India Caravan Job (anyone know about this company?)

TexasFlyer

TexasFlyer

Living the Dream (well at least trying to)
Does anyone know about this contracting company or the airline itself?
Is this legit?
They say CPL/ ATPL. Does that mean a CPL or ATPL or do you need an ATP?

Thanks...


November 5, 2011
AVIATION PERSONNEL INT'L (Cessna Grand Caravan 208B Captains)
Tel: (416) 760-6654
Website: http://www.apihappylandings.com

We have immediate openings for qualified Cessna Grand Caravan 208 B Captains in INDIA. Our present client , Deccan Charters Limited, is a subsidiary of Deccan Air Group of companies. Deccan Air was the pioneer in introducing the concept of low cost airlines with the formation of Air Deccan in India in 2005. The qualifications necessary for employment with Deccan Charters are as under: -

- CPL/ ALTP License ( JAA/FAA or other ICAO contracting states)
-Instrument Rating
- Valid Medical
- Current on Grand Caravan208B
- Minimum of 2000 hours total flying experience
- Minimum 200 hours PIC on type
- No accident/ violation within a period of last one year.
- Pay is $4,500 per month USD plus $15/flight hout with $1,000 per month housing reimbursement
- Age maximum 63 years at the time of joining .
 
Company is good, one of the best charter companies in India.
Information written about the company is totally right,
they also use to have scheduled airline which was later on sold off to
another company in India which is known as Kingfisher now days.
this is the website http://deccanair.com/

In India to be a Captain of Aircraft below 5700Kgs ATPL is not required
so thats why it is given CPL / ATPL so if you are CPL holder or if you have
ATPL you can apply for it as long as you have required experience.
 
Deccan is pretty decent, have talked with the crew and trained one of their captains that use to fly the PC-12. Best part is their size of the crew so you should have a decent schedule. You'll need more than 500 hours PIC nowadays since the DGCA is cracking down. Deccan's caravans are mainly based in Delhi. =Jason-
 
Fingers crossed. I applied and sent in all the info they required, which was quite a bit. I have 2050TT with 2000 PIC and 350 turbine in the Caravan as PIC and 135 current in the Caravan as a Freight Dawg presently. Someday I'll need multi-time since I only have 70 multi, but this seems like a great position. Hopefully I pass what they require since it seems like a fun gig. I was told I would know something in 6 to 8 weeks once I emailed everything to API (the contract firm).

A few questions:

1) Anyone know if the $1,000 USD per month is a good housing reimbursement over in India in the major cities. I assume this is plenty of money to get a decent suite, but I hate to assume anything.

2) They take out some kind of PROVIDENT FUND CONTRIBUTION from your pay and it says at the end of the contract you can reclaim this money from the India Government. Any clue what this is and how much it is?

Thanks.
 
TexasFlyer said:
Fingers crossed. I applied and sent in all the info they required, which was quite a bit. I have 2050TT with 2000 PIC and 350 turbine in the Caravan as PIC and 135 current in the Caravan as a Freight Dawg presently. Someday I'll need multi-time since I only have 70 multi, but this seems like a great position. Hopefully I pass what they require since it seems like a fun gig. I was told I would know something in 6 to 8 weeks once I emailed everything to API (the contract firm).

A few questions:

1) Anyone know if the $1,000 USD per month is a good housing reimbursement over in India in the major cities. I assume this is plenty of money to get a decent suite, but I hate to assume anything.

2) They take out some kind of PROVIDENT FUND CONTRIBUTION from your pay and it says at the end of the contract you can reclaim this money from the India Government. Any clue what this is and how much it is?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

DITTO!!!
+ are they in CASS?
 
TexasFlyer said:
Fingers crossed. I applied and sent in all the info they required, which was quite a bit. I have 2050TT with 2000 PIC and 350 turbine in the Caravan as PIC and 135 current in the Caravan as a Freight Dawg presently. Someday I'll need multi-time since I only have 70 multi, but this seems like a great position. Hopefully I pass what they require since it seems like a fun gig. I was told I would know something in 6 to 8 weeks once I emailed everything to API (the contract firm).

A few questions:

1) Anyone know if the $1,000 USD per month is a good housing reimbursement over in India in the major cities. I assume this is plenty of money to get a decent suite, but I hate to assume anything.

2) They take out some kind of PROVIDENT FUND CONTRIBUTION from your pay and it says at the end of the contract you can reclaim this money from the India Government. Any clue what this is and how much it is?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

1. Will that 1000 include or not include housing? If not, 1000 will be plenty for something decent. I recommend a small house compared to a flat, much better and much more private from the locals.

