Cathay Pacific Second Officer
 

I always have wondered about second officer at CX.
I would like to know some facts and information about this job.
Any experience based comments would be appreciated.

Second officer!
 

very easy,,,

You can instruct and build 1000hours and apply through their website and you will recive an interview the next week. very easy....:=

There are tons of information in this forum, I suggest you do a search.

Good luck

anonymus6

i hope your right because word for word this is exactly what i did a couple days ago.

Second officer!
 

to be called for an interview for SO, you need about somewhere 3000 hours ATPL and some turbine time, usually 500 hours. Recently due to the shortage in that region they have lowered the time to 2500 to 3000 to be called for an interview,,,, I hope this will help!!!!!:ok:

I don't know much about it, but I know a guy who was called and later hired for the SO position with only 1200 hours total. He liked it at first and than he started hating as he never got to really fly the airplane. You just flying the cruise portion and you fly with auto pilot only. Pretty much all you do is sit there and make sure you are over the right waypoints and make sure nothing is more than yellow. Anything yellow or red call the ral guys back and hop out of your seat.

He said he was pumped at first about flying the B744, but supposibly it gets old fast cause you jus watch other people land and take off and than just sit there during cruise for few hours just sitting down and getting fat. He just went there cause he didn't wanna fly a little airplane to build hours. His goal was Emirates and as soon as he got a chance with Emirates he left. I think about the time he was hired at Emirates he was also ready for transition to FO on the B777 or A330 for Cathay, but he picked Emirates instead. I think I'd do the same. I'd like living in UAE and working for Emirates much better. UAE is way more westernized than HK in my opinion. Cathay still have lots of local pilots which is fine, but that also makes you minority and locals get better chance than you, but supposibly at Emirates once you start working there as a pilot local and you are the same. Emirates have mostly foreign pilots, mostly British, Australian, Canadian. Recently they are also hiring a lot of American pilots as a lot of them are running theseday after 9/11 and due to the ever increasing pay cut, retirements plan cuts and no future job security with most airlines over here in US. I know a Continental B777 caption and a US airways B767 captin who left their job over here to go work at Emirates.

So it all depends on you. If you think you could handle just a watching the auto pilot flying cruise for few years it would be a great way to get some hours. My friend told at Emirates interview they made jokes about him saying hey you think you still remember how to land and take off, but he still got the job no problem.

Go to "Fragrant Harbour" in this pprune forum buddy and you will get loads of information about CX and SOs life. I am afraid here is not the right section.

There are very few local pilots at CX. Probably around 200 total. They get no advantages over expat crew.

Same mix as Emirates, Brits, Aussies, Americans, Canadians etc.

go to fragrant harbour for CX info.

I will take Asia over the sandbox anyday, but it is an individual choice.

HK is quite westernized, the British used to own it.

Sir I don't know anything about Cathay. I'm just tellin you what my friend told me. Over all he thought it was a great place to get some hours, but he didn't see himself staying at Cathay for his whole career.