.
The Dash8 operation is down to maybe 1 machine, following the loss of contracts and a whole lot of crew to Top Brass

Allied Air
Still dragging the raggedy 727s through the skies on their DHL contracts. They wet lease MD11s from Avient for the heavy stuff.

Air Nigeria
They have been permanently advertising for crew for ages. The current ownership does not offer any comfort, no1 knows whether they r heading up or down. Lost lots and lotsa crew to Arik.

Air Taraba
Startup Operator currently has 1 EMB-145 sitting on the corporate ramp in abuja for proposed operation and are expecting another. The state governor who is a licensed pilot regualry flies himself in and out of jalingo airport even though I dont know if the airport has been certified for commercial ops.

Arik
Another carrier heavily indebted to AMCON. Rumors of a possible management shakeup. Maybe the waddling elephant may finally be tranformed into a prancing stallion. ABV-LHR canacelled due to the slot issue. A345s are to come on the 5N registered mid this year, crew recruitment in progress. There are plans for A330s but in their current state I doubt their gonna be getting any airframes anytime soon.

Associated
Still flying the EMB120s on some light routes. No sign of growth.

Caverton
Seems to have miraculously rising to the top of the food chain in the rotary world, thanks to some godfatherism. They also operate DHC6 on a corporate shuttle service for LNG between LOS and Bonny Island. They are expecting the -400s soon.

Chanchangi
"Chanch and the gang" hanging in there. Sustaining their operation with B737CL wet leased from Jordan Aviation.

DANA Air
MD83 operator. Passenger loads seem to be ok. Airplanes are gas guzzlers so i dont know how that translates on the financnial side of thing when they r competing with the likes of arik with fuel efficient machines. The seem to have lost a lot of crew too. Chief Pilot reportedly resigned/booted out/dunno:confused:. Anyway the position is up for grabs on major recruitment websites.

Dominion Air
Newly floated by a famous pastor. he has a CL604 which he has used for persnal use for some time. Acquired 1 B1900D from Wings Aviation. Proposed charter/scheduled operator? who knows?

FirstNation
They've never gotten to flying all 3 A320s at the same time. Recently commence operations into PHC. They have crewing issues mostly due to their policy of not type rating pilots. I wonder where they'll get crews with the kinda salaries been paid to A320 drivers in other parts of the world.

IRS
F100 operator. Struggling to pay salaries. Might get B737s in the near future.

Top Brass
A new entrant that was able to snatch lucrative oil contracts from Aero. Currently operting 2 ex Heli Malongo (Angola) DHC8-300s. Poached most of their crew from Aero and arik. They initially started with a not so sucessful foray into the executive charter market.

Wings Aviation
Operator 1 X B732 for cargo ops. seem to have sold their remaing B1900D to Dominion Air.

Corporate world
Generally most of the corporate ops dont seem to be kosher. lots of commercial ops on private certificates, no AOCs. NCAA looks the other way, it seems. VistaJet and Hangar8 seem to have substantial ops out of LOS and ABV. Most of the privately owned ops are on the foreign register (VP, VQ, M, and the infamous ZS).
The Barbados group operates out of Kaduna. I dont understand if they are a licensed AOC holder, charter operator or what. They are the agent for embraer in Nigeria. They operate at least 2 Legacies, 1 HS125 and 1 Lr45. The owner seems to be winning all avaition awards in nigeria. But that means nothing since most of those on trial/in jail in nigeria were award winners in their various fields.
There another Learjet operator out of abuja using German registered LR40/45/60s. I also dont know if they have an AOC.
Some hangars have sprung up in LOS. Caverton, Evergreen Apple (owned by the NCAA DG), Dominion Air and 1 other. I believe the concept is to have fully fledged FBOs but as with most things Naija i dont think they realised the technical capabilities required. so they are no more than glorfied parking stands.

That"s all I got for now.

The Lears belong to Prime, Capt. Manuvar
 

There's a picture of them at airliners.net: a Lear 45 at rest at Asaba airport. They're called Prime Air Service. German rego, European crew. Now, would any EU nation easily allow foreign registered aircraft and crews to operate in their skies indefinitely, as the idiots running our show are doing presently?

There are tons of N regs perm based in Europe. Some off them have never been on US soil.

And then we now have the M reg as well.

Capt M,

The learjets are operated by prime air,they have an AOC.

Capt. Manuvar, very informative, Thank You :ok:
Just one small point, Caverton seem to be doing well and I hope they continue to do so but I suspect that Bristow is still the number 1 player in the helicopter world in Naija.