2. That should only count on the money you KEEP in India. So if you're having them send most of it home(which I HIGHLY recommend) then just you're allowance will be deducted. Trust me, there's more than a 80% chance you'l never see that money again.

3. (most important!!) Never, EVER trust this company for it's word. India is a much different place than the states. Everything has to be in writing before hand because they WILL lie to you. Simple as that. Also there are so many hassles and problems with living/flying in India. So unless they're paying a lot, or you're just bored, it won't be worth it. It takes a very special type of person to survive there. For what it's worth, I ended up breaking my contract that paid over 6 figures TAX FREE to come back to the states and be unemployed and I don't regret it at all. I was there just under 3 years and just couldn't take it anymore. And I've personally known at least 4 pilots that couldn't even last 6 months.

Honestly I'm really surprised that they will take you with less than 500 hours PIC. It's not really the company's fault as it's the DGCA. They're cracking down and last thing I've heard it min of 500 PIC on type. Compared to three years ago where it was only 100 PIC. Any other questions let me know.

=Jason-
 
Thanks Jason! Good info. If I get a call I will make sure everything is in writing and think hard about if I make this committment. I assume nothing moves quickly in this process so I am just waiting patiently now to see where or if conversations continue on this one with the contracting company.
 
LOGS said:
3. (most important!!) Never, EVER trust this company for it's word. India is a much different place than the states. Everything has to be in writing before hand because they WILL lie to you. Simple as that. Also there are so many hassles and problems with living/flying in India. So unless they're paying a lot, or you're just bored, it won't be worth it. It takes a very special type of person to survive there. For what it's worth, I ended up breaking my contract that paid over 6 figures TAX FREE to come back to the states and be unemployed and I don't regret it at all. I was there just under 3 years and just couldn't take it anymore. And I've personally known at least 4 pilots that couldn't even last 6 months.
Click to expand...

Same goes for Saudi Arabia, and Korea, although with Korea, only the part about everything being in writing is true, as living in Seoul is a good place to be.
 
Any further comments on this position. I been offered this position. Just curious as to what the thoughts are of people who lived and worked in India on similar contracts. And also, what should I be aware of that I may not know right now (which is probably a lot of things).

Oh. This is certainly not a career move of a position for me since pay is not that great (compared to other international gigs) and Caravan time at this point for me is pretty much worthless. This position would be solely about the adventure.
 
TexasFlyer said:
Any further comments on this position. I been offered this position. Just curious as to what the thoughts are of people who lived and worked in India on similar contracts. And also, what should I be aware of that I may not know right now (which is probably a lot of things).

Oh. This is certainly not a career move of a position for me since pay is not that great (compared to other international gigs) and Caravan time at this point for me is pretty much worthless. This position would be solely about the adventure.
Click to expand...

Good Lord, how long did it take you to fill out he paperwork? For S&G's I sent my resume in just to have a look at their contract and was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of paper work they want from you. All the stuff about letters from former employers on their letter heads and certified logbook pages and verified flight times...ughh. Crap like that just wants to make me sink even deeper in to African aviation where a license and dollars grease the turbines of life.

$4500 a month plus $15 an hour to fly the Caravan is damn good pay. Who pays better? Now if it were a PC-12 doing surveillance I'd agree but lets not get carried away-its a Caravan. A few things I didn't understand: You have to pay the taxes yourself? And pay for the medical? And work visa?
I'm just curious. That is all.
 
BajtheJino said:
Good Lord, how long did it take you to fill out he paperwork? $4500 a month plus $15 an hour to fly the Caravan is damn good pay. Who pays better? A few things I didn't understand: You have to pay the taxes yourself? And pay for the medical? And work visa? I'm just curious. That is all.
Click to expand...

Took me about a month to get all the paprerwork together. Then about another month to fix misunderstandings.

Pay is good. Since I am a CFI with 1500 hours given, my pay was raised to $25/hour. Base pay still $4,500. I figure the total compensation is about $70k to $80k for a year there. They also agreed to handle all my housing and pay for my medical as they are quite flexible to change certain contract terms to make you happy. Location to be Ahmedabad.

I did pay for my own visa. It was like $300 or $400. They also agreed to pay for my Flight Safety training to get me re-current in the Caravan since I have not touched a van in 9 months. THis was to take place on the 13th of this month.

Medical is provided to you. So you do not pay for it.

