How is everyone getting into Jetstar Pacific?

[poonpossum]

They seem to have taken a lot of aussie instructors lately. Are they Jetstar cadets or is there some low time pilot, jetstar pacific backdoor action going on?

[Horatio Leafblower]

We have lost several pilots to One-Star Pacific in the last 6 months - In fact, all the pilots employed here in June last year are now in HoChiMinh or will be shortly.

All of them were experienced multi-engine charter pilots with ATPL. None of them had any meaningful turbine time. Only one was an instructor.

[slice]

And once the`re in, they find that the "back door action" is just beginning!:}

[poonpossum]

This guy must be smiling all the way to the bank.

[Horatio Leafblower]

Vietnam's not my cup of tea but not one of the guys I knew could be accused of "short-cutting" the system.

Every single one of them has done the hard yards in GA - all of them about 6-7 years since CPL, 600-1200 hours multi piston at night and/or in the clag.

In 2007/8/9 there were plenty of guys and girls stepping up into Australian airlines with that sort of experience. These guys are paying a price and taking a gamble to advance their career in a way you can't in Australia at the moment. Good on them.

I was extremely sorry to lose each and every one of them (mighty pissed off actually) but I reckon they have paid their dues and they deserve to step up.

Those on here crying that it's not fair... life's not fair, and it will never be fair, but if you work as hard as these guys did and have the attitude to life these guys did then you might find life becomes "fairer" for you too.

[The Green Goblin]

If you've got jet time and company jet time it'll be less than a year to command.

Great for the guys in Australia for a secondment and some command time.

If you're not on the Australian seniority list, have an exit plan and a return to Australia plan. Once you're an expat it's very hard to get back in. In fact the logical progression will be further afield from Vietnam.

The sandpit becomes very laborious when it's time for a family and the coffers are full.

There's no place like home.

[Slippery_Pete]

Pay for your own type rating...that is a given these days.

It's a given these days because of the sc@bs who bought jobs at or around startup of Jetstar by paying for their endorsement.

It has become the norm because it was allowed to. And now Jetstar pilots have spent years dragging through a long and tiresome EBA process. It was all lost on me... fighting for conditions after prostituting yourself by paying for your job in the first place???

"Jetpilot" sounds like another Alan Joyce in the making.

[morno]

Pete,
I do on one level, agree with you. But look at it this way.....

If I were a young Doctor who wanted to go and specialise in a particular area, I'd probably spend somewhere in the order of $40-50,000 on university and courses, specialising in that field (they're just figures plucked from one's bum, but probably not far from the truth). My wife is a nurse, I don't remember anyone paying for her to upgrade her qualifications to move into a different area of nursing.

Why then, do we as airline pilots, expect someone else to pay all the costs for us to go and 'specialise' in a particular aircraft?

morno