CFIs in South East Asia

swisspilot

swisspilot

Well-Known Member
An answer to an other thread made me remember a few opportunities in South East Asia.

Last Year I traveled all over SA looking for a pilot job, lots of jobs, but most of the time I did not met the mins (Caravan and Twin otter jobs). I met many other pilots who kept telling me to Instruct over there, well I was just getting out a CFI job for something better and I visited some of the flight schools and I was not to impressed (in Thailand and Indonesia)...

well I was wrong, a good friend of mine, who lives in Thailand told me about two schools in Malaysia that were looking for CFIs. Malaysia is amazing! the have a really nice GA (everything built by the British), really nice little airports everywhere (when I was there I met this Italian guy who was on a cross country trip all over SA in a piper warrior, he went to a school got is validation and rented the plane for 3 weeks, unfortunately my Visa was about to expire..)....When back to Europe I got in touch with two of the schools, they were both hiring (and were willing to do an interview with me), at the time I was about to get a job in Europe so I decided to focus on that, I got the job, but it was more part-time then I was looking for, so couple months after I got back to them, I dunno maybe they did not liked me anymore or something but they told me that I did not met the DGCA mins for foreign instructors...Few weeks ago I was talking again with my friend in Thailand he told me they were still hiring

this are the schools, I think for you guys with some Dual given time it`s worth to try:

http://www.ggifa.edu.my/

http://www.apft.edu.my/

I did not applied with this one but I met a student from there who told me they had foreign CFIs:

http://www.mfa.edu.my/


This schools work with contracts from the middle east and China, if you worked in the US for any of these programs you will get on for sure.

There is lots of other nice schools, there is an Academy in Bali Indonesia, but I can imagine that right now it is almost impossible to get a Visa.
 
swisspilot said:
An answer to an other thread made me remember a few opportunities in South East Asia.
well I was wrong, a good friend of mine, who lives in Thailand told me about two schools in Malaysia that were looking for CFIs. Malaysia is amazing! the have a really nice GA (everything built by the British), really nice little airports everywhere (when I was there I met this Italian guy who was on a cross country trip all over SA in a piper warrior, he went to a school got is validation and rented the plane for 3 weeks, unfortunately my Visa was about to expire..)....When back to Europe I got in touch with two of the schools, they were both hiring (and were willing to do an interview with me), at the time I was about to get a job in Europe so I decided to focus on that, I got the job, but it was more part-time then I was looking for, so couple months after I got back to them, I dunno maybe they did not liked me anymore or something but they told me that I did not met the DGCA mins for foreign instructors...Few weeks ago I was talking again with my friend in Thailand he told me they were still hiring
this are the schools, I think for you guys with some Dual given time it`s worth to try:
http://www.ggifa.edu.my/
http://www.apft.edu.my/
Click to expand...
I do not know who is your friend and I do not know how reliable he is. Especially, he is living in Thailand!

For GGIFA, there are a few foreign flying instructors. One from America (from Fergus Fall. MN), one from New Zealand, one from Canada and etc. I can tell you, foreign flying instructors had hard time waiting for their license to get validated from Malaysia authority before they can start flying.

However, I do know that the organization's financial status is unstable, all employees got their pay late and worst still, airplanes are frequently grounded without fuel.

Now, for APFT, they are training the MAS cadets, there are also a few foreign flying instructors working with them. If you are caught sleeping with women (or men only if you are gay), you will be locked. Don't forget, an Islamic country with a strong Islamic ruling state governent is tough on this.

If you want to know where is GGIFA or APFT located, search the google map! You will be dead bored out of nowhere. :clap:

swisspilot said:
I did not applied with this one but I met a student from there who told me they had foreign CFIs:
http://www.mfa.edu.my/
Click to expand...
Also, I can share with you alittle more.

MFA is the lowest paid among ALL the flying academies. I do not understand why foreign F.I. still applying? MFA will not entertain all queries.