You do have to pay India Tax. You would pay about 12% to the Privident Fund, which upon leaving the job you can get that amount refunded. You also pay another 10% income tax. So you would be paying 22% from my understanding in tax, but could get a 12% refund in the future (I was told 50/50 on if you ever see that refund, although by law they are supposed to refund it).

You would not be able to keep this income tax free if you understand expat law per the IRS, so you would pretty much have to pay US income tax on these earnings. There is a slight loop-hole where eventually you could be tax-free on the USA side, but it may cause more hardship than it is worth with Uncle Sam. So consult an accountant for this stuff. I'm an ex public accountant among other things so just trust me on this one.

Contract is for 3 months on, 3 weeks off (they will send you home for these 3 weeks if you'd like on their dollar).

Do not fear the tax. You would not pay double taxation. You would get a credit for what you paid to India. So you would be taxed the same as if you made this money in the USA for the most part.

Oh, and the position is still open as I am not able to attend the training on the 13th for two reasons. A death in the family and I messed up my ankle/foot playing in the river while camping so doing a Caravan Iniital Proficiency Check on the 13th is not going to happen.
 
MNFlyboy said:
What kind of contract is required for this job?
Click to expand...

One year contract. 3 months on, 3 weeks off. It is a great job. If you have 300+ Caravan Time in 208B and have a CFI and CFII as well, they will hire you and do what ever it takes to make you happy (only item not able to change in the contract is the paying India tax part).
 
TexasFlyer said:
Took me about a month to get all the paprerwork together. Then about another month to fix misunderstandings.

Pay is good. Since I am a CFI with 1500 hours given, my pay was raised to $25/hour. Base pay still $4,500. I figure the total compensation is about $70k to $80k for a year there. They also agreed to handle all my housing and pay for my medical as they are quite flexible to change certain contract terms to make you happy. Location to be Ahmedabad.

I did pay for my own visa. It was like $300 or $400. They also agreed to pay for my Flight Safety training to get me re-current in the Caravan since I have not touched a van in 9 months. THis was to take place on the 13th of this month.

Medical is provided to you. So you do not pay for it.

You do have to pay India Tax. You would pay about 12% to the Privident Fund, which upon leaving the job you can get that amount refunded. You also pay another 10% income tax. So you would be paying 22% from my understanding in tax, but could get a 12% refund in the future (I was told 50/50 on if you ever see that refund, although by law they are supposed to refund it).

You would not be able to keep this income tax free if you understand expat law per the IRS, so you would pretty much have to pay US income tax on these earnings. There is a slight loop-hole where eventually you could be tax-free on the USA side, but it may cause more hardship than it is worth with Uncle Sam. So consult an accountant for this stuff. I'm an ex public accountant among other things so just trust me on this one.

Contract is for 3 months on, 3 weeks off (they will send you home for these 3 weeks if you'd like on their dollar).

Do not fear the tax. You would not pay double taxation. You would get a credit for what you paid to India. So you would be taxed the same as if you made this money in the USA for the most part.

Oh, and the position is still open as I am not able to attend the training on the 13th for two reasons. A death in the family and I messed up my ankle/foot playing in the river while camping so doing a Caravan Iniital Proficiency Check on the 13th is not going to happen.
Click to expand...

I worked for Jet Airways a while back before they trash the expats. Indian taxes are withheld from your pay. Ask for a tax statement if not provided with each pay deposit. Then give to your accountant at IRS day. Due to the tax treaty between India and USA, you will get credit up to the liability of your IRS tax debt or Indian taxes paid.

DEL is expensive. you find everything from $1USD and up...just depends on how tough you are. As a rough guide, check Craigslist for prices.
 
Hi,
I worked there for three years and the DGCA kept making chnges to make it tougher to get in and to stay.

It could take 4-6 months to get employment VISA with tons of paperwork and copies sent with lots of documentation.

I worked for Jindal Steel and Power in Delhi flying PC-12/47 and C208B.

I my opinion it is one of the better companies to work for. The Pay about $7,500/mo + room and board + health ins + trans to and from the work place or office. Good for expats because you are stationed in remote but comfy places for long durations.

They give you an airline ticket (buisness class) every 6 mo for a two week vaction home.

If you are under 63 and want an adventure it is a super place. DGCA cuts you out at 65 age.

They pay your tax so you don't have to pay it twice and if you are out of the country for 330 days a year you don't pay tax anyway.

Lots of companies to work for over ther but Jindal's is at the top of the list for me.

Good luck all,
Rik
 
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