Instructing In South America

[FlyingKiiwii]

Hola Amigos,
I couldn't find a thread about this, but all apologies if one exists.
I am interested in flying in South America (Particularly Colombia or Panama). I realise that in comparison to my part of the world, getting into the airlines requires less hours, but, I am also curious about the smaller operations, possibly instructing, is there any instructors in this part of the world here? Anyone with some information or past experience able to fill me in on what I would need, or with who I could talk. I hold a New Zealand licence, and my Spanish is on the up thanks to a girlfriend from Colombia :)
Any info at all would be much appreciated.
Cheers, :ok:
Kiiwii

[flyingswiss]

Even if you already hold a CFI most likely you will have to do the Instructor course all over.

Keep in mind that in South America Instructing is not really a Job, is just a way to build time and get to the airlines, so any other job like air taxi/banner towing/..With the current airline boom in South America most CFIs have an average of 300-400 hours, then they leave. The standards are a lot lower then what you may be used to, safety is not always there and planes are old, many schools still use tailwheel for basic training. Who can afford it goes to the US for training. Having seen both worlds I would say stay away from an instructing job in South America, most schools will pay you peanuts and maybe just give you accommodation.

The Job market is really racist against foreign, most countries won`t allow a foreign to fly commercially, or put all sort of barriers.

I see you are from NZ, try to get a job over there, yours is a beautiful country, where things work! don`t waste your pilot career and quality of life for a woman.

If you really wanna make it over here, look at Costa Rica.

Alex

[FlyingKiiwii]

Thanks for the info Alex, you're right, New Zealand is a beautiful country, and things do work here, but, the airlines here take a minimum of 250 Multi Hours which are next to impossible to get without spending 5 years instructing, I was merely looking at options all over the globe, just was particularly interested in South America because I have been there before and have familiarity with the culture etc. No real biggy, I'm not really too keen on instructing if I can avoid it anyway :P
Thanks again for your help, and I'll keep my eyes open for other ideas :)

Kiiwii

[TOFFAIR]

With the Dollar at its lowwest change since longest time many are buying private aircraft in US, so ferry flights to South America may be a good oportunity, try to get in touch with some guys doing it, I knew a few, cool people, they might find handy to get a pal, and you might log the time. Usually the aircraft are ferried with N-numbers, and a Kiwi-US convertion should be easier then any other Southamerican...
:ok:

[sec_fac_elac]

Swiss, what is your problem? All you make is cry, cry, cry and write bad things about South America and Brazil. Why so much angry? Sorry if you are a frustrated guy and didn't reach what you would. The begining of your answer is true, but as you said, we are not racist. It's market protection and as mentioned on other posts, it's necessary to speak portuguese to fly here due to nature of country (continental, a lot of diversity) and sorry again, but our language is portuguese, and the guy who works at Maraba radio don't speak english....Maybe in the future they allow expats fly here, but, we still have a lot of pilots looking for opportunities.
Also I would like to say, that brazilian pilots have a good standard and we have brazilians flying all over the world on major carries and a portion of those pilots have manager positions.
And, just to remember, Brazil is a wonderful country, with a lot of attractives, and everybody is wellcome here...

Go cry on your bed, that's a warm place

[flyingswiss]

Yeah Brazilians are all over the world, but they won`t allow other to enter their own country and have the same rights...nice!

I agree that they have to protect the market, but a resident is a resident if he speaks Portuguese he should have the same rights as any other pilot even if he is not a national (btw my family lived 7 years in Brazil, we have seen more of Brazil then most peoples living in this country), I have lived more in Brazil then many Brazilian guys I saw getting their validation at flight schools, coming from Portugal and the US, especially the ones from US they talk s**hit about this country all the time, they hated here but they wanna fly....are this the guys the market is protecting?..

I worked for a flight school that was training many Brazilians PLAs to get their FAA ATPL (I flew about 10 lider and tam PLAs) I know how the standards are...

Try to go to Cabo Verde and ask the many pilots stuck on the LET410 what they think about the Brazilians going over there and steal their jobs on the B767, ATR......

Open your eyes!

[varigflier]

Standards.......what standards???:ugh:

[flyingswiss]

To get an FAA CPL based on your NZ CPL, you will have to do all the written test and the ck rides, you will also have to meet time requirements.

You will get a temporary FAA PPL, just by getting the medical and filling up a form, they will give you either 6 or 8 months, that`s the time you have to get the rest of the licenses.

The steps are:

Private Pilot Instrument:

You need to take the IFR written exam, if you go to a Part 141 flight school (most likely) you will have to sit ground school (mandatory)

you need 40 hours of IMC or hood time (20 can be in an approved FTD), 50 hours cross country PIC (more then 50NM between airports), 15 hours of dual with one flight of 3 points making to 250NM with 3 approaches, under a flight plan. you need at least 3 hours of dual 60 days before the ck ride.

Oral and Flight Check

Single Engine Commercial Pilot:

You need to take the CPL written exam, if you go to a Part 141 flight school (most likely) you will have to sit ground school (mandatory)

you need 250 hours TT, 100 in aircraft, 50 in ariplane, 100 hours PIC plus the 50 PIC cross country of the IFR ck ride. A day and a night VFR flight of 2 hours and at least 100NM. One solo VFR cross country of 300NM, 3 point one leg has to be of 250NM. 10 hours of dual Instrument, 10 hours of COMPLEX TIME (airplane has to have RG, Flaps and Constant speed prop), 5 hours solo night VFR with 10 landing in a tower controlled airport. you need at least 3 hours of dual 60 days before the ck ride.

Oral and Flight check

Multi Engine CPL-IR ad on:

you need at least 3 hours of dual 60 days before the ck ride to do the ck ride, you will do a Vmc demo, stalls, steep turns, landing and couple approaches.

Not easy overall but if you meet the time requirements can be done pretty fast.

Worth it for job hunting in South America? NO

[abnpx]

Hey Kiwi,

Well Brazil is definately a great choice! However, like you I don't have the citizenship requirements for a position in Brazil as much as I would like one. Keep in mind that you have Panama (Copa whom is hiring). I have heard only good things about Copa and would even go as far to suggest looking into Copa. If your dream is to come fly in South America don't let anything hold you back O and off coarse know your spanish.