Korean ?'s

[freightdawg747]

Just updated my times and quals with some of the flight crew contractors one of the qual updates was a 747-4 type rating.....suddenly my Email has been getting a lot of messages from these companies telling me all about the great opportunities at Korean. Is there anyone that could give me some info on the interrview and training process there, Any info on the lifestyle and company treatment of crew would be greatly appreciated also.

[B737NG]

Check out the Far East site. That could enlighten you a little more what risk you take. The Contractor does not tell you the truth what you will encounter when you undergo the time what is usual a training period. Good luck !

Fly safe and land happy

NG

[slyde55]

Seems the kal pilots,management and CAA have colluded to fail expats during training on the 777. Very few foreign hires pass training on 777. Anyone care to expand on this? Does this cross over to the 330 or any other jet at kal?

[Ali Sadikin]

Heard from one ex-colleague....failures on the B777 were indeed high. Legacy carrier type rated skippers are not interestedin risking all to come to KAL. What they have on training are mostly riff raffs with dodgy hours ( type rated B737, 757/767 with dodgy caro/freight, charters, even ( sic ) Boeing company ) trying their luck. The Koreans have been conned before ( heard from some disgruntled Canucks that some South African B744 cruise pilots sucessfully conned KAL to become &$$ skippers!! ) so I guess they are very wary of " aces " blowing their own horns on their resumes. That's what I heard;)

[bungacengkeh]

An aquaintance who survived the horrendous training told me of fellas with dodgy licences fooling the recruitment guys with help of friends now fully entrenched as KAL foreign management pilots! Yikes!

[PPRuNe Towers]

Much more here on our South Asia and Far East forum:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=318030

Rob

[billabongbill]

Quote:".....What they have in training are mostly riff raffs with dodgy hours..........( heard from some disgruntled Canucks that some South African B744 cruise pilots successfully conned KAL.... )..."

Whilst I was there in kimchiland, there were indeed fellas with dodgy credentials who managed to skipped the hoops and landed the so called plum jobs as skippers. The South Africans wee actually ex- B737 skippers who had stints as B744 cruise pilots who somehow had their South African Airways and Aviation authority recognised their cruise hours as P1 hours! KAL admin swallowed that line, hook, and sinker....and presto! we had these blokes made B744 skippers. Some were even made trainers!

Recently Korea has a lot of cases of University professors, lecturers and academia who have counterfeit degrees and qualifications! These KAL pilots fall into the same category...cheats! Probably the South Korean industries are riddled with local and foreign " experts " milking their inept system to the hilt. In view of their inadequacy with spoken and written English, their recruiters are easily ' wowed ' by glib tongued, fast talking conmen who apparently went to great length to weave resumes testifying to super proficiency and competency.

[Molokai]

Oh oh, looks like somebody opened a tub of worms!

So what I heard in NRT crew lounges are not B***S**t after all. I heard the KTM CFIT was really close, maybe divine providence saved the day.

[Barney Rock]

Just before I joined KAL in 2000, there was a French guy who claimed to be a B777 skipper from Lauda Air. His course mates had misgivings but did not raise the matter as they probably wanted to see how far he could go with the bluff. He made it to the final stages of OE training, but the white knuckles and trouble with decision making showed him up. Unfortunately there were a few bona fide T7 drivers from Lauda who enlightened KAL flight admin. The strange thing was that he had all the correct documentation, recommendations etc from France and Austria enough to fool the Koreans for quite awhile!

Certainly heard of the successful stunt pulled by the South Africans. It seemed only the Canucks bitched about it as they lost the chance of upgrade from the A300-600 to the B744; they finally settled on the T7. Strange that they made no formal complaint to the KMOCT of Korea...maybe they know it would all come to nought as the KAL flight Admin and KMOCT would close rank, cover up all to save face from their massive boo boo!

[Hard Rock]

If you are contemplating KAL as your next career move then I would urge you to think again. The 'training' is horrendous, far worse than anything that the Japanese may throw at you & that's saying something, believe me.

I'm going back a few years now but only two of us out of a class of eight completed the sim. OE was a total lottery as to whether you received training or absolute abuse. Flying the line with Korean nationals was beyond belief at times. We had such a bad reputation, particularly at JFK, that if the controller heard what he perceived to be a Korean accent he would vector you damn near to Bermuda before he'd allow your approach so bad were our RT procedures. Even as PF I would make the radio calls to avoid complete embarrassment. After the loss of the 747 freighter at Stanstead the Brits were on the verge of not allowing KAL in UK airspace after the crash investigation found absolutely no CRM procedures whatsoever & an F/O who would rather die than contradict 'his' Captain.

From listening to bar room chat I hear nothing new in the moans & groans of current KAL crew...somethings never change, unfortunately. :bored:

[Marsh Outlaws]

Guys deadheading better increase your insurance coverage.....do the right thing, you may just probably make millionaires out of widows and ex-wives!
To think that I nearly wanted to travel extra crew to KTM on that flight; just lucky that wifey wasn't too keen to rough it out in Nepal then. It was sheer good luck, the same for KAL so far!