Let's assume the worst senerios you must consider,

1) Are you willing to fork out an air-ticket of your own?
2) Are you willing to wait for 3-6 months in the school without getting pay whilst the aviation authority validating your license and the school processes your visa?
3) What are you going to do, if your licence cannot be validated, or the immigration rejected your visa?

I am not trying to scare you, but, actually, I am helping you.
 
cadbury said:
I do not know who is your friend and I do not know how reliable he is. Especially, he is living in Thailand!

For GGIFA, there are a few foreign flying instructors. One from America (from Fergus Fall. MN), one from New Zealand, one from Canada and etc. I can tell you, foreign flying instructors had hard time waiting for their license to get validated from Malaysia authority before they can start flying.

However, I do know that the organization's financial status is unstable, all employees got their pay late and worst still, airplanes are frequently grounded without fuel.

Now, for APFT, they are training the MAS cadets, there are also a few foreign flying instructors working with them. If you are caught sleeping with women (or men only if you are gay), you will be locked. Don't forget, an Islamic country with a strong Islamic ruling state governent is tough on this.

If you want to know where is GGIFA or APFT located, search the google map! You will be dead bored out of nowhere. :clap:


Also, I can share with you alittle more.

MFA is the lowest paid among ALL the flying academies. I do not understand why foreign F.I. still applying? MFA will not entertain all queries.


Let's assume the worst senerios you must consider,

1) Are you willing to fork out an air-ticket of your own?
2) Are you willing to wait for 3-6 months in the school without getting pay whilst the aviation authority validating your license and the school processes your visa?
3) What are you going to do, if your licence cannot be validated, or the immigration rejected your visa?

I am not trying to scare you, but, actually, I am helping you.
Click to expand...

My friend use to fly cargo for DHL form many years, he flies a caravan on floats now in thailand. I think he has between 12K-15k hours....

In Indonesia and PNG I saw bunch of pilots working for 600-1000 dollars a month....

3-6 months, is ok I waited 5 months to get my Brazilian license, 3 just to be legal resident here...
 
I take it he flies for DestinationAir then? That place looks like a dream, except if you do an internet search you'll find they have an army of disgruntled pilots that weren't paid.

Shame really.:(

What other float and backwoods operations are there in Southeast Asia, I'd be happy to kick up my feet there and burn through the rest of my 20s (ahh I wish) in a place like that. Anything in the Philippines that an American can get into?
 
HVYMETALDRVR said:
I take it he flies for DestinationAir then? That place looks like a dream, except if you do an internet search you'll find they have an army of disgruntled pilots that weren't paid.

Shame really.:(

What other float and backwoods operations are there in Southeast Asia, I'd be happy to kick up my feet there and burn through the rest of my 20s (ahh I wish) in a place like that. Anything in the Philippines that an American can get into?
Click to expand...

yes he does, my friend does not care about pay, he is in retirement there, he already had his flying career and saved up enough money (he flew airline in Europe and for DHL in the US). As for now it is impossible to work in Thailand as foreign pilot. In Bali there is an Australian company that operates Caravans on floats.
Some American guy runs a company in Cambodia too.

Problem with the pay is the same everywhere, even at big airlines there, I know some guys flying in Indo, sometimes they just don't get paid...this are not jobs for somebody with a family or a Loan this guys are living the dream, company usually pays for everything, nice hotel rooms (like at IBIS) or even in gated residential communities, all you have to pay for is beer and it's cheap.
 
Fair enough, theres two sides to every story. I'll do some more internet searching and keep places like this in mind. I'd love to make it out there someday!
 
HVYMETALDRVR said:
Fair enough, theres two sides to every story. I'll do some more internet searching and keep places like this in mind. I'd love to make it out there someday!
Click to expand...

It's not easy to find a job over there, if a company wants you then they are going to help you with all the immigration stuff and getting the local license, doing it your own, not a chance!

Things work a lot different then in the US, it's not unusual working outside the rules...
 
HVYMETALDRVR said:
sounds like miami
Click to expand...

So why do you wanna leave, Miami is awesome!!

Btw I use to live in Florida, and I would go back to Florida any day, I lived in lots of places (north,central,south America, Europe and Asia), Florida was the best. Lots of peoples bitch all the time about the snow birds and the fact that there is nothing to do outside the major towns. But the quality of life is pretty good and that bunch of old peoples never bothered me.I use to live far from the big centers but was not a big deal drive 2 hours every second weekend to have a blast down in Miami.

Asia is nice, but living there for long time is really hard, unless you change your attitude towards lots of things you will go crazy. It gets even worst when the local way to do things is mixed up with aviation....
 
swisspilot said:
So why do you wanna leave, Miami is awesome!!

Btw I use to live in Florida, and I would go back to Florida any day, I lived in lots of places (north,central,south America, Europe and Asia), Florida was the best. Lots of peoples bitch all the time about the snow birds and the fact that there is nothing to do outside the major towns. But the quality of life is pretty good and that bunch of old peoples never bothered me.I use to live far from the big centers but was not a big deal drive 2 hours every second weekend to have a blast down in Miami.

Asia is nice, but living there for long time is really hard, unless you change your attitude towards lots of things you will go crazy. It gets even worst when the local way to do things is mixed up with aviation....
Click to expand...

How do you do it? Do you just apply for VISAs? I am working on Italian (and EU) citizenship through my dad, but it is a long shot. I do have severe wanderlust.
 
Louie1975 said:
How do you do it? Do you just apply for VISAs? I am working on Italian (and EU) citizenship through my dad, but it is a long shot. I do have severe wanderlust.
Click to expand...

I'm half Swiss half French. Switzerland is not in Europe but we signed Schengen and Dublin Agreements, so it's like having an EU passport, I usually use my swiss passport to travel.

I can move,live and work were I want in Europe, in lots of places in the Caribbean, Pacific and in Guaiana.

When I moved to the US I had a student and working Visa.

The rest of the places I lived in as a kid was thanks to my Dads Job, he was working for a big international energy company, we use to send our passports to the embassy and get them back with all the permits on it. I had crazy long Visas, like for Guatemala I had a 7 year one, I never applied for the passport...

When I went to South east Asia they told me I was only able to get a 30 day Visa for Indonesia, I just applied for a biz 60 days visa and got it that you can extend by just flying over to Singapore.

now I live in Brazil, my gfs family sponsored my Visa

Alex
 
Louie1975 said:
Politically! But geographically and culturally it is, and still considered Europe right? Why didnt they join EU? Hey Alex check your PMs. Thx.
Click to expand...

Thank god it's not Europe.

Europe politically sucks, look what is happening right now, rich countries (Switzerland would be up there) have to pay for the corrupt and mismanaged ones, like Greece.

If you Join Europe other countries (the one that is in charge at that moment) are going to put the nose in your private business, tell you what you can and what you can't do, why should we get orders by peoples that can't run their own country.

The Swiss govt supports, just for pride lots of local business. Farmers in Switzerland live out of tax payers money, they would not be able to survive, if we would join the EU that money is going to get sent to Romania, Bulgaria to support their grown, our farmers will have to sell their land and we would have veggies and fruits imported from Portugal and Spain.....
 
swisspilot said:
So why do you wanna leave, Miami is awesome!!

Btw I use to live in Florida, and I would go back to Florida any day, I lived in lots of places (north,central,south America, Europe and Asia), Florida was the best. Lots of peoples bitch all the time about the snow birds and the fact that there is nothing to do outside the major towns. But the quality of life is pretty good and that bunch of old peoples never bothered me.I use to live far from the big centers but was not a big deal drive 2 hours every second weekend to have a blast down in Miami.

Asia is nice, but living there for long time is really hard, unless you change your attitude towards lots of things you will go crazy. It gets even worst when the local way to do things is mixed up with aviation....
Click to expand...

Wow sounds like you've been around. I don't mind the heat the problem is the work here can be shady if your not in with an airline or something. Nobody takes out taxes here, pay is sometimes late, a lot of shady fly by night operations that come and go, beat up barely airworthy airplanes, quality of training is lower too unfortunately.

That said I liked Asia alot when I was there, though I was only in Philippines and Japan...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top