Live like a king! Fly in China

[mastermags]

Ya know, you can't just put $300k in a suitcase and bring it home, right?

 

[killbilly]

They want students back home in 13 months when it takes most students 6-7 months to get through PPL because they have multiple stage check failures, multiple checkride failures and most students don't get their solo sign off as fast as they want us to sign them off.

How much of this is due to language problems? I'm just curious. It's hard enough learning to fly to PTS/ACS as a newbie when English is your first language. To do it in another language is pretty daunting in my eyes.

 

[Karnage]

How much of this is due to language problems? I'm just curious. It's hard enough learning to fly to PTS/ACS as a newbie when English is your first language. To do it in another language is pretty daunting in my eyes.

If they are anything like the Chinese students we got at CAE, some of it was language, some of it was attitude, some of it was laziness and lack of good study habits, some of it was nervousness, some of it was being pushed through the program by both the school and their sponsoring airline despite obviously not being ready, etc.

Most of the DPEs here in the area that frequent the schools with large Asian populations have over the years developed ways to conduct the tests that take poor English skills into account and as long as the student's can safely operate the plane and communicate with ATC they don't hold it against the students for tortured explanations of FARs during the oral.

Take 20 year old kids who have spent their entire lives being told exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it all the while being constantly watched and observed and let them loose thousands of miles away from home, with only 4 to 6 hours a day of not so strickt supervision and see what happens. I had one student who, during his flight training review for multiple failures told the chief pilot that he spent 4 to 8 hours a day at his apartment playing Xbox instead of studying. When the chief asked him why he was doing that instead of studying his response was simply "because no one told me I couldn't". And yet he wondered why he never passed his stage checks.

 

[tcco94]

How much of this is due to language problems? I'm just curious. It's hard enough learning to fly to PTS/ACS as a newbie when English is your first language. To do it in another language is pretty daunting in my eyes.

We don't have a lot of issues with laziness or lack of studying in the Chinese. They're very respectful and most study a lot. They just study the book though, no practical application at all. Most don't think practically like a pilot, they think like a book. When a different radio call comes up or a problem in the cockpit arises it's all hell breaks lose we're going down!!! High oil temp? Emergency land. Vacuum pump failure in VFR? "Finding best field to land"....

To be honest like 25% have good English. Most have decent English as they study about a year before transpac sends them to America. Problem is that they study English pilot version, so teaching is tough because anything outside of the pilot definitions they don't understand. Most have never driven a car so all the way up to commercial they can't taxi. They don't learn from their mistakes, they are terrified of even making one...so they just block it out from their memory and do it 2 days later and 2 days later and 2 days later.

I've noticed the ones with good English are very good pilots. The ones with bad English are usually bad pilots and expect the instructor to save them on the radios or landing or even making a go/no-go decision.....even though they hold a pilots certificate.

The Vietnamese are a totally different story but they have to pay for their training. Usually think they're above everyone else at the flight school, don't study much, and don't really have any respect for the instructors. I've cut orals early because they won't pay attention but their English is very good

 

[tcco94]

I doubt they care if you actually teach them to fly. They'd be just as happy to pay you 100k, have you wave a magic wand and say they're pilots now so they can put them in an airbus.

That's pretty much exactly what they want you to do. I've known instructors that don't sign off struggling students and their airline demands they never fly with that instructor again. Then the instructor has to get new students from a different class.

I don't know what safety culture they operate under over there but I can only imagine what it must be like to cancel a flight for weather or something pilot related.

 

[PhilosopherPilot]

I don't equate people being unable to put states in their correct locations on a map with not knowing which country is which.

Without looking do you know if Connecticut is east or west of Rhode Island? Is Nebraska above or below Kansas?

You may actually know these, but many, many people won't.

That's sad.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

Eh, we have 400 students but TransPac is changing their whole business. We got bought out by a new group of investors. They're focusing on FAA students now, not international. Look at cutter for Skypath...their new program they're starting. It's a zero to hero program with a contract in the making with the obvious regional that made that name....and they want to expand outside of PHX with new airplanes and locations...pretty much the ATP style.

I think if China could have it their way they would like to send us more students than they already do but A) we don't have enough instructors and B) we don't train fast enough in their eyes

They want students back home in 13 months when it takes most students 6-7 months to get through PPL because they have multiple stage check failures, multiple checkride failures and most students don't get their solo sign off as fast as they want us to sign them off.

FAA students. Will they still be teaching Chinese students as well?

 

[tcco94]

FAA students. Will they still be teaching Chinese students as well?

They don't have the full details yet as this is all brand new but they just bought the name SkyPath and put it on a hanger that used to have Cutter. What the new investors want to focus on is FAA first and then hopefully let it trickle down to the international program. So our new airplanes are only to be used for FAA students, no international. I'm not sure what the long term goal is for international but that's pretty much 90% of TransPac.

I'd imagine we still have a strong international presence but who knows. The school would attract more CFI's if we had more American students. I mean the pay is low for how many hours you work, teaching international, in one of the hottest areas in the US is hard to pitch...especially when instructors down the valley make double.

 

[///AMG]

Ya know, you can't just put $300k in a suitcase and bring it home, right?

This, coupled with the link that Hacker posted and its embedded findings, would be the deal breaker for me were I naive enough to consider such a job…….

 

[RetiredATLATC]

I honestly think it's a serious problem our populace has - American's don't travel, and have no idea about the world outside their tiny little corner.

Totally agree FWIW. Ive spent the last year traveling outside of the US, sans 2.5 weeks back last March, and it has been quite the eye opener. We, as a nation, need to get out more and see just how vast the world is.