Live like a king! Fly in China

First of all, those $300,000/year positions are few and far between. You can make good money in China on some of the contracts, but others are less generous. There are big differences in the QOL between the carriers. There are some good ones and some really bad ones.

Every person deals with change differently. Some people absolutely hate China; some people love China; some people are in the middle and tolerate it. Again, it might depend on the city you are in; the airline you work for; and even whether or not you like Chinese food. It might depend on whether you can learn to speak Mandarin; whether you are married or single; and what your hobbies are.

The mainland Chinese are lying A-holes, no question about it. But again, some companies are better than others and have actually improved their contracts over time while others have failed to live up to their promises in the original contract.

The punishment culture of Asia is one that is foreign to us. Any mistake is met with punishment as the first reaction. Thus they have a fine system for QAR violations. Some of the airlines enforce those on the foreign pilots and some do not. Read Sun Tzu, Art of War. What was his punishment for a soldier not doing the right move in a military drill? If you guessed death, then you guessed correctly. Great motivation tool to make sure you know how to do left face, huh?

The other item that has not been addressed here so far is the Chinese medical. It is a total crapshoot to pass the medical there. The doctors are incompetent at best, but they have their little guidelines that they blindly follow. If you fail, guess what, you're going home or being asked to do a dangerous test to make sure are healthy. It's total joke and again a lottery as to whether you will encounter a problem or not.

I know a couple of guys who have been there over five years. I also know quite a few who lasted only a year or two. Odds are it will not work out for the majority of pilots who go there. For the lucky few those $25,000/month tax free jobs can be pretty sweet.

The only way you aren't playing career lottery is if you are furloughed or on a leave of absence and can afford a little adventure while you have a fallback plan if it does not work out.


Typhoonpilot
 
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typhoonpilot said:
Read Sun Tzu, Art of War. What was his punishment for a soldier not doing the right move in a military drill? If you guessed death, then you guessed correctly. Great motivation tool to make sure you know how to do left face, huh?
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Technically, the soldier wasn't executed, the commander was. According to Sun Tzu, if the soldier didn't know his duty when the orders were clear, it was because the leader failed to properly train and motivate the soldier.

"So he started drilling them again, and this time gave the order “Left turn,” whereupon the girls once more burst into fits of laughter. Sun Tzu: “If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders ARE clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.”


But, yes. China is a very authoritarian State, and Gweilo are treated worse than the lowest Chinese.
 
Maximillian_Jenius said:
China sounds good monetarily. But they don't have a good history of treating people, that look like me pretty well. As evident by their latest racist blunder with the soap commercial. I can't imagine the CRM cultural nightmare, that a person of color might experience flying there.
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Only one way to find out. Up for some adventure? :)
 
I find it ironic that there are so many willing to offer up their experienceand expertise on somewhere that not only have they never worked, but never lived, or even visited as if they had.

Sure, offer up what you've heard, advice you yourself have been given. But don't present it in a form that makes it appear as gospel if you've never done it yourself.
 
mshunter said:
I'm not sure what you're getting at here?
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You said that we were talking second or third hand why we wouldn't work in China. In my post I mentioned this video. So as first hand proof of racism in China towards people of color, I presented this as evidence.

But I really didn't even need to do that, you can pretty much Google evidence supporting my claim. The Asian culture as a whole, is generally pretty racist and xenophobic, towards darker skinned individuals. And generally foreigners as a whole.
 
Maximillian_Jenius said:
You said that we were talking second or third hand why we wouldn't work in China. In my post I mentioned this video. So as first hand proof of racism in China towards people of color, I presented this as evidence.

But I really didn't even need to do that, you can pretty much Google evidence supporting my claim. The Asian culture as a whole, is generally pretty racist and xenophobic, towards darker skinned individuals. And generally foreigners as a whole.
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I guess I missed the part of the thread where we were talking about racism.
 
Hacker15e said:
There is a really informational thread on APC (believe it or not...) about these Chinese contract gigs.

For folks who are actually interested, it is worth your time. For anyone who has a passing interest and is attracted by the dollar signs, it should be mandatory reading.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/foreign/89413-working-pilot-china.html
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I posted in that thread. The book is full of vitriol, hatred, prejudice, and ignorance. It shows a complete lack of tolerance towards anything not American. While some of it is certainly true it also shows why some pilots, or people for that matter, should never leave their home country.


TP
 
Is it so terribly wrong that, as a dude who apparently lives and breathes Privilege (much to my astonishment), I halfway cheer at seeing actual, no kidding racism, rather than "yeah I hear what you say, but that's not what you really believe, whether you know it or not, because I said so" ? Like, yes, here it is! X marks the spot! The bombing begins tomorrow.
 
I'm sure they have an employment contract? If not, doesn't seem like a bad temporary gig.
 
MikeD said:
TransPac at DVT not churning out enough pilots for the home country?
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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.
 
tcco94 said:
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.
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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.
 
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