PPRuNe Forums - Question about getting hired by an airline in South America

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Question about getting hired by an airline in South America

Hey guys,

I would like to know if I was offered a flight crew position with an airline in South America would I be required to complete an FAA CPL or FAA ATPL theoretical exams for that country. I have a JAR - FCL CPL/MEIR. What is the procedure I would be required to complete, do they accept JAR – FCL pilot licenses and allow me to sit straight onto a 747. If I was offered a flight crew position with an airline would my JAR - FCL CPL and Multi Engine IR be recognised and be sufficient to be able to fly commercially there. Does anybody know what you have to do. I emailed all the aviation authorities for each country in South America but I did not get any response yet. Can anyone help me. Thanks.

Do you speak Spanish fluently? If yes, good luck:)

Did you email them in English or Spanish? If in English, you will most likely never get a reply.

You will have to convert licence locally in the country, a friend of mine did it in Brazil, he got a job on a biz jet there, but before the job had to convert his licence.

For this he had to make an Air law exam, in Portuguese, if Spanish speaking country would be in Spanish!
Than he had to do a flight test, again RT was combination of English and Portuguese, unless you speak the local language you have ZERO chance! I know this for both Brazil and Colombia (my wife is from there)

If you are low hour pilot, nobody is going to give you a job on a 747 either, by the way!

You also need to have the right to live and work in those countries, so unless you have a nationality of one South American country, you will also have ZERO chance there!

So in short, it is more complicated than that, your JAR will not be fully recognized, you will have to have a local licence to fly there, which will cost you around £2000 - £3000, and a couple of months in that country. But if you can't get work permit, than it is a waste of money!

You have a very accurate response from Truckflyer which seems to answer your question.
Thread closed

HWB