hey
 

hey anybody from florida or atleast in the US.
are they having any interviews in the states? or is it canada??

any advices for a new guy like me for this program?

Hey, thanks for your pointers and regards. I will hire an aircraft just to go over the basics again myself. Nothing like a little refresher course before the exam.

Thank you.

I hope you potential cadets have a handle on 2 important things.
1/ the cost of living in Hong Kong
2/ The very poor level of pay you will recieve.

Keep in mind that if you come from a civilized country you cannot find accomodation that is in any way comparable to what you have at home even with the the $80,000 per month captain level rental allowance, let alone the $50,000 home purchase allowance. A single person can rent a 500' sq foot appartment in a mass residential area for about $25000 per month. Given that your pay is about that much you are going to be living in poverty,literally.

If you think you are going to get home on a base, forget it, there are NO base slots at all for 90+% of ports. Guys with 20 years seniority cannot get on bases even in the country they want, let alone the city.

If you are from the 3rd world or asia you will find it barely acceptable.
If you have not been in HK before I STRONGLY sugest you find a way to understand how poor you will be. You will have NO money at the end of the month if you are single.
As for a married person, particularly with kids, forget it. I am a senior FO will the proper housing allowance and I have nothing left at the end of the month with the cost of living here. ( I have 1 crap car, no "toys" and no other expenses.)

I strongly sugest you do your own research into what you are going to get yourself into here on local terms. The reason why this scheme exists is that out of 7 million people in Hong Kong they cannot find people who will do the job for the money, even if training is paid. Most LEP's have family here and they give them somewhere to stay.

I sugest you stay at home, have a good life amongst your family, and dont be fooled by Cathay's lies. They have an appalling reputation for staff relations and honesty and things will only get worse.

Can anyone tell me...if you have 0 flying hours do they normally ask you echnical questions as well doring the interviews?

Thanks

hey guys

happyguy99 you are outstanding. thanx so much for the info. I'm based in South Africa and i got the call to Stage 2&3 :}. I'm so so so happy. forssi I will represent us Africans to the max

Phili-T what qualifications you going in with?

And I would do my research into what "&&&" was saying.

I was looking at apartment prices and it did go as high as 25000HK for a 500sq if you wanted there were like some from 12000HK to 16000HK and with an average monthly cost of living bill of about 7000HK. It didn't seem bad if the salary I saw on the internet for Cathay pacific first officers and second officers and maybe with a captain salary like that i'm sure its not poverty.

However the living conditions are real cramped but I guess its adpating to new lifestyle and taking new challenges.:ok:

Correct me if my estimates are far fetched.

flying ham
 

Me too! I will be arriving on the 7th! Hope im not too jet lagged! Your nervy? I only have 2 weeks to prepare haha so don't worry you will do great! I had a job interview today and I have an exam tomorrow so I can't prepare until the weekend. I will let you know if I find anything helpful once I start! Let's make it to FTA!

Phili-T
 

Congratulations!!!

Make us South Africans proud!!

don't forget to ask about benefits when you are at your interview. Specifically, health insurance benefits. Ask them what they will not cover - you might be surprised to hear that if you are based in HK, you will have the worst benefits of any airline in the world.... but they try not to mention this while dazzling you with the other stuff. Travel benefits are terrible, if you can get on an aeroplane. etc.... kind of important things to know before you join an airline for a long time.

OK guys I can see you are all as keen as beans, and honestly I was too a few years ago when I applied to CX for DESO. Now that I have been in here for a few years you start to see what has been going on for years and years and that is the gradual and deliberate reduction of terms and conditions.

Of course everyone knows about the greedy old A-scalers and their millions of dollars a year in salary, right? Well those guys weren't really paid as much as it turns out and now they haven't seen a payrise in 15 years (not payscale rise but actual dollars in the hand rise) and most have now been coerced into signing to the current contract with other loss of Ts and Cs. Many moons ago there was something called a 'travel allowance' based on the cost to fly you and your family home for a holiday each year - in first class - which sounds great, right? Then one day, new joiners magically didn't get it and the ones who were getting it had nothing to complain about, right? Until there were more guys not getting it than were so now the company has been able to phase it out completely...

Move to 2010 and the company has seen an opportunity to employ expats but not pay them any expat benefits... One day they will be phased out too I guess.

Now I see in HappyGuy99's post about his interview the same pattern. When I was interviewed for DESO, my wife was also allowed to come with me and they paid us a 'per diem' to cover the cost of food etc. This has evidently been taken away as you didn't know it was ever paid...

As a Cadet SO, will you be getting health cover? For you and your wife and your future children? Cadets have always had right of abode so no need for paid health cover. Have you really looked into the real cost of living in HK? &&&'s post covers it pretty well but I think his rent estimates are actually on the high side. Even so, a married couple will STRUGGLE to make ends meet let alone 'live the life of an airline pilot'. As for children, I would forget that notion for many, many years to come unless you have rich parents. I can speak with personal experience that HK is one of the most expensive places in the world to raise children.

As for all you future Cadet hopefuls, just wait until they start charging you a fee for the interview, or more likely, charging for the training course itself...

Now some of you think that this probably seems a bit cynical but far from it. This is the world of the airline business where you are a work/cost unit where reducing the cost side is the name of the game. They are using our enthusiasm for flying as the tool to undermine what once might have been a really great profession. Expect to find the deal gradually getting worse and worse over the years to come as Air China take a greater role in running things. Don't expect to get rich or even recoup the costs of getting set up here for a great deal of time. HappyGuy99 - I hope you and your wife are ready for what you are going to drag her through and good luck.

hey guys congrats to the ppl who got accepted, really nice to hear that, guys i have a questions here, has anybody with no flying experiance ever got accepted ?

To "&&&" dont u think it is still really good to fly for cathay rather than flying a single engine for a charter company ? am not taking their side am juss asking, btw they refused me 2 weeks ago :( but i wanna reapply i have ma cpl and passed all ma ATPL subjects, and juss for the guys who r going for the interview they asked me questions like :

How much thrust a 747 produces ? i was like mmmm too much i guess :S how do they expect me to know? i have never flown a 747

How many fuel tanks a 747 has ?

and couple of more questions about 747 that i cant remember now.

and happy guy99 thanks alot for the info

hey flyremnant, im from daytona beach.. havent heard from them. they might and might have yet to conduct the interview yet but so far there is no news about it.

Application
 

Hi There,
can someone tell me what kind of documents are needed for the application? i.g. do I need some translated copies of my references or do i need them in a later stage? THX

Hey forssi. i am originally from Zim but been aound to other countries so I'm representing for Southern Africa. Any other news on guys who are going from the motherland?

@Ronny1992, I have about 540hours and I'm a grade 3 instructor in South Africa. I think that's quite a bit and thought that that would work against me. Turns out it didn' t. Seems like have exp or no exp matters none with them. It's the attitude that you have and how you come across I believe. Whether they accept you is not a thing about your ability but maybe you're just not what they are looking for right now. If they do take you then you have checked a box they needed filled.

danielthemc
 

hey danielthemc.

i'm also in daytona beach.
studying at embry riddle...

when did you apply and how much have you flown??

Wow. Good to see some other people from ERAU. I went there too. I'm currently doing my Masters Online. Good luck to everyone.

whats the point of a masters degree in aviation from ERAU? Is ERAU even accredited?

@CXmonkey

You're not the first to say this to me and I now see that it is a real flaw in this program. As a young single guy, the words "children school fees and housing benefits" don't really apply to me as I can sleep pretty much anywhere and i have no kids. But there will come a time when I would like to do the whole family thing. This is where the problem lies. CX is not a part time company where I can gain exp and then move on to something bigger. Shoot; this is as big as it gets. I reckon they would want me to stay the distance past my sell by date, so the decision cannot be made without considering all the permutations.

I understand where you are coming from and your concern to our careers is much appreciated. I would rather enter as a DESO or even better a DEFO but that may not happen anytime soon as we are, as you say, seen as an asset (or liability) with which they can save money where they can. So why would they take a DESO when they can take a cadet and pay him/her less?

Yes, it is better to gain exp from charter flying and smaller jets and the like, but the market is extremely stagnant at the moment especially on the lower end of the food chain. Piston twins are on the endangered list so acquiring twin time is not as easy as it used to be. They won't let you come anywhere near a Kingair or other twin turbo prop without at least 50hours on type. The pilot's who are in the Kingair's are not moving as they don't have their ATPL's so smaller airlines won't take them creating a bottle neck in the system affecting those who have just received their CPL. then with the recession, many companies rethought the hiring process and are playing it very safe by keeping who they need and shedding the excess. Several charter companies here have not hired a pilot in two years, but have doubled their fleet and stretch their current work force as far as they can.

In an ideal world, the path would be to climb the ladder rung by rung until we are LH seat of a B747. But the world is far from ideal and an opportunity like this is golden. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

If we consider both sides of the story, we see that this program is "OK" (for lack of a better term) for young pilots and not so great for the older pilots. The family life is crucial to the older pilot and not so much the younger.

From a young pilot who has just broken the 500 hour mark with no family, what would you recommend?

Hey Guys,

I'm planning on attending my initial interview for the CPP and was wondering (happyguy99 especially) if anybody would know where you can buy material which relates to the reasoning test. 'Raven's manual of progressive matrices' is the name i believe...and i can't find it for sale anywhere...?