DCA Thailand: Flight and Duty Time Limits

[BkkPilot]

What are the flight and duty time limits imposed by the Thai DCA?

Weekly, monthly, yearly? Any adjustments wrt sign-on time, number of sectors flown, night time ops?

Thank you for your input.

[silverhawk]

Very good question!

As the DFO for TLA, Voratuth Vongkositkul, or Tony, was explaining to us this week, the DCA have changed the rules regarding FTLs some time back. Not at the request of the DCA but at the request of the Thai airlines to increase maximum FTL.

They now routinely use the 'airborne' time to enter the FTL table and not the report time. Very useful when 'airborne' is 0600L.

By the way report is expected to occur 30 minutes before regulatory report time of 1 hour. Imagine that impact on use of discretion.

This is the same company that preaches CRM, fatigue, health and personal ( psychological) issues on one day and next day completely disregards Jetlag and cultural issues the next.

By his own admission the DFO told us in the classroom he was not long ago, in need of some emotional support. ( I embraced that openness). He professed to understand cultural differences and Jetlag issues.


He seems to only understand his own culture and have no empathy nor sympathy for any other culture. He certainly has no idea of extended Jetlag nor hypoglycaemia, but he can talk the talk in a classroom.

I as always, suggest you choose your employer and your carrier wisely.

If anyone is upset by my comments then please feel free to take me to court in which ever jurisdiction you choose.

[BkkPilot]

Dear silverhawk,

Thank you for your reply. Can you tell us what the weekly / monthly limits (if there are any) are? 30 in 7? 60 duty in 7? 100 in a month or rolling 28 days? 1000 in a year?

[B767_Driver]

Silverhawk you are spot on about DFO at Thai Lion. He is a very arrogant individual who has no respect or even wants foreign pilots at TLA and will say one thing one day and deny it the next.

[BkkPilot]

Thank you very much, Yosenator. That was the info I was looking for.

Is it true that Thai Lion Air is "basing" pilots employed by Lion Air Indonesia in Bangkok to circumvent the Thai law which protects the Thais from foreigner pilots flying domestic flights in Thailand?

Thailand has a law that prohibits any foreigner from the following professions:
Taxi driver
Tuk tuk driver
Farmer
Pilot of domestic flights...

... there is more I can't think of right now.

[jetjockey696]

Nope there are few expat hired directly to Lion Air Thai.. most of Indonesian capt that fly for thai lion.. are instructors.

But if you visit a agency RW Aviation

RW Aviation on behalf of our client Thai Lionair are now accepting applications from B737NG Captains for the placement of B737NG Captains on a 3 years contract with Thai Lionair based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Contract Term: 3 years

Location/Base: Bangkok, Thailand

Ref #: 1290

Aircraft Type: B737-6/7/8/900 NG



Minimum Requirements

4000 multi engine time
1000 multi engine jet hours
500+ hours PIC on B737NG
Maximum age 58 years
Flown on type (aircraft) within the last 3 months
Last simulator check within 6 months at time of joining
Pilots with B737NG 800/900 are preferred

Benefits

Bangkok base with a choice of two roster patterns 6/2 or 10/3. Monthly base fee plus accommodation and duty transport allowances. World class medical insurance and on contract support.


I have friends in Thai Lion and city airways.. they fly everywhere..

[silverhawk]

Little wonder the area has such trouble recruiting competent crew to babysit the local brand new first officers.

[silverhawk]

The increased deal does not seem to be enough to attract the right numbers of experienced Captains. Perhaps those on the take need to decrease their cut?

[Kabuto Kai]

Hi all - if we can steer back toward the threads headline - I'm also trying to find DCA rules (if any exist) regarding crew rest for part 135 non-scheduled on-demand charter. I realize there isn't a ton of that in BKK but, specifically, is there even anything in the DCAs regs which cover, for example, how long a pilot can remain "on call" for a given day with no flight scheduled, or if there are any "known days off" requirements like there are in the US (13 pays per quarter) or Europe (I believe its 7 days per month) ??

At this point I'd be happy with any DCA references, Part 135 OR Part 121 just for a reference ... or how charter operators anywhere in Asia handle such things